Bulldog

As in a thread on his post-Japan work (all that deserves a thread of its own). Anyway, fess up, who else is a fan? I don't think I've seen this guy mentioned around here by members other than my good self, so it'd be nice to know I'm not totally out on a limb here!

Anyway, this man, the former lead singer of Japan, has his fingers in a lot of stylistic pies so to speak, such to the extent that I couldn't really think where to put this thread at first. The albums of his that I've heard incorporate jazz, new wave, ambient and even the odd dash of folk, but when it comes to sticking labels on the guy's work, avante-garde is the one that comes up most often, so this'll have to do (at least for now).

The discography as a whole (whether or not we're talking about his work with Japan as well) is pretty bloody vast, as not only are there scores of bona fide solo albums to David Sylvian's name, but also a host of collaborations with the likes of Ryuichi Sakamoto, Holger Czukay and Robert Fripp. As far as my collection goes, I can only account for a few of the solo albums myself. In a nutshell, these are my two favourites of his solo albums...


...and that's not accounting for the other little gems in back-catalogue like Dead Bees On a Cake and his latest, very jazzy and avante-garde offering, Manafon (one of my favourites of 2009). Anyway, anyone who's wondering what the hell I'm on about, have some sneakily-hotlinked songs...


As for me, I've gotta get back to work pretty soonish, so I guess I'm finished.

Urban Hat€monger ?

Only heard Secrets Of The Beehive.
I seem to remember thinking it was ok, don't remember anything standing out though.

Pretty sure I have one of his collaborations too somewhere although I can't remember who with.

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Bulldog

I remember rediscovering that album about a month back and going through this phase of playing it something like 5 times a day. It's the man's voice that sets the whole thing apart for me.

Brilliant Trees is a lot jazzier and well worth a shot too. His reunion album with Japan under the Rain Tree Crow moniker's probably my favourite that I've heard him singing on. As I say, I've still got bucketloads of his albums to get hold of myself though.

Forgot to say in the OP, if anyone's up for links, feel free to drop me a PM and I'll rustle one up...

jackhammer

I still have yet to hear a Japan album in full Where to start before I give his solo stuff a listen?

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Bulldog

Gentlemen Take Polaroids and Quiet Life are the Japan albums I've got, and both are pretty fantastic. I've heard good things about Tin Drum before as well, but I'm yet to get that myself so couldn't tell you much about it. Rain Tree Crow is technically a Japan album too, and as I said earlier it's probably my favourite album with Sylvian's name on it, but you might wanna start with the earlier stuff first. I'll see if I can hook you up with a link or two soonish if you like.

right-track

Tin Drum is a must listen.
Also, a thread about David Sylvian shouldn't exist without a mention of Japan bassist Mick Karn. Equally, if not more talented.

Bulldog

Yeah, LastFM keeps recommending me his solo work. I'll definitely snoop around some blogs for what I can find when I've got a bit more spare time later in the week. No doubt I'll be coming back to this thread and hailing whatever I find as a classic pretty soon after

Screen13

This reminds me to dig out that vinyl again. I bought Tin Drum a long time back and found it to be a very good listen.

I also agree that Karn is, was, and always will be one of the best influences on Bass playing ever. I'm not a big fan of the Dali's Car album besides a couple of tracks, but it's the Bass playing that saved it.

I have to get into Sylvian's work more to fully join in this thread, but I will admit what I have heard from his earlier solo albums has been very good and well worth checking out.

Bulldog

I have absolutely no idea how it charted either side of the Atlantic, but a lot of us may have heard this merry little ditty from Sylvian before...



At least I think it's one of his more popular songs anyway.

Either way, as I say, Brilliant Trees and Secrets Of the Beehive (the latter being one of the addictive albums I've ever heard) are where it's at for me regarding the man's solo work. As I say though, there's a lot of the stuff I don't have, so I'll probably be coming back to this thread over time once I've got some more albums.

Screen13

Sadly, I think that the only time anything Sylvian related made any charts in the States was a brief time in the Bubbling Under chart with Epic's collection of songs and that was about all I think.