David Sylvian's post 1999 work - what's your opinion on it?

Sure, first he could do the Japan Revisited (TM) tour with the other two guys. Then he can do the Brilliant Trees/Secrets of the Beehive albums in their entirety tour! Maybe he could team up with the reactivated King Crimson and do some numbers with the Frippster and Mel Collins. With special guest Bill Nelson!

No, that just doesn't seem to be Sylvian's way. He turned his back on all of that years ago. I'd be surprised to see him go back to older material like that, but you never know. Maybe financial necessity will force a reappraisal?

 

He had commercial potential (though not Sting/Bono size potential) in 1982. In 2015? He's a cult figure whose heyday was over 30 years ago, was never much of a commercial success on his own, and who has shrunk his audience even further, first with years of inactivity in the 90s and then difficult glitchy music post 2000.

Sylvian's done so many self-defeating things from a careerist point of view... releasing the Nine Horses album under an obscure band name, releasing the Japan reunion album under another obscure band name AND devoting most of it to rambling instrumentals, putting his most accessible songwriting on the albums of people even more obscure than him.... but, he doesn't care, he'll do what he wants.

 

If he put together a really good touring band and revisited his 80s catalog, I imagine Sylvian could muster up a decent audience in the U.K. and maybe parts of the U.S. It's still hard for me to imagine, but stranger things have been known to happen. I was being tongue in cheek with the King Crimson comment before, but come to think of it, that would be a pretty good fit for a touring combo. . .

Though very talented, I don't think Sylvian ever had it in him to be any kind of a pop megastar. It's not in his DNA. So much the better, I say. That's what makes him the distinctive artist he is, even if I don't care for his more recent output.

 

He has toured a few times, and the shows aren't all difficult material. So it's not like nobody will go see him, but he doesn't do huge business either... maybe if he were to announce he was performing all of Beehive or something it would help, but I don't know by how much. I feel like the people who would go see him no matter what he did are mostly the same people who would go to a show of his 80s music.

 

That's all I was trying to say, if I was a gambling man I think Sylvian will take Japan to his grave but who knows, I was just putting the opinion out there that if Sylvian was desperate he could do it.

 

True but let's not be unfair, Sylvian has got to be one of the more famous avant garde artists ever. He has his fair share of fans.

 

I have a feeling Sylvian makes most of his money these days from Japan the country rather than Japan the band. Been that way for quite a while best as I can tell... He's done a few commissioned Art installations there over the years and I am betting they paid pretty well. Plus he's always been very popular there, since the early days.

 

I've always found it so weird... I mean would the Japanese really be fans like they are today over something as trivial as his old band was named after the country? I mean why aren't China massive fans, what is it that makes Sylvian so popular in Japan, is it his work with Sakamoto?

 

Funny you should ask...
http://www.redbullmusicacademy.com/magazine/david-sylvian-in-japan-feature

 

Hey good for David, thanks for sharing that.

 

I beg to differ. Listening to and being around the time Quiet Life and Gentlemen take Polaroids, Japan were a Pop band, then they changed. Nothing wrong with that.

 

It's even more boring that his previous solo work. Imagine that.

 

The only way there can't be a Japan reunion tour is if Sylvian not in it. I'm not putting him above the others, I'm talking from a practical money making opportunity.

 

I can think of a potential replacement: Tony Levin.

Well, personally I did not enjoy Nine Horses at all, I found their music as weak (if not weaker) as "Dead Bees on a Cake", so I am not sure whether this material would have been able to win back all (casual) fans who stopped caring about Sylvian after "Secrets of the Beehive".

As for his abstract music I stand my ground and consider "Blemish" a masterpiece. And if people reject his "rambling instrumentals" there is always one more copy of "Endless River" waiting to be sold to console them.

 

I think he has (or at least used to have) a large fan base in Italy and other European countries. If you look at his Facebook profile every time he posts something there are dozens of comments from Italian fans. He has always performed in Italy in all his tours and managed to get a full house even when he toured with Robert Fripp and Trey Gunn before "The First Day" was published.
Having said that, I think that his latest production must have tested even his loyal Italian fans.

Slightly off-topic but if I had to mention the best concerts I ever attended I would definitely include his "In Praise of Shamans" tour show with Mark Isham, David Torn, Steve Jansen, Robbie Aceto, Michael Brook and Richard Barbieri in Rome in 1988.

 

That was a superb tour. A wonderful set list, beautifully performed by a top band of musicians.
The pedant in me must however point out that Michael Brook wasn't on this tour - he was in the 1993 Sylvian / Fripp band and was also the support act on that Road To Graceland tour.
However, percussionist and bass player Ian (now called Jennifer) Maidman was a cheery member of the Shamans band.

 

Yep sorry I mixed up Michael Brook and Ian Maidman....

 

David give me a call!

 

It was the first gig I ever attended and it still rates as my favourite - great atmosphere, fantastic players. The subsequent tours I saw (1993, 1995 and 2001) were still very good but not a patch on 1988.

 

The Chicago show is infamous . He was sick and only sang about four songs, had Mark Isham lead the rest, and ended the show in a hour.The crowd was incredibly disappointed . One of the Chicago papers called it " the closest to a advent-garde riot as you could get". It's the only time I've seen Richard Barbieri.

I saw him later with the Fripp shows, and the Everything and Nothing tour. Both great.

 

Has anone heard Died in the Wool the Manafon remixes, how different are the to the original Manafon?? Does it sound like a new album or can uou tell their just remixes?

Thanks!

 

Sometimes I am as baffled by the 21st century Sylvian as the next man, but still can't but admire his relentless singular vision. Of his recent-ish releases, my particular favourite is Died in the Wool: Manafon Variations.

 

What's better about Died in the Wool vs Manafon?

 

For some reason DitW just sounds more fully realized and "complete" to me than Manafon.

 

I really wish he would go back to this sort of thing.
Yeah, it's a hopeless fantasy.