JapanSylvian.com

Strange...I remember hearing Duran Duran a lot on the radio but I never much liked them...can't really say my opinion's changed over the years but I do absolutely adore Japan - although I only heard of them a few months ago!!!

I had also heard 'Forbidden Colours' before but that wasn't the song that hooked me. In fact, I think the exact moment was when I was randomly searching Youtube for music videos and came across The Ink In The Well. THAT was the song that hooked me! The rhythm really played on my mindset at the time and made me smile so inanely because I'd discovered something so beautiful! I then remembered who David Sylvian was and wondered why I hadn't pursued his music earlier on in the year.......and now I can't imagine life without knowing who he is!!

I was quite shocked to discover Japan AFTER Sylvian as a solo artist, as they were very different styles, but also quite pleasantly surprised. At first I thought 'I only like Gentlemna Take Polaroids,' then it was 'I only like Gentleman Take Polaroids' and 'Swing' ... then Ghosts as well.... and maybe Nightporter ... and Adolescent Sex ...... um ok maybe I like all of them...... except I Second That Emotion - somehow irriating!

Moonshadow wrote:I have to say I'm another fan who has to blame Nick Rhodes and Duran Duran... I think I was talking with Nath on a DD forum and she told me you have to listen to them after I ask what's the big deal between Japan and Duran and moreover Nick. Not sure anymore how was it, but I found life in tokyo and that was it....

Here I am

AND YOU DID THE SAME THING TO ME....AND YES.....HERE I AM TOO

Hawk wrote:In fact, I think the exact moment was when I was randomly searching Youtube for music videos and came across The Ink In The Well. THAT was the song that hooked me!

Hmm. Sounds familiar...

last July.. I was looking through my friends myspace and saw a picture of David.
And after that I knew, I Just HAD to listen to some of his Japan work.
So I searched him up and got hooked on Visions of China.
Then Quiet Life.
After that they all appeared and now I'm addicted!

HOWEVER: i FIRST HEARD of him (yet again guys) when I was wathcing a show about Duran Duran, and how Nick and him looked so much alike.
But I was never interested at that time.

i had a friend who had been abroad to the UAE after we finished school in 1984. He returned home some 3 months later with a suitcase full of bootleg cassettes all purchased for next to nothing. I was never really into Japan when i had heard them before (i thought they were far too strange !) He was convinced i should like Japan and would often force me to listen repeatedly to mainly Quiet Life and in particular Halloween. These "sittings" were always coerced and i was not a willing participant, but with him being somewhat bigger and far stronger than me i was not able to offer much resistance. I was sick to death of them after a while and i could never understand the words David sang. That all changed one day, listening to Halloween,i dont know why but suddenly it all fell into place and i have not looked back since ! We do occasionally recall those days and wonder if i had nt been forced to listen would i have have found Japan and David by another means ?

Amazing how many contemporary Japan "conversions" there are in this thread!

Amazing in a good way, obviously.


I was in my friends house in 1980 or 1981. He produced this incredible looking LP and put on Quiet Life. I was Instantly hooked. i went out and bought whatever I could find, which in Ireland at that time wasn't much. just some singles and that.

I LONGED to look like that man on the cover, that vision, so cool with his long thin fingers held up and obscured by white light.

I bought Tin Drum when it came out ( missed Polaroids)and was jarred by the sound of the Art Of parties.

Remember in those days for a teenager, it was hard to even find stuff out about bands. I found Adolescent sex on cassette in an obscure record store and kept checking the sleeve while it played to make sure it was the same band. WTF??? no rubbery bass?

I found Polaroids second hand somewhere and found it very dark-sounding but beautful. But to this day, Quiet Life is my favourite. i never get tired of it and hear new depths of talent every time I hear it.

Every time. Almost 30 years on.

I saw a tiny picture of Japan in my elder sister's copy of Cosmopolitan in 1979. Ok, I was there purely for the rude bits as a 15 year old is want to do. It described Sylvian like Frank Sinatra crossed with Debbie Harry and a floor mop. I was astonished at the visceral response to his picture. It wasn't until 1980 that I heard them though. And shame to say not until 1981 that I bought anything. I was a dedicated Earth, Wind and Fire fan at that point. I was a skinny ass white kid with a passion for black music, what can I say?

I just came across 'Visions of China' by chance and sat listening to it over and over again. I eventually did a quick search on wikipedia to see who was in the band. Found Ghosts was also on this disk (although just under David Sylvian), and couldn't stop listening to that either.
So, I saw it as a sign it was probably a band I'd enjoy listening to - plus (to be slightly shallow ;D) their image fitted with the kind of style I was getting into myself.

My father, when visiting a friend of ours, happened to notice that he had Gentlemen Take Polaroids and Tin Drum on CD. Having liked them a lot, back in the day, he asked for burnt copies of them and took them home.

He got them specifically to listen to Ghosts, which is his favourite. I liked 'the art of parties;' however, and started playing it over and over, much to Dad's annoyance.

I went for maybe five years of liking those albums before I even knew what the band looked like or who they were; it just occurred to me one day to google it.

And here I am. : D

Pagoda wrote:And here I am. : D

And welcome back!

Would have to be Ghosts with my late friend Scott Currie R.I.P Scott,we sat in a darkened room listening
too this,absolutely mindblowing,well thats what got me hooked on Japan/Sylvian.
Dougie

That´s quite an interesting question...

I was actually taking a quick look to my old blog, and I just found what I wrote the very first day I heard Japan...

http://lebonah2.wordpress.com/2009/01/11/gentleman-take-polaroids-making-girls-on-film-cry/


Hope you like it!

I brought Quiet Life in 1983, as a 15 year old,been hooked ever since,my mum had given me the money for a coat,but i came home with the album,lol

digimarsh wrote:I brought Quiet Life in 1983, as a 15 year old,been hooked ever since,my mum had given me the money for a coat,but i came home with the album,lol

I hope winter wasn't too cold that year.

David and the boys kept me warm, thing is i did have some money left after QL, so i left it a week and guess what,i went back and got polaroids, and a couple of 7inch singles, European son & Life in Tokyo, the innocence of youth hey