Tin Drum [Limited Edition] [Original recording reissued] [Original recording remastered]

The album itself is still wonderful, though the Japan sound was pretty much defined on Gentlemen Take Polaroids (1980)- here the music is oriental, as the lyrics were influenced by a collection of photos of Communist China (according to the Black Vinyl, White Powder memoir of Simon Napier Bell, then manager of Japan). The Art of Parties gets straight to the point- a clipped sythetic sound that might have been Roxy Music if they hadn't embraced MOR. Talking Drum is even better- an underrated Japan track which has the same electronic-country feel of My New Career; this seagues into the Top Five hit single Ghosts. Who'd believe that a minimal electronic piece indebted to John Cage and Henrik Ibsen would be their biggest hit? As with 1980's Burning Bridges, Nightporter & Taking Islands in Africa, Sylvian dispenses with the band- notably Mick Karn's fretless bass. This might seem absurd, but Sylvian was going for the song, rather than adhering to the band formula- this was Sylvian's year zero and the pathway to his interesting solo career (see tracks like Bamboo Music, Backwaters & The Stigma of Childhood to see where this lead; also 1999's Godman referred to this!). The light comes back in with the Jansen/Sylvian-composed Canton- wonderful world music that fails to explain why any of this lot weren't employed to provide a film soundtrack...Still Life in Mobile Homes (er, title?) remains rather too indebted to Yellow Magic Orchestra- possibly the least track here. Visions of China sees Jansen and Sylvian create another lovely pop song- something that Sylvian would veer away from (though Jansen's 1987 album with Barbieri as The Dolphin Brothers (?????) would see the not dissimilar Shining). Mick Karn's distinctive fretless bass fares as well on Sons of Pioneers- a vast opaque song with sinister undertones; finally the brilliant Cantonese Boy concludes the album. This is the apex of their obssession with Japan and the Far East- "Cantonese Boy/bang your tin drum!"- it's a fantastic pop song that I wish someone NOW would cover: Mao's revolution set to 80s synths and sequencers?

Tin Drum is just one of the many great reissues of Japan/Sylvian material surfacing from Virgin- as great a reminder as the recent Blemish is, that Sylvian was and remains a major talent.

Japans album "Tin Drum" stood out from other albums at the time as the lead singer "David Sylvain" was doing a "Scott Walker" "Bryan Ferry""Nick Drake" with little hints of "David Bowie" cira "Station to Station" type of singing, this was the type of vocals prefected in their previous release "Gentlemen prefer Polarids". Another element that made these tracks on this album stand out was the use of melcholy sounding violin provided by sometime "Hawkwind" player "Simon House".

The extra tracks include "The Art of Parties"(single version)Life without Buildings"(B-side to the Art of Parties single)another version of the "TAoP"(live)and the single version of "Ghosts" great to hear this again.

The inclusion of a 24 page book of rare photographs(which has another version of the orginal cover on it's cover)most of which were shot in the recording studio during the albums recording session is another great touch .

This re-issue also boasts better sound than the version of this album that was available on C.D. before(superb job of re-jigging the sound by "Tony Cousins again), with it's greater feeling of depth, tracks such as like "Ghosts" are no longer buried with backgroud hiss, yes you can hear the full length keyboard introduction to the song now. All the tracks now benifit from this,especailly "Visions of China" which has "Mick Karn's" fretless bass now jumping out of the speakers along with "Steve Jansens" percussion which sounds very impressive indeed, all in all a better audio experience than before, if you are a fan this re-issue is not to be missed...