Japan(the band):the Arty Rock period 70's or the Experimental 80's

"Tin Drum" remains one of my favourite albums ever.

Tracklist:

Ghosts (Single Version)
I Second That Emotion (Remix)
Quiet Life (7" Version)
Gentlemen Take Polaroids (Single Edit)
The Art Of Parties (Single Version)
Visions Of China
Taking Islands In Africa (Nye Remix)
European Son (Remix)
Cantonese Boy
Life In Tokyo (Special Remix)
Nightporter
Methods Of Dance
All Tomorrow's Parties (Remix)
Canton - Live
Ghosts (Album Version)

(found in the news section of www.remembertheeighties.com)

(Look above for just one second)

If they release it as a Region 1 as well, HELL FUCKING YEAH!!!!!!

OMG, I just breezed on into Paul Rymer's site, and:

Details: Promo videos for Life In Tokyo, Quiet Life, I Second That Emotion, Gentlemen Take Polaroids, Swing, Visions Of China, Nightporter. Oil On Canvas - Live: Overture (Burning Bridges), Sons of Pioneers, Gentlemen Take Polaroids, Swing, Cantonese Boy, Visions of China, Canton, Ghosts, Still Life in Mobile Homes, Methods of Dance , TheArt of Parties, Voices Raised in Welcome, Hands Held in Prayer.

I AM DYING HERE. OGMOMGOMGOMG. IT HAS EVERY SINGLE VIDEO I HAD HOPED WOULD BE ON THE DVD AND THEN SOME. FUCKING HELL, I WILL SO CRY IF THIS ISN'T AVAILABLE AS A REGION 1 DISC.

I ain't going there.

also: gentlemen take polaroids for the win. never liked tin drum.

Why not? Do you consider it too electronic? Or... well, why? I mean, Gentlemen Take Polaroids is my favorite Japan album too (I think that'd be the answer most Japan fans would mention), but I quite loved Tin Drum too. "Canton", "Still Life In Mobile Homes", "The Art Of Parties", "Cantonese Boy", and "Visions Of China" (yes, their big hit) are all particularly brilliant songs IMO. But I enjoy all of the album.

http://www.nightporter.co.uk/pages/images/778_bestofjapan.jpg

i haven't really given the arty rock 70's japan a shot yet... i would have bought the reissues but they're ludicrously expensive compared to the experimental 80's reissues for no good reason. hell, i even got the tin drum box... so it's not that i dislike it.

The Oil On Canvas section looks and sounds slighty hissy, when you're used to today's standards, and so do some of the promo clips, but all in all: verrrry nice.

(no booklet, credits on the inside of the transparant sleeve. plus a small but over the top text by Chris Roberts - there's only 12 lines of text but it namedrops what feels like 10 hip and cool names like Edward Hopper and Egon Schiele)

Their look inspired the mangaka Kaoru Tada: the fictional band Beehive of her manga Ai shite knight is based on them.

"The Very Best of Japan" CD and DVD out on Monday 27th March.

Longtime readers of this site will not be surprised to learn that yet again mistakes have been made with a Japan release. It is good that this album is available, but with a little more thought it could have been GREAT. I was quite excited about the original tracklisting as it was rather cool - all of the 7" single hits on one CD - fabulous. Sadly, as I should have expected, the record company's apparent unfamiliarity with the material has let them down. Specifically, "I Second That Emotion", "European Son", "Gentlemen Take Polaroids" and "Nightporter" are the regular album versions. "The Art of Parties" is the 12" version, also available on "Exorcising Ghosts". "Canton" is also the same as on "Oil on Canvas". A lot of the credits are also incorrect. I'm not going to list them all here. Why should I be bothered about such details? Apologies for the bitch but when will a record company take the back catalogue of this group seriously and get things right?

The DVD has track list errors too, by the way. Still Life in Mobile Homes = Methods Of Dance and vice versa.

I'm not sure about buying the DVD because one of the dudes in the band looks exactly like my dad, it would be hard to keep a straight face. I'll stick to the audio material lol.

I didn't used to like glam-era Japan as much back in the 80s, but have come to appreciate it a lot more. As someone stated upthread "the Unconventional" is a great song - quite teh sexy.

What I would be curious to get my hands on again (as I gave away my vinyl copy) is Karn's first solo album, terrible as it was. Call it morbid curiosity perhaps.

To be honest, irrespective of tracklisting errors, The Very Best of... is prob. a better listen from start to finish than any Japan record — including Tin Drum. And given Japan's peculiar datedness (in that it's aesthetically miles away from pop today), it'd be my first choice to recommend for newbies to dig in.

As much as I love the trio of Quiet Life, Gentlemen Take Polaroids and Tin Drum, I seriously think Japan's debut Adolescent Sex is an incredibly underrated record, even though it feels like the work of an entirely different band. Out of all their albums, Obscure Alternatives is the only one I'd say that I wasn't keen on - aside from 'Automatic Gun', '...Rhodesia' and 'The Tenant', which to me are all great, the rest of the album comes across to me as a bit of a mess.