They never got to the point of being very cool, but I just love listening to old Japan albums, and I love David Sylvian's solo output even better. Soul searching stuff, great musicians, some of the best stuff of the 80's for me. There was a short thread on Sylvian's remasters from 2003 a while back, but it was not very substantial and did not talk about the Japan remasters. I was about to buy them to replace my old CDs, but since I discovered this forum, I've learned that remasters does not mean better, so let me ask to some of you who maybe fans also what do you think of the remasters. I presently own: - David Sylvian's Brilliant Trees (on Virgin Canada, 1984, V2 86464) - David Sylvian's Gone To Earth (on Virgin USA, 1986, 0777 7 86003 2 9) - David Sylvian's Secrets of the Beehive, his best solo work (on Virgin Canada, 1987, V2 86028) I am not interested in a remaster, if there is any, of his excellent Dead Bees On A Cake (1999), because it sounds great. and Japan's best 3 albums interest me very much. There are many editions, and only the remasters from 2003 do give you some excellent bonus tracks. They are: - Quiet Life (1979) ("Digitally Remastered Edition from First Generation Tapes of the Band's Third Album for Ariola/Hansa Records") - Gentlemen Take Polaroid (1980) - Tin Drum (1981)
Being a long time Sylvian fan, I'd also like to know about remasters versus first pressings etc. I recently saw the Japanese original double CD of 'Gone To Earth' (my favourite from Sylvian) and wondered how it stacked up against the 2003 remaster? For my money, his best period was from Brilliant Trees through until the Rain Tree Crow project. It's been a bit patchy since then. Just my opinion. Regards
I had the remastered version of "Secrets of the Beehive" & replaced it by the non remastered UK CD. Original CD sounds slightly more pleasant & natural. And it has 'Forbidden colours'
I have both versions of all of these, and I prefer the old Virgin of 'Gone the Earth' and 'Secrets', pressed by Nimbus. The newer ones are nice still, but more forward. I'm keeping both. For 'Brilliant Trees', I prefer the remaster. For the Japan albums, the remasters win across the board.
A lot of people thought Japan were pretty cool at the time, even here in the midwest of the USA in the early 1980s! Okay, not a huge amount, but they had their supporters. Regarding the Japan cds: It is hard to search, but I think I read that the original Virgin cds are preferred for the Japan issues. I have the remastered Tin Drum in a box, with a bonus cd single (of 4 single mixes, I think). The sound is very, very good - nice full bass, which is very necessary for those of us who listen to Mick Karn as much as anything else on their records. The cd is very bright also - maybe a little too bright for my ears. (In contrast, the original David Sylvian Brilliant Trees is much warmer.) However, I have not heard the original Japan cds in years, so I can't recall how they sounded.
Tin Drum and Gentlemen take Polaroids were from the same batch of remasterings and repackagings done by virigin. Quiet Life I believe was done at a different time and I dont have it so I cant comment. I have both masterings on all the Sylvian solo cds and the 3 Japan cd's i like, Tin Drum, Gentlemen/Polaroids and Oil on Canvas (a must have live album basically mirroring tin drum and gentlemen). Its hard to judge which is really best sonically. Yes the newer remasters are no noised, but I dont think horrifically. they sound very good and in no way unpleasant to my ears. I tend to listen to these more, as the packaging is so beautiful and part of my sylvian obsession is the look of his art, his lyric books, he's one of the only artists i also enjoy "tactile" and each remaster has a unique look, different papers, type of housing, all very nice. My only complaint was Oil on Canvas could have fit on 1 cd, but they put it on 2. Here is a cool website about the latest remasters... http://special.the-raft.com/japan/ The earlier masterings, I have the Caroline releases, which I'm assuming are the same as the virgins, but i'm not sure, a tad duller overall, but really quite good musical and worthy. As stated above Brilliant Tree's has different bonus tracks on each edition and well, I need both. But that's just me. I say start with the earlier cd's as you can probably find them very inexpensively.
I will find it very hard to justify my excellent sounding imported versions of Gentleman Take Polaroids and Exorcising Ghosts on vinyl...and until just this moment I didn't know that my Exorcising Ghosts has more songs than the CD release. How could anyone justify leaving out the song Swing!!!
I'm actually very happy with the remasters, both Hansa and Virgin. Yes, there's some NR, but it's used fairly sparingly and the earlier CDs used questionable tape sources. I wouldn't recommend 'Secrets Of The Beehive', but everything before that seems okay. The packaging is awkward, though. The Hansa titles come with fairly dumb liner notes and feature annoying and often inappropriate bonus tracks, but they left the singles for 'Assemblage' (and STILL didn't include the original full-length mix of 'Life In Tokyo'!) just to force the fans to buy an extra disc. The box of 'Tin Drum' comes with an odd cover, a photo booklet (Anton Corbijn alert!)and a CD single that duplicates a song for no good reason (plus, like 'Oil On Canvas', it would have all fit on a single disc). I can't comment on 'Oil On Canvas', though. I figured as long as I have the video, there's no reason for just the audio by itself.
If Virgin could justify leaving FOUR songs off 'Gone To Earth', I guess they can justify anything. For some odd reason, Virgin just HATED the idea of 2CD sets.
Is Secrets of The Beehive the finest album of the '80s? Side by side with Spirit of Eden, it just might be!
Anyone get the new Sylvian ep out last week called "Money for All". its a 40+ minute ep of remixes and tracks from his Nine Horses project....
[QUOTE=DJ WILBUR; My only complaint was Oil on Canvas could have fit on 1 cd, but they put it on 2. All the Japan/Sylvian remasters were recently re-released in the UK in normal jewel cases."Oil on Canvas" is now a single disc (with all the same tracks),as is "Tin Drum" (now without the single and photo booklet).
I did get all the remasters for very little on e-bay and I think they are worth it. As some of you here, I was a bit angry that Forbidden Colours had been taken off of Secrets Of The Beehive; such a beautiful song. I also enjoy Everything And Nothing quite a lot. A lot of material from his entire career and including many rare tracks. I was fortunate to see David Sylvian live during his Beehive tour. The music was as good if not better live and we also were graced by the presence of Mark Isham on trumpet. Lovely evening! I still listen to Nine Horses often but have yet to hear Blemish which I've read is meant to be difficult to enjoy as much as the others. Whenever I want to hear the music differently, I can play my Exorcising Ghosts and Oil On Canvas LPs. I see that some new members have posted in this thread. Welcome to the Forum!
The original USA Virgin CD issue of Gone To Earth, even in it's truncated form, KILLS for sound ! ! That opening drum sound on Taking The Veil tells it all and very quickly. I have both the UK vinyl and the USA cd and the CD is CLOSE to the vinyl for that drum sound which to me is a key track in detemining the sonic sound of the mastering. I have't heard any re-issues however so I can't comment.
Sorry to drift off a bit but the Remasters available in Japan are copy protected. Does anyone know if there are any issues with ripping them to iTunes on a Mac etc? Apologies again.
Hi I got into them care of my friends at High School back in the day. The compilation Assemblage covering the Hansa material is good for remixes. I have the albums but on LP currently bar Oil on canvas which I have the original Virgin CD of.
I agree on this. The opening drum sound in great. The "vocal" part of the album is interesting, but that constant "drone" sound ("atmospherics" by Barbieri, a bit like a visual fumato) is not always "friendly", you have to be in that frame of mind. Lots' of noise also, the NoNoise must have been very tempting indeed. I happened to be listening to a copy of the Camphor instrumental compilation lately. A very nice instrumental rendering of Wave on it. Answered prayers and Upon This Earth are also there, in abridged form. It was not on my system so I cannot tell if I prefer Upon This Earth on Camphor (was it remixed? I think so...) But I was surprised hearing Answered prayers: did they speed it up??? 'Sounds crazy, but, the pitch sounds to me much higher.
I just a/b'd my 1988 Japanese Virgin cds of Tin Drum and Gentlemen Take Poloroids with the recent remasters and I have to say, although the remasters are a "tad" louder, they certainly aren't ear-bleeders by any stretch, and are actually quite fantastic. No need to go backwards unless the original vinyl releases are better. I was surprised to learn that the recent digi-pac reissues are oop and gaining in value - they have all been re-reissued in standard jewel cases sans bonus discs and whatever...very affordable, too!
