Japan - Gentlemen Take Polaroids

    Japan ‎– Gentlemen Take Polaroids

    12 Mar

    By

    Label: Virgin, V2180
    Format: Vinyl, LP, Album
    Country: UK
    Released: 1980
    Genre: Electronic, Rock, Pop
    Style: New Wave, Synth-pop

    “Amazing how they named a whole country after this band”

    Well that’s a bit tongue-in-cheek and no offense meant to our friends in Japan. But this band certainly had some interesting moments in the early new romantic scene in 80’s UK.

    Certainly polarising and caused upset with the earlier fans from prog rock scene who liked their prior Tin Drum album.

    Even Gary Numan would create later work like I Assassin which certainly drew upon the Mick Karn fretless bass sound from Japan. There’s a full life story of early Japan on Classic Pop Mag.

    Ostensibly led by the art focussed David Sylvian they were very concerned with portraying an image and keeping an “Eastern” focus in some of the tones and structures.

    The music is brooding new wave, with Bryan Ferry influences and a ton of Bowie. The reason I owned it originally was Mick Karn’s unique bass playing and the dense synth layers. His style of fretless bass was different to any of his contemporaries. I’ve heard no one else like him, and the songs where he gets to play extended periods are the better ones on this album.

    It didn’t quite fit the mould of the other New Romantics around them and I originally sidelined it after a few listens (when it was new) as the works of Simple Minds, Talk Talk, Ultravox, OMD and The Fixx were more “European” in outlook.

    Recently in re-exploring the music from that period I replayed the album and came to a new appreciation of the music and mixes from that era. So I’m now enjoying the album in full. It’s worth a visit.

    Sylvian would later join forces with Ryuchi Sakamoto to create some memorable works that showed a maturity and brilliance that comes with making a few mistakes in your youth. You might recall one of those collaborations in Forbidden Colours.

    Nowadays when Sakamoto or Sylvian tour it’s a serious crowd that attends. Almost classical and certainly high-brow. Their art has become more valuable as time went by! The shadow cast by Bowie was pretty large in its day (and still there) and bands like Japan were trying to standout.

    Owning Japan – Gentlemen Prefer Polaroids is like having an early sketch by a lesser known artist whose work would become more valuable over time.

    Track listing

    Gentlemen Take Polaroids        7:06
    Swing   6:25
    Burning Bridges 5:20
    My New Career  3:54
    Methods Of Dance        6:53
    Ain’t That Peculiar         4:40
    Nightporter        6:57
    Taking Islands In Africa 5:15

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