Customer Reviews

Gentlemen Take Polaroids

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Japan were never properly understood by critics. Beyond Sylvian's pretty face and all the hair and make-up and stylish European affectations some pretty complex musical arrangements were going down.

I read reviewer fellow Amazon customer Merz-head's review, and suddenly flashed back to 1981, when Japan were frequently panned in the NME and other Brit music rags after every new LP or single release. I guess they were doing something right if their complex electronic dance and mood music are still confounding people, (in Hammond, Louisiana, no less) from 1981 and 20 years later on.

I love ALL of Japan's records--from the gritty Euroglam 70's
to the sleek Eurodance singles of 1979-80 (Giorgio Moroder even took a crack at them when he produced their "Life in Tokyo" 12-inch), and then the final 1981 masterpiece "Tin Drum", with its Prophet5 synth-enhanced Oriental stylings and deep funk bass lines, and Sylvian's subsequent collaboratory 12'inch with Yellow Magic Orchestra's Ryuichi Sakamoto in "Bamboo Houses/Bamboo Music and of course, the sublime theme from film, Merry Christmas Mr. Lawrence, the gorgeous "Forbidden Colours".

Awesome work from Sylvian et al. I know there's no going back, but Japan's oeuvre has solidly stood the test of time and it's great seeing these recordings get the treatment and reconsideration they've always deserved.

Sometime around 1979 or so, the members of British rock band Japan had an identity crisis. They realized that the disco/hard rock/New York Dolls sound they were pursuing was not resulting in major record sales. Their second album, "Obscure Alternatives", was barely passable, and it must have been quite obvious to Japan that the future of their musical career was in question. So they did something very unexpected: they jumped over onto the Kraftwerk/Gary Numan/Devo highway, changed their hairstyles in a radical fashion, and recorded a smashing album called "Quiet Life", which many believe to be the first real New Wave or New Romantic album. Singer David Sylvian changed his raspy sass of a singing voice to a smooth pair of pipes that managed to be sensual, smart, and sentimental all at the same time. Unlike Numan and the others, Japan was able to sound human and emotional, mechanical bleeps and blurbs notwithstanding. Their rhythm section alone set them apart from their contemporaries, consisting as it did of Sylvian's hard-hitting yet jazzy brother on drums, and some wildman bassist throwing out fretless licks all over the place. Anyway, "Gentlemen..." was Japan's second album as a New Wave band, and features a cool, dancy, happyish title track, a slinky little number called "Swing", a couple of instrumentals that are kind of eerie ("The Art of Swimming" makes me think of someone skinny dipping in a dreary indoor pool in the Soviet Union, sometime in the winter of 1981 or so), an extraordinarily well-written and moving ditty called "Methods of Dance" (with some Japanese girl on background vocals in the chorus, and a great saxophone part), and a yearning piano and vocal masterpiece that calls itself "Nightporter", which hints at things naughty and beautiful. The other songs are great as well. Buy this album if you're the slightest bit interested in the why's and wherefore's of early 80's dance-pop.

The quintessential urban European artpop album. GTP is one of the era's creamiest, capturing the lite angst and rainy balustrades of being a young alien being in a big city. A lot of credit for the splendid sound of the album goes to producer John Punter and to the musicianship that fleshes out Sylvian's rather loose songs -- intricate and forcefully played drums and percussion, Mick Karn's Chaplinesque bass, beautifully programmed synthesizers, and key guest spots by Simon House on violin and Ruichi Sakamoto (on all of Taking Islands in Africa), and several female vocalists. Completed when the band was still shimmying under the eyeshadow of Roxy Music, there's nevertheless not a dud in the collection (except, perhaps, the sombre Bowie-Eno pastiche, Burning Bridges) and this version benefits from the inclusion of two 7"-only instrumentals not on the original. Many of the tracks have become firm fan favourites (the title track, Swing, Methods of Dance and the utterly beguiling Nighporter, which sticks Erik Satie at a bar with a south-London Baudelaire, to deliciously maudlin effect) but special mention has to go to My New Career (one of Sylvian's most underrated) and the cover of Ain't That Peculiar, which swings in a special moody, distracted, late night way.

This was the first Japan album I bought. I am a big fan of Gary Numan and other New Wave early 80s music, and Japan and David Sylvian kept coming up when I conversed with other fans. I thought I'd give them a try, and I'm glad I did. If I hadn't, I would never have experienced the sheer brilliance of this album. That's what it is--an experience. From the awesome 7-minute title track to the upbeat, yet eerie "Swing" (I find myself whistling this track many times), through the haunting instrumentals like "Experience of Swimming" and "Width of a Room" to the quirky, jazzy "Methods of Dance." Then there is "Nightporter," perhaps the best of them all. It is a beautiful, slow track with piano and (synthesized?) strings. The ending melody takes one to a higher level. Some may criticize this album for having too many instrumentals, but they are part of the "feel" of this album. You may not blast some of these tracks in your car or dance to them with the headsets on, but you may find yourself turning out the lights, relaxing in your favorite easy chair and allowing the music to take you away. Lumped in with other New Wave bands, Japan had a unique, serious sound.
"Experience" this album and find out for yourself.

This album was my favorite for years. Sometimes I think it still is, for various reasons. While so many other 80s records sound dated, this still sounds so polished, complex, sophisticated, daring. The drumming is completely excellent--I remember the dude from Rush citing Steve Jansen as one of his #1 drummers in an interview--and Mick Karn is still the best bass player ever. And of course David Sylvian was, is, and will always be God. "Methods of Dance" and "My New Career" are the songs I will hear when I enter heaven.

Its been a long time since the first listen of this classic from the 1980's New Romatic hey day. But New Romantic, it never really was.... if you consider it's longevity.
Over 20 years later, and still it stands the test of time.
Mature crafted pop songs, with well thought out arrangments. It is clear they spent a long time putting together each track, to capture exactley what was best for the song.
The singles "Gentlemen Take Polariods", and "Swing" open the album, and the further you dig, the more drawn in you'll become. "Burning Bridges", and "New Career" are two milestones tracks which pave the way for the rest of the album.
The rest of the album goes by as smoothly as it began, including the ballad "Nightporter"........ a small piece of songwriting history.
A bonus on this album is the collaboration with Ryuichi Sakamoto on the closing track, "Taking Islands In Africa".

If your after well written, and thoughtfully put together songs, this is for you.

One of the many virulent criticisms levelled at Japan in 1981, that they were merely riding Roxy Music's musical chariot, turns out to be this album's secret key. It is in fact the supremely polished production job (by Roxy's one time producer) and the elegant, intricate arrangements that allow this album to successfully stand the test of time: like Roxy's "Avalon", "GTP" can be slipped on and the listener transported to a unique, romantic otherworld. It is an album of cooly distanced reflection and strangely personal tumult, girded by the ingenious use of technology (nobody could twist the Prophet synthesizer like these guys) and sometimes flabbergasting musicianship, especially from the rhyhm section. Listening to how the caffinated fretless bass locks with the whiplash polyrhythms is an exercise in laughter, smiles and astonishment. A transitional album, "GTP" borrows heavily from Satie for the mournsome "Nightporter" and it works beautifully. A collaboraton with Ruyichi Sakamoto on "Taking Islands In Africa" shows what a sublime worldwide phenomenon Yellow Magic orchestra could have een if they'd only had a decent singer. Ripping Bowie for the descending chords of "Burning Bridges" is not quite as successful. However, this is more than compensated for by the clever, almost winsome drive of "Swing" and "My new Career" and two tracks in particular, "Methods of Dance" and the title track, are classics. the American version inserts two instrumentals from a 45 release in the middle, which breaks up the album somewhat uneccessarily but they are both lovely in a b-side sort of way. Fans should note that one of tracks left off the album, a wonderful ballad "Some Kind of Fool", is now available on David Sylvian's retrospective, "Everything and Nothing."

I didn't check into Japan til I got Tin Drum. The other reviews point out the art-minded euro-asiatic electronic funk that's blended here into poignant moods and landscapes. The whole album sweeps me away, but not quite as much as Tin Drum does. The virgin transfer I purchased has a lot of tape hiss on it. These Japan releases really deserve a new HDCD transfer (anyone listening??)

I was nineteen when I first heard this album, which I'd bought shortly after testing the waters with the self-titled Tin Drum/Gentlemen Take Polaroids hybrid released by Virgin/Epic in early 1982. While that hybrid contained more songs from Tin Drum than from Gentlemen Take Polaroids, the latter quickly became my favorite Japan album.

What struck me about this album was how little it sounded like all the other synthesizer-based pop music coming out at the time. While much of the synthpop being featured on MTV (in between the 86th showings that day of Aldo Nova's "Fantasy", Triumph's "Rock & Roll Machine", and that REO Speedwagon clip from their live video, that is) seemed to use synthesizers in a quirky, jerky, occasionally novelty-song kind of way, Japan used them to create atmospheres, aural settings where the listener could more or less take up residence for a few minutes. These settings were extremely evocative, often unsettling and inviting at the same time - as in "Swing" and "Burning bridges", for example. Even the odd take on "Ain't that peculiar" is strangely compelling.

Lyrically, the songs were sparse, yet they still managed to spark particularly vivid imagery, albeit occasionally abstract imagery. Unlike Duran Duran, with their bleak, vaguely futuristic aura (until Rio came out, anyway), Spandau Ballet's warped club-culture focus, and Dare-era Human League, with their slightly skewed take on the typical romantic subject matter of most pop songs, and the lushly romantic, 1982 edition of Roxy Music, Japan's songs seemed to explore a mostly interior world and its observations of an outside world that could only be tentatively explored.

Then, of course, there was the sound. Nothing about Japan sounded like anything I'd ever heard before. The percussion was the best I'd heard since Nigel Olsson (the polyrythmic experiments of the Talking Heads' "Remain In Light", the David Byrne/Brian Eno collaboration "My Life in the Bush of Ghosts", and David Byrne's score for Twyla Tharp's "The Catherine Wheel" notwithstanding); the synthesizer textures were gorgeous; the fluid sounds that Mick Karn managed to coax out of the bass were revelatory; and no pop singer alive ever sounded like David Sylvian. I simply could not believe I'd waited so long to try listening to this band.

At the time, I said that Japan was the closest thing to Art that I'd ever heard in music. The only reason that this no longer holds true is that the members of Japan have progressed so far beyond this in their subsequent solo projects and collaborations.

(A hint: To hear this album in its proper sequence, eliminate "The experience of swimming" and "The width of a room". At least, put them at the end, because they don't belong in the middle...)

I may only be a teenager, but I know good music when I hear it. And when I bought this (my first Japan CD), I fell in love with it immediately. Me, being a gigantic fan of Duran Duran, found this very accessible and was pleased to hear that apparently when DD were writing their first album, Japan were down the hall in AIR Studios recording this!
Anyway, "My New Career" has to be my fave song ever. It's sweet, and...well...I just like it. "Nightporter" is mellow and melancholy, but definitely the other track that probably had David Sylvian on the way to becoming the gifted solo artist he is now (besides "Ghosts" on Tin Drum).