Track Listing

1. Art Of Parties
2. Talking Drum
3. Ghosts
4. Canton
5. Still Life In Mobile Homes
6. Visions Of China
7. Sons Of Pioneers
8. Cantonese Boy

Product Details

• Amazon Sales Rank: #134046 in Music
• Released on: 1985-04-15
• Number of discs: 1

CD Description
TIN DRUM, Japan's fifth studio album, appeared with a coverphotograph of a perfectly coifed David Sylvian eating rice from a bowl in a bare room, while a peeling poster of Mao looked on. This image was obviously very deliberately created,and the music on this, their last studio album as Japan, isno less carefully presented. TIN DRUM has been said to be their most "Oriental" album, but it also has equally prevalent Middle Eastern influences, especially in regards to Steve Jansen's percussion. All told, it is probably the band's best single record.
"The Art of Parties" opens the album with synthesizers twittering around Mick Karn's extraordinary bass guitar. "Talking Drum" features a flute straight from a snake charmer's stall. "Canton' is a propulsive, Asian-flavoured instrumental. Arguably, the album's best track is "Still Life in Mobile Homes", a strange keyboard and drum-led song that features Karn at his most inventive. "Visions of China" adds some funk to the beat, while "Sons of Pioneers" is aspectacular drum and bass-driven track that is achingly atmospheric. This is a classic--if you own one Japan album, TINDRUM ought to be it.

Customer Reviews

Syvian's brilliant call-up for the Red Army
David Sylvian's obsession with Communist China is brought to the fore on this remarkable, if short, fifth and final studio album from Japan. The musical style is very-much of the Orient, perfectly fused with Mick Karn's unique bass sound, Steve Jansen's tight-percussion and Sylvian's fluid vocals.

There are some great moments here, from the classic singles Ghosts and Visions Of China, to the quirky pop of Cantonese Boy and the brilliant Still Life In Mobile Homes.

If you omit a couple of duff moments such as The Art Of Parties and the monotonous, over-indulgent Sons Of Pioneers, you're left with a unique album which was a far cry from the New Romantic image within which they were pigeonholed.

Overall, this is one of the defining albums of the early-1980's and is one of those albums that will just never age. Highly recommended.

Nipponese-futurism?
Personally, I thought that 'Gentlemen Take Polaroids' was a much better album- despite the fact that 'Some Kind of Fool' was ousted for 'Ain't that Peculiar' and songs like 'Life Without Buildings' were left off...'Tin Drum' is moving towards Sylvian's forays into solo-electronica ('Bamboo Music')- though it does have great production from Steve Nye (who would reproduce this sound on The Cure's 'The Walk'). 'The Art of Parties' gets right to the heart of the matter, not far from 'Scary Monsters'-Bowie, this is not as good as the extended take on 'Oil on Canvas' (though 1984's 'Pulling Punches' does this kind of thing with a whole lot more panache)...'Talking Drum' is a very odd synth record, that moves off towards Oriental-sounds and seems to feature less and less of 'the band'...'Ghosts' is one of those great moments- basically a Sylvian solo-single in all but name- it takes the stripped Satie-influence exhibited on 'Despair' & 'Night Porter' to a new electronic domain. It would influence trip-hop (what is Tricky singing in a Matt Johnson voice at the end of Maxinquaye's 'Aftermath'?) and drum'n'bass (the early Goldie track Refuge Kru's 'Ghosts of My Life'); sonically it's an inversion of the industrial sound that acts like Eric B & Rakim and Public Enemy would perform. A key single, despite its allusions to Beckett and Brecht and the perversity of not using Mick Karn...'Canton' is a gorgeous instrumental that does feature the band- there is a 'world music' flavour here- a year or so before Peter Gabriel would move in this direction. This is the type of music Sylvian would explore further with 'Words with the Shaman'...'Still Life in Mobile Homes' (?) comes across as Talking Heads meets Yellow Magic Orchestra- the Oriental vocal rather similar to the earlier 'Methods of Dance'. Bit of a non-event...'Visions of China' exhibits those Mao-flavoured lyrics that Simon Napier-Bell said came from a book of photographs Sylvian was given ('Black Vinyl, White Powder'). The stop-start rhythms and pop-catchiness was something that Sylvian would slowly expunge from his music- so it';s great to see it here...The version of 'Sons of Pioneers' is a little-slower than the take on 'Oil on Canvas'- the kind of empty spaced rhythms that The Cure did on 'Faith' and XTC did on 'No Language in Our Lungs'. Bit of a dead end...The album closes on the sublime 'Cantonese Boy', which has perfect precise synths, Karn's looping basslines and the catchy chorus "Cantonese Boy/Bang your tin drum"- a great conclusion to the last studio album by Japan (Rain Tree Crow were a quite different proposition). 'Tin Drum' still stands up today- though much of it is better represented on the live 'Oil on Canvas' set. It was the last in a great trilogy of albums from Japan and would lead to such sublime Sylvian offerings as 'Forbidden Colours' & 'Brilliant Trees'. Yep, it's a classic!

marpar@kespar.freeserve.co.uk

Scrambled, Red China-obsessed masterpiece
People have mixed feelings about the funk-lite world of early Japan but it's hard to deny that this album is a classic.

David Sylvian had clearly spent too long listening to Bowie's Lodger album and the Blade Runner sound track when he wrote this. He'd also reached serious levels of obsession about Cultural Revolution-era China.

So much of this sounds like a Red Guards recruitment ad set to a new Romantic soundtrack. Don't let that put you off - Sylvian's typically impenetrable lyrics are the perfect compliment to the distorted, rhythm-heavy sound of this album.

On first listen, you may think this album torture to the ears. The tunes are off-kilter and atonal, but Sylvian's strong pop sensibility means that they retain an indefinable catchiness.

If you haven't heard it, it's one of the most ambitious albums of the eighties and Japan's best. And it knocks most modern non-dance music into a cocked hat.