july 2nd extract- david sylvian

David Sylvian-The Ink In The Well- Brilliant Trees

Well, there’ll certainly be nothing on the Happy mix CD by old Moodychops (David Sylvian). It’s a sign of the power of music that for the last 24 hours I’ve been strolling around humming and whistling Robert Parker’s “Barefootin’” without a care in the world and then this track comes on. Initially, i.e. the first time I played it, my response was “oh, for goodness’ sake, cheer up, you gloomy bastard” but then pressing repeat and playing the rest of the album (which I haven’t listened to for a good few years) I got into the position where Robert Parker seemed hopelessly optimistic and David Sylvian made much more sense. It may have helped of course, that the weather shifted from fairly warm and sunny to cooler and pissing down with rain. This album doesn’t make much sense when it’s sunny outside.

Japan were always a bit of a joke and quite frankly, rubbish. They’d been hyped beyond belief by their record company for ages and ages. The fact that they were devotees and shameless copyists of Bowie, the New York Dolls and most things glam-rock didn’t help too much in 1977. They’d been pretty successful in Japan (but that was put down to the novelty factor) but done nothing in the U.K. Being signed to the German disco label Hansa was a bit of a barrier as well as being managed by Simon Napier-Bell. In the late 70’s, at a time of post-punk, post- structuralism and post-everything , wearing make-up and nail varnish didn’t help their cause much. If anyone wanted to point the finger of blame for sparking the fire of New Romanticism then Japan, despite their protestations, were always going to likely culprits.

Surprisingly, and very much against the odds, Japan finally came good with their very last album just before they broke up in 1981. By then they’d moved to Virgin for their last two albums, “Gentleman Take Polaroids” and “Tin Drum”. The former was still a bit crap but not as awful as their Hansa albums. “Tin Drum”, however, was a revelation. It was completely against what anyone expected-low-key, understated, minimalist and intelligent. It was one of those records that you’d be a bit embarrassed about buying (because it was Japan) but you’d find out that your friends had similarly got hold of it and that you all grudgingly realised that it was actually rather good.

“Brilliant Trees” was David Sylvian’s first post-Japan album and took the atmosphere of “Tin Drum” and racked it up a notch. Racked it down a notch in reality because it was much more low-key.  It’s very quiet and quite frankly miserable. David’s got the weight of the world on his shoulders and the whole thing is utterly humourless. But sometimes that’s what is needed-a bit of angst. You know when things are as grim as they are portrayed on this album that perversely they can’t be all that bad. After all, it’s only a record. I do like it but it may be a few years before I play it again.