I want to have a thread about "Tin Drum" but you can write RE C/D

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Got the new remaster last tuesday and it sounds amazing. i bought it on a whim because i knew i would like them for some reason. i had downloaded the album but i never got a chance to listen to it.
Classic.

"Canton" is so unbearably entrancing. if it were described to me "oriental melody with fretless bass and "tribal" drum pattern" i would assume the worst, but, for some reason, it works! I can't escape it.

― Aaron Grossman (aajjgg), Saturday, 25 October 2003 06:25 (twenty-two years ago)

Mick Karn and David Sylvian tend to get most of the attention from Japan fans, butdo you like the keyboards? I really admire the relentlessly creative keyboard programming on that record. And the drums of course. They don't even sound real sometimes, or not laid down by a human being anyhow.

― colin s barrow (colin s barrow), Saturday, 25 October 2003 08:18 (twenty-two years ago)

Classic.

Some years ago, Tin Drum polled in the Top 20 most depressing albums of all time, which I don't really believe because some of it is so damn sprightly... but if it was all as grim as Ghosts and Sons Of Pioneers sound, then it surely would be an unbearably doomy album.

― Damian (Damian), Saturday, 25 October 2003 09:09 (twenty-two years ago)

Spooky tracks. Depressing? That's strange. It's sprightly, as you say.

― colin s barrow (colin s barrow), Saturday, 25 October 2003 09:13 (twenty-two years ago)

You can hardly get more classic than this gem. "Tin Drum", in a fair world, would be part of the rock "canon".

― Geir Hongro (GeirHong), Saturday, 25 October 2003 18:00 (twenty-two years ago)

Dud.

― Sean (Sean), Saturday, 25 October 2003 18:47 (twenty-two years ago)

ok two can play at that game..

CLASSIC!

― jed (jed_e_3), Saturday, 25 October 2003 18:50 (twenty-two years ago)

Tin Drum is pretty tasty.

― Disco Nihilist (mjt), Saturday, 25 October 2003 20:39 (twenty-two years ago)

colin i do like the synths a great deal, especially on "ghosts". the remastered album has a photo booklet and there are some tasty shots of the prophet 5, oberheim obmx, and a roland system 100 modular. hott.

I know ned hasn't spoken yet but already i find it funny that this could be the album that ned and geir most agree on.

sean... care to elaborate?

― Aaron Grossman (aajjgg), Saturday, 25 October 2003 22:05 (twenty-two years ago)

http://www.synergizedsolutions.com/simpsons/pictures/others/lionel.gif
Dud! For an album from a group called Japan, there sure were an awful lot of songs about China! This is the most blatant case of false advertising since The Never-ending Story!

― Lionel Hutz (SeanC), Saturday, 25 October 2003 22:06 (twenty-two years ago)

Seriously though, I got the remaster of this, Oil on Canvas and Gentlemen Take Polaroids...I still prefer the last of the three. The packaging for the Tin Drum remaster is sure nice though.

― Sean Carruthers (SeanC), Saturday, 25 October 2003 22:17 (twenty-two years ago)

Me or the other one? I thought Japan was a nifty Dolls/Bowie inflluenced band who were slagged off until they changed direction into the sleek outfit most people remember them as. Some of the later stuff is good, but Tin Drum for me is the album where all of their most compelling elements were finally discarded. They started out trying to be trashy and disreputable, and ended up trying to be classy and artistic... how do you reconcile the two? "Ghosts" is an ok single, but no freaking way is it better than "Life in Tokyo". Full stop.

― Sean (Sean), Saturday, 25 October 2003 22:39 (twenty-two years ago)

Are there plans to reissue Adolescent Sex?

― Sonny A. (Keiko), Sunday, 26 October 2003 01:26 (twenty-two years ago)

i have no idea but (and i am sure you know this but i should just say it anyways) its just the virgin stuff that got the re-release, so one would have to email hansa (?) to find out i am guessing.

― Aaron Grossman (aajjgg), Monday, 27 October 2003 03:05 (twenty-two years ago)

Hey man, I have to defend Tin Drum now!

Considering the fact that whenever I think of Japan, the first song that instantly pops into my mind is "Still Life in Mobile Homes", Tin Drum has been ingrained in my brain forever. Another song I adore is "The Art of Parties", and then there's "Canton" and "Cantonese Boy" and, of course, "Ghosts" and "Visions of China", all of which are amazing songs.

Tin Drum -- you better believe it's classic!

― Many Coloured Halo (Dee the Lurker), Monday, 27 October 2003 04:11 (twenty-two years ago)

I liked their trashy early stuff and their classy stuff - is that so strange? Do early and late period Japan (how pretentious of me) polarise their fans?

― colin s barrow (colin s barrow), Monday, 27 October 2003 04:18 (twenty-two years ago)

Colin, I love Japan's Adolescent Sex too. I would also be willing to defend Obscure Alternatives, even though I don't adore it as much as I do the rest of Japan's discography.

I would imagine, though, that some people would find themselves either adoring early-era Japan or latter-era Japan, not both. That's sad IMHO, because you're really missing out either way you go.

(Thus speaks the person whose favorite Japan album is the "right smack in the middle" Gentlemen Take Polaroids.)

― Many Coloured Halo (Dee the Lurker), Monday, 27 October 2003 04:24 (twenty-two years ago)

five months pass...

i have all of their albums now except obscure alternatives and it is on hold for me at the store. i think "still life..." is now my favorite track on the album. the drumming on there is quite good. i really want to know if the 16th note hihats were recorded seperately, because i cant figure out the sticking at all. i really want to buy an oberheim obx now because any synth that can be used on this album and also provide the main sound for "jump" by van halen (its preset A1 the lazy bastards!) must be perfect ;-)

― Aaron Grossman (aajjgg), Wednesday, 14 April 2004 17:55 (twenty-one years ago)

six years pass...

what do you do when things go wrong?
i'm winning~
in the heart of the bushland

― wavestation (r1o natsume), Tuesday, 22 June 2010 12:58 (fifteen years ago)

five years pass...

Some days I think that the bass on 'Cantonese Boy' is my favourite bassline of all time.

― Turrican, Friday, 11 December 2015 22:45 (ten years ago)

Karn just goddamn rules.
Such singular musicians... the lot of 'em!

― mr.raffles, Saturday, 12 December 2015 01:37 (ten years ago)

yeah it's kind of amazing how they each became so individually distinctive.

― new noise, Saturday, 12 December 2015 01:50 (ten years ago)

WHAT ABOUT "SONS OF PIONEERS" THOUGH? Surely one of the all-time basslines.

― MatthewK, Saturday, 12 December 2015 02:13 (ten years ago)

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