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 A massive thankyou to everyone who came to the Nightporter Club Night at The London Stone in August - it was an amazing night, with a great turnout, fun atmosphere and best of all it managed to pay for itself! A set of photos will be added to the site soon, but many can be found on Facebook (if you are a member email me) and also in the Photo Gallery of the Yahoo! Group. I must thank Sarah, Tom and all of the DJs for their hard work. There will be another club night, in late Winter or early Spring 2010 - just in time to celebrate the 30th anniversary Japan's "Quiet Life" album and tour. I am also planning to hold a YMO Night in 2010, to play more Japanese technopop, electronic music and synthpop. More details will be posted here in due course. Porcupine Tree update from Richard Barbieri: Porcupine Tree will play 2 special shows to close the Incident tour cycle, one in the UK and one in the US. The UK show is now confirmed to take place at the Royal Albert Hall in London on 14th October 2010. These shows will be evening-with concerts with PT playing an extended set - although we can't tell you exactly what the evening will hold at this moment, the band are planning some very special things that will make these 2 shows unique experiences for everyone. Tickets for the Royal Albert Hall show will be on sale from 29th December, but please note that the bands are also putting together a special VIP package for Residents of a Blank Planet members - more news on this soon, as well as confirmation of date and location of the US show. New Mick Karn album "The Concrete Twin", Bowie cover "Ashes To Ashes" and book! Mick's new album "The Concrete Twin" is available now for download and will be out on CD in January 2010. It includes 10 brand new tracks, more information and download available from Mick's website. My favourite track on the album is "Antisocial Again?", which tells its story through music and sound effects - love it! The release of the David Bowie tribute album on Warchild featuring Mick's cover of "Ashes To Ashes" has been postponed until February 2010 due to some of the artists schedules not permitting an earlier release. Featured artists will include Radiohead, Carla Bruni and Charlotte Gainsbourg. Mick's autobiography "Japan & Self Existence" is available by mail order from Lulu and is a must buy for any Japan or Mick Karn fan. While this website gives you facts and figures about Japan's releases, Mick's book tells you about what life was like as a member of the group, revealing inside information about the recordings, life on the road, the good and the bad times. Mick is very open about his own life; his girlfriends and wives, his depression, money troubles, passions and hatreds. Although sometimes brutal, the book includes plenty of amusing anecdotes and chapters featuring characters such as David Torn, Gavin Harrison and John Punter will make you smile. If you want to know more about Mick's bass playing, his sculpture, solo recordings, work with Steve, Rich and Dalis Car - it's all there. Oh, and Mick also shares fascinating photos with us the likes of which you will never have seen before (unless you were a member of Japan) - BUY IT BUY IT BUY IT! Hi Paul, Richard Baribieri touring with Porcupine Tree, BRILLIANT chart album "The Incident"! More information about Rich's activities as a member of Porcupine Tree is available at their official site. Also, visit Richard's own site to hear some exclusive sounds! "The Incident" is the best album yet from Porcupine Tree and I highly recommend it. In parts sounding like Rain Tree Crow, but offering everything from hard rock to the most beautiful of ballads, it is a very accessible, exciting and engaging work. I can safely say it is one of my favourite post-Japan albums and it just gets better and better with repeated listens. Congratulations to Rich and The Porcupine Tree on the album's chart success in the UK! David Sylvian "Manafon" out now & magazine giveaway track "Jacqueline". The new album from David Sylvian is out now on CD and download. A deluxe CD/DVD and book set was available for pre-order from SamadhiSound but has now sold out. David had a new song called "Jacqueline" on the August cover CD of the US magazine "Believer". This song, not included on the album "Manafon", is one David plans to record fully for future release on his own label. More information over at davidsylvian.com Steve Jansen news A live recording of Steve Jansen in concert in Japan, called "The Occurrence Of Slope" is now available for download from Steve's website. "recorded in tokyo in february 2008 this release features performances from jansen, (drums & keyboards), keigo oyamada - aka cornelius (gtrs), masakatsu takagi (piano & keyboards) and a string quartet led by seigen tokuzawa, and includes the entire music from 'slope' plus a live rendition of the 24 minute ambient piece 'ascent' (part of a series of works entitled 'swimming in qualia'). also included is the opening and closing music composed by jansen, as well as track segues only available previously on the dvd. the download is also bundled with credit sheets designed by chris bigg." Steve also contributes to recent album releases by Yukihiro Takahashi and John Foxx. More details at Steve's news site Yukihiro Takahashi has also just released a remastered and expanded version of his live album "A Night In The Next Life" in Japan which features Steve on drums and vocals. The show was recorded in 1991. New Japan compilation CD out in the UK "The Collection" (27th July), for completists only. Completists might be interested in this collection which features "Ghosts", "Visions Of China", "Quiet Life" (1981 single version) and "Life In Tokyo" (two versions including the one from the cassette of "Assemblage"). Nothing previously unreleased is included, but a couple of tracks are not available on the album CDs or Virgin's "The Very Best of Japan". This CD retails at between £3.99 and £5.99. Curiously, a mastering error has been made with "Halloween" which is obvious during the opening drums - this seems to be the compilers have used the "In Vogue" (1996) compilation master which only uses one side of the stereo field. It sounds shit, basically. Must try harder BMG! News from Japan Masami Tsuchiya is currently a member of Japanese rock "supergroup" Vitamin Q alongside Kazuhiko Kato (ex-Sadistic Mika Band), Ray Ohara (ex-Sadistic Mika Band), Gota Yashiki (ex-Melon) and vocalist Anza. Lots of information, sounds and pictures at their official site Sandii has released a new album "Kabira" as SandiiBunBun - it is an experimental album with etherial, airy vocals, bells, soft drums and electronics - a very unusual sound but somewhat similar to early Sunsetz material in places. Sandii is planning live shows at present with her Hula school and also with Bun. Ryuichi Sakamoto is touring worldwide for the rest of 2009, hitting the UK in November, before returning to Japan in mid-December for a joint tour with Taeko Ohnuki, who he has worked with on and off since 1976. |
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