the box (3CDs, vinyl and book) is currently 35.99 euros on Amazon.it, free shipping if you're in Italy. It's #1 bestseller in Italy in the moment, little wonder https://www.amazon.it/Quiet-Life-Ja...coding=UTF8&psc=1&refRID=NSSX0FHHXNRD4W51SX4R
[QUOTE="The 4 tracks from that show were used for the live EP, why would the whole show be an audience recording.[/QUOTE] Steve Jansen believes that they are two different shows, the new one in the box is to believed a audience recording and from 16 march 1980.
…and sold out 14 hours later. Love this album tremendously but this is all just too difficult and expensive for me to care. I don't care about having an LP of this any more. I disrespect vinyl+CD boxes as exploitative. I'm fine with my 1st pressing Japanese CD of the album. I made my own box of rarities a decade ago that serves me well enough. I have all but the "correct pitch" mix of "Life In Tokyo" and I've lived thus far. And having a cleaned up bootleg of a show from this era does not inspire a three figure investment. For someone who does not have all of the JAPAN resources I have in my Record Cell, the call is different. They would do well to get this game-changing album of delightful despair. They might rope me into a GTP box since that is my ultimate JAPAN album and period. If they had the fulll unedited BBC Hammersmith concert then it would be a shoo-in for me.
Yes indeed. I'm not liked on the forum for holding this view, but generally speaking box sets are becoming more and more expensive and when you add up the contents its baffling how they ended up with that figure. King Crimson recently released a 26 disc edition of some of their work for £145. That's 20CD's, 4Blu-Rays, 1DVD and 1DVD-A that include a new Dolby Atmos mix by Steven Wilson, and then the entire kitchen sink of output from 1969. Forgetting the box and booklet it comes with, that's about £5.57 for a disc. It shows probably a lot about King Crimsons involvement that they made this happen and didn't feel the need to fleece anyone. Compare that to Zappa's Hot Rats Session boxset for £120 with 6CD's in it, or Prince's SOTT box with 9 discs for £145, you get to see that not all things are equal, and its about your choice and if you think it offers some sort of value from it. You've probably made the right call there.
Fleecing is not necessarily a cut and dried example of the artist squeezing the fans. A significant part of the pricing is also down to the owner of the recording [usually the label] charging high rates to whomever wants to license the material. Often the band itself has onerous rates charged to release its own material if they are not the owner of the recording and wish to reissue it. Bill Nelson had to apply to Sony for a license to release his own "Getting The Holy Ghost Across" album on CD for the first time and on his own, he could afford only a license to produce x number of copies. Within the first six months of the CD getting issued, it was quickly OOP and commanding a resale value I could not afford of nearly three figures. Gary Numan wanted to release a DVD of his videos ["Machine Music"] and TV performances. Because he wanted his [classic] Saturday Night Live performance on it, the owner of that performance [Broadway Video] charged him a very high rate and he could afford to make 2000 copies only. The lower the number, the higher the per unit rate charged, generally. And all of the pricing is per unit manufactured for a physical release. The rate is not tied to the number of sales, only manufacture. It might cost $3000 for a license to make 1000 CDs. The rate might improve with a $6000 license to make 3000 CDs but then the artist would have to shoulder a larger risk with 3x the number of CDs to sell in an unsure market. The label is making the vast majority of its money by doing as little as possible [streaming] so they often price licensing to discourage it from happening. King Crimson come out smelling like roses in spite of Robert Fripp's self mocking, celebrated avarice simply because they are the undisputed owner of all of that material. Hence, the relatively low per unit cost to turn what they see as a healthy profit. Plus, they have built up a close relationship with their market over the last 25 years and can gauge its responses very well.
If you compare anything to what Parlophone/Rhino/Dig! are doing with Bowie, it doesn't seem bad at all. That is the low benchmark, everything else seems good in comparison. We don't have to buy the box separately or pay postage for each disc. And it didn't sell out within the first 20 minutes (sorry - it's a sore point). BTW - would deff buy your Bento .
For as good as the half-speed version of Gentlemen Take Polaroids sounds, is anyone else disappointed that that album wasn’t given a box set after reading the details for this one? Granted, I’m sure it would’ve been more difficult to pad out with alternate versions etc, but surely there are some good rarities/live recordings kicking around that they could’ve included.
Link to another UK supplier of the red vinyl release Japan - Quiet Life (remastered limited red LP) PRE-ORDER
I am hesitant if the live disc is indeed an audience recording. I was most looking forward to that one. If the live EP tracks are from a soundboard from a different show, why didn't they use that? Tapes lost?
Okay, I got my pre-order in. This is my favorite band and I don't want to miss out on this. I hope the sound is decent on the live disc.
Well, yes, obviously if I think it's good! I first heard it in late 2019, I think and it is me that uploaded the acetate entry on to Discogs. Additionally, I created the tracklist for CD2 of the box, did a bit of audio restoration on one track and sourced the live recording. So I've had a bit of input! Also Jansen is wrong: the EP live tracks & the full recording are from the same show: the dates are confused, that's all. The whole gig masters that John Punter used for the original EP no longer exist (some of the ones he three away a few years ago) and so the full gig recording had to be sourced separately.
[QUOTE=" and so the full gig recording had to be sourced separately.[/QUOTE] Was that source the audience recordings do you know? Or a soundboard?
Too bad about the lost live masters. I will await reviews of the live disc, before pulling the trigger on this. If I miss out completely, then so be it. I will live, I have my original vinyl and the 2006 CD.
I'm a big fan of the band, sylvian and this particular release, but after all the discussion and my own consideration I cancelled the official store order at 71 pounds and just went with the amazon box set ordered at 49.99 and no postage costs. I think as many others said that I can probably live without those multiple life in tokyos. Especially as I pulled out my music on vinyl copy and found it had 4 of them already and more are on various cds I have bought historically!
Was that source the audience recordings do you know? Or a soundboard?[/QUOTE] It's a radio broadcast but - as was common with other radio broadcasts at the time - was recorded within the crowd in the auditorium. Other shows by e.g. YMO were also recorded in this manner.
I found some bits hidden at the back of my album collection tonight, thought it might interest some of you - it has the bands view on their albums. Mick is far more optimistic overall, Dave only has good things to say overall about Quiet Life.
What's always worth noting with Japan and the albums is they recorded them all in 4 years or less (AS was 77 and TD was 81). By today's standards that is a huge amount of stylistic change!
Not just a stylistic change but a clear progression of quality and musicianship resulting in the near flawless Tin Drum. I remember first hearing TD and thinking where are the tunes, it grew on me and it's been one of my favourites since then.
Sylvian was briefly active on Twitter yesterday, saying he chose not to be involved in the QL reissue, but adding that some non-approved material suggested had been rejected. It was put in an odd way. Again he said that he doesn’t like looking back and has no particular fondness for his past work. Nothing new really.
