Still Life

Forty seven minutes of Japan, spanning all five studio albums from 1978 to 1981.

This selection started off earlier this month, when Top10Nathan had the idea of posing a Top 10 Japan songs on Bluesky.

I didn't actually take part in the end, as I couldn't even begin to think where to start. My older brother was obsessed with Japan in the early 80s and therefore I was immersed in their music, all the albums, the Assemblage double play cassette, the live album Oil On Canvas and the final compilation Exorcising Ghosts.

I really enjoyed seeing what others were picking each day, whether their lists were ranked or unranked, random or carefully considered and curated. By this point, I felt that I'd bottled it and started thinking about it some more. 

Technically, I'd already been there. Around 1989, I recorded a C90 side of Japan music called Polaroid, though this was mostly drawn from my 12" vinyl singles and only ran to 9 songs. The flip side was resequenced songs from the Associates' album Sulk.

So, I started to imagine this less as a Top 10 Japan selection, but more of an imaginary Side 2 to the Polaroid cassette from 1989. Still Life In Mobile Homes was an early pick, which provided a complimentary title for this compilation.

Assemblage (on vinyl) was the first Japan album that I bought for myself, and I have never had a problem reconciling the band and sound of the first two albums, with the transitory period of Quiet Life, and the dramatically different aural palette for the final two albums. 

Which is lucky, given that here I have followed up Ghosts with Adolescent Sex...!

As with the first 'side', there are a couple of cover versions. Whereas the previous two reimagined songs by The Velvet Underground and Smokey Robinson & The Miracles, here the focus is on Marvin Gaye and Barbra Streisand. 

Sadly, the world has lost Mick Karn (2011) and spiritual/honorary member Ryuichi Sakamoto (2023), but David Sylvian, Steve Jansen, Richard Barbieri and Rob Dean have all continued to make music in recent years.

What a legacy to be found in Japan, though.

1) The Art Of Parties (Extended Version By Japan & John Punter) (1981)

2) Ain't That Peculiar (Cover of Marvin Gaye) (1980)

3) Ghosts (Album Version By Japan & Steve Nye) (1981)

4) Adolescent Sex (Single Version By Ray Singer) (1978)

5) Don't Rain On My Parade (Cover of Barbra Streisand) (1978)

6) Despair (1979)

7) Still Life In Mobile Homes (1981)

8) Stateline (1978)

9) Sometimes I Feel So Low (1978)

10) Taking Islands In Africa (Remix By Steve Nye) (1981)

1978: Adolescent Sex: 5

1978: Don't Rain On My Parade EP: 8

1978: Obscure Alternatives: 9

1978: The Unconventional/Adolescent Sex EP: 4

1979: Quiet Life: 6

1980: Gentlemen Take Polaroids: 2

1981: The Art Of Parties EP: 1

1981: Tin Drum: 3, 7

1981: Visions Of China EP: 10

Still Life (47:37) (KF) (Mega)

You can find the 1989 C90 compilation Polaroid right here.

If you're left wanting more Japan-inspired music, here's more, much more!

Big In Japan: various (March 2022)

KarnAge: Mick Karn (January 2023)

Pioneer: Ryuichi Sakamoto (April 2023)

KarnAge

Last July, I picked up Mick Karn's 2001 album Each Eye A Path along with it's 2002 remix companion, Each Path A Remix. 

I'll confess that I've not really followed Mick Karn's career, post-Japan, bar his first two solo albums, Dali's Car, a short-lived collaboration with Pete Murphy and a one-off single (After A Fashion) with Midge Ure. I'm slowly trying to catch up.

Mick Karn fought cancer and sadly died on 4th January 2011 at the age of 52. I turned 52 in December, so it strikes a chord, listening to his music and appreciating what the legacy of what was a ridiculously short life. 

I really like both albums, which both complement more than contrast with each other. I've spent the last couple of months integrating the two, playing them simultaneously in different running order, finding combinations of tracks that seemed to work well until I ended up with the selection presented here. 

 

I've used ten of the nineteen tracks across the two albums, ever so slightly favouring Karn's original, produced by Karn and Steve Jansen. Richard Barbieri and Ryuichi Sakamoto both provide remixes, alongside other Karn collaborators David Torn and Yoshihiro Hanno. It makes for an interesting and satisfying three quarters of an hour and, like me, hopefully a prompt for you to seek out more of Mick Karn's body of work. It will reward you.

1) Angel's Got A Lotus (Album Version By Mick Karn & Steve Jansen)

2) Latin Mastock (Album Version By Mick Karn & Steve Jansen)

3) Puppeteer Night (Remix By David Torn)

4) The Forgotten Puppeteer (Album Version By Mick Karn & Steve Jansen)

5) Up To Nil (Album Version By Mick Karn & Steve Jansen)

6) Re-Nil (Remix By Yoshihiro Hanno)

7) The Salmon Of Knowledge (Album Version By Mick Karn & Steve Jansen)

8) Big Left (Remix By Ryuichi Sakamoto)

9) Venus Monkey (Album Version By Mick Karn & Steve Jansen)

10) Angel's In The Asylum (Remix By Richard Barbieri) 

2001: Each Eye A Path: 1, 2, 4, 5, 7, 9

2002: Each Path A Remix: 3, 6, 8, 10

KarnAge (46:15) (KF) (Mega)

 

It was only when scheduling this post that I realised that it almost coincides with Ryuichi Sakamoto's birthday on 17th January. Sadly, it has also coincided with the sad news of the death of fellow Yellow Magic Orchestra founder, Yukihiro Takahashi, who passed on 11th January but news of which has only been reported in these parts in the last few hours.

 

Again, I'm shamefully ignorant of his post-YMO work but as a brief tribute, I'm posting Glow Worm from Bill Nelson's 1983 mini-album Chimera, featuring Takahashi's superlative drumming and Mick Karn on bass. I didn't hear this until roughly twenty years later, but it still sounds spectacular in the 21st Century.

Polaroid

In 2005, my wife and I spent a month in Japan, barely a whistle stop tour in the scheme of things but taking in Tokyo, Osaka, Kyoto, Hiroshima, Nara, Mount Fuji and the beautiful Shiraito Falls. It was about halfway between getting married and becoming parents and was a thrilling, enlightening few weeks for us both.

A decade and a half prior to that, I'd spent a year working and travelling in Australia. I started in Perth and then went anti-clockwise around the continent, again in retrospect barely scratching the surface, but having a life changing experience and meeting some incredible people along the way. As I was travelling anti-clockwise, at the same time my future wife was travelling clockwise around Australia. I didn't meet her for another decade but we've often wondered and smiled at the what ifs and coincidences.

 

Music was, unsurprisingly, a staple of my travels and I didn't go anywhere without my Walkman and a bunch of cassettes. One of my C90s for my Oz tour had Associates' Sulk on side A and a homemade Japan compilation on side B. Looking at the selection, I think it's reasonable to assume that at the time I recorded this (circa 1989) my collection was limited to a vinyl copy of Assemblage and a few singles, including an Old Gold 12". One featured a version of Life In Tokyo that I'd previously only heard on my brother's cassette version of Assemblage, which had a whole side of bonus tracks. For this playlist, I've swapped the single edit of Gentleman Take Polaroids from the Cantonese Boy 2x 7" for the full length album version because... why not?!

 

1) All Tomorrow's Parties (12" Version By Steve Nye) (Cover of The Velvet Underground) (1983)

2) Quiet Life (Album Version By John Punter) (1979)

3) Gentlemen Take Polaroids (Album Version By John Punter) (1980)

4) European Son (12" Extended Mix By John Punter) (1981)

5) Life In Tokyo (Special Remix By Giorgio Moroder) (1979)

6) Suburban Berlin (1978)

7) Nightporter (Remixed By Steve Nye) (12") (1982)

8) Alien (Album Version By John Punter) (1979)

9) I Second That Emotion (Remix By Steve Nye) (Cover of Smokey Robinson & The Miracles) (1980)

1978: Obscure Alternatives: 6

1979: Quiet Life: 2, 8

1980: Gentlemen Take Polaroids: 3

1981: Life In Tokyo EP: 4

1982: Assemblage (Special Edition · Double Play Cassette): 5

1982: I Second That Emotion EP: 9

1982: Nightporter EP: 7

1983: All Tomorrow's Parties EP: 1

Polaroid (49:22) (KF) (Mega)