1981 – Tin Drum

Still Life in Mobile Homes

‘the importance of individual personality’

The opening track to Side 2 of Japan’s iconic final studio album, Tin Drum, sequenced between the China-influenced ‘Canton’ and ‘Visions of China’, stands alone in the construction of its rhythm track, pointing forward to new ways of working for the band’s drummer, Steve Jansen. ‘Still Life in Mobile Homes’, Steve said, was ‘the only drum track recorded piecemeal on that album.’ (2015)

Asked on his blog site, sleepyard, how Mick Karn and he put together the bass and drums for this particular song, Jansen explained, ‘In general the rhythm part would lead Mick to syncopate his notation to fall on certain beats and we would then work closely on arranging various changes and details. In other examples (such as ‘Sons Of Pioneers’), Mick had written the bass part without a drum pattern and I had to find something suitable. ‘Still Life In Mobile Homes’ is particularly rigid between the bass and drums and this was inspired by technology that was emerging at the time whereby computerised rhythm sections were locked in sync.’ (2017)

Visions of China

‘playing with images’

‘Credit where credit’s due. Yuka brought the first Chinese records home which filled my head with unknown sounds, and it was only a matter of weeks before they were circulated around the band and we were all hooked,’ writes Mick Karn in his book Japan & Self Existence of then girlfriend, Yuka Fujii. ‘I couldn’t get enough of them. It was always exciting to get home and listen to what I’d bought on the strength of the sleeve design alone. The best were the instrumental tracks, for it was the unusual instrumentation that left us wondering at how the absence of guitars, drum kit, synthesisers and anything else familiar, somehow still produced commercially driven music.

Ghosts

‘adventurous and strange’

‘New means change the method; new methods change the experience, and new experiences change man. Whenever we hear sounds we are changed: we are no longer the same after hearing certain sounds, and this is the more the case when we hear organised sounds, sounds organised by another human being: music.’ So said the ground-breaking composer of electronic music, Karlheinz Stockhausen, during a lecture given in London in 1971.

Sons of Pioneers

Collaboration in a band context

Recently I returned to Tin Drum after a long break. I’m not sure why I neglected it, maybe because David Sylvian has often spoken of his work implying that ‘Ghosts’ was the one Japan song truly reflective of his musical journey. Maybe because the literature and websites tend to differentiate between Japan and the solo period as different eras, and lately I’d given much more of my attention to the latter.

REPRESS OF COLOURED VINYLS

OUT NOW FROM LUCRECIA DALT feat. DAVID SYLVIAN

Lucrecia’s new album A Danger to Ourselves is out now. All tracks produced by Lucrecia Dalt & David Sylvian, mixed by David Sylvian.

Sylvian also contributes vocal and feedback guitar to ‘Cosa Rara’ and electric guitar solo for ‘Covenstead Blues’:

Second edition repress of ‘Cosa Rara (feat. David Sylvian)’ with alternative artwork. Note that this vinyl also contains an extended mix of the ‘dopamine dub’ by Matias Aguayo, featuring David Sylvian (i.e. a different version from the first single release):

UPDATES

Further information sometimes comes to light after an article is published. The following pieces have recently been updated with new material:

March 2026
A Fire in the Forest – added quote from David Sylvian about the imagery of the forest fire.
p:Machinery – added quote from Holly Johnson about being around the studio with Propaganda and David Sylvian.
The Ink in the Well – added quote from Anton Corbijn about the video.
Red Guitar – added quote from engineer Peter Williams about introducing Mark Isham to the sessions and recording him for Brilliant Trees. Also added quote from Anton Corbijn about the video.