JAPAN, SABS & MORE!
Japan are one of those groups that people seem either to love or to hate. Spin Cycle falls into the former category… always has, ever since a first sighting of the band around 1977 inspired hopes of a wholesale glam rock revival. Which, in truth, Japan themselves swiftly disavowed. But Quiet Life, their 1979 third album, quite possibly remains the dusty old genre’s final glorious fling, at the same time as signposting the directions in which Japan were set to move.
You can hear ambition straining its sinews, not only in their own material, but also across their cover of the Velvets’ “All Tomorrow’s Parties,” probing electronics and keyboards echoing out around a building beat and defying any chance of recognition until finally, almost a minute in, David Sylvian gives the game away with the familiar first line.
