Track Listing

Disc 1:

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

Disc 2:

1. Art of parties (single version)
2. Life without buildings (bonus track)
3. Art of parties (live)
4. Ghosts (single version)

Product Details

• Amazon Sales Rank: #127938 in Music
• Released on: 2003-09-15
• Number of discs: 2
• Formats: Limited Edition, Original recording reissued, Original recording remastered

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

The final studio album from Japan
This reissue of Tin Drum- Japan's most popular LP featuring surprise hit single Ghosts comes with a wonderful 24-page booklet, a deluxe appearance and various photos, including some from Steve Jansen. It also comes with an additional disc comprising The Art of Parties session- two alternate take of TAOP plus Life Without Buildings, as well as the single version of Ghosts.

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.

The final stage of Japan's evolution
Japan's "Tin Drum" remains one of the great albums of the early eighties,and it brings back many fond memories to this listener. This new Virginremaster is a real treat, with nicely cleaned up sound quality, greatpackaging with some very arty new photographs in a separate companionbooklet and the bonus "Art of Parties" EP containing the four other tracksput out around the time of the album. My only gripe about this, nice asthe EP is, is that it would have all fitted onto a single disc, whichsaves a lot of fiddling about on the train to work.
Enough grumbling - the music is superb and sounds as fresh today as it didthen, as Japan move on from the excellent "Gentlemen Take Polaroids" albumto take in Eastern themes, most notably in "Visions of China", "Canton"and the superb "Cantonese Boy". The atmospheric "Ghosts" is surely one ofthe strongest singles of the decade, paving the way for David Sylvian'smore ambitious solo works, but all of the tracks on "Tin Drum" are verystrong. The Art of Parties remix single is also particularly fine, and itis nice to see this on CD properly at last. They'd come along way sincethe proto-garage of their early albums.

Lavish re-issue from the 80's...
This is the kinda of re-issue that I don't mind paying extra for,not only does it come in a seperate box with an alternative cover shot, inside the box comes the orginal album which is now wearing a digi-pack cover and best of all a seperate bonus disc of extra tracks, the cover of the bonus C.D. recreates the orginal photos used to make up the fold-out cover of the The Art of Parties single.

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...