Japan: Quiet Life - 1979

It was really here that the über-cool Japan image made itself known, both in the music and in David Sylvian's image. 

It was here, on the excellent title track, that the David Bowie/second phase Roxy Music/Bryan Ferry influence on the group and their subsequent effect on Duran Duran could be heard - and how. Good Lord above, those rubbery bass lines are sensational. This sound was a real ground-breaking one for the upcoming new romantic music, it paved the way for a whole sub-genre. 

Quiet Life is a sonorous, thumping sort of New Romantic meets David Bowie number. It has echoes of Bowie's Boys Keep Swinging in its "Boys" refrain and the beat-guitar chops-keyboard swirls are straight out of the Duran Duran-Ultravox songbook. Both of those groups must surely have listened to this in 1979 when it was released. Its influence on both of them is clear to hear. 

A wonderful song for Japan to cover was The Velvet Underground & Nico's beguiling All Tomorrow's Parties. They do it justice - full of early Roxy Music saxophones and Bowie-esque instrumentation and a mysterious vocal. Once more, the bass line is delicious. Halloween has an archetypal early eighties feel to it and get a load of the gloriously mellifluous bassline and overall haunting ambience of the once more Ferry-esque In Vogue, which is a truly wonderful track that seemingly lasts forever without palling. 

Alien is slow, mysterious and very post punk noir in feel, Duran must have taken the guitar riff for Girls On Film too. The Other Side Of Life is drawn out and moody, however, both these tracks being a bit at odds with the general feel of the album. They are chock full of atmosphere, though, way ahead of their time. 

Even the slightly punkier tracks like Fall In Love With Me have lost their harsh, grating edge and become warm, lush and slick - the sound of the wine bar. Check out the late-night vibe of the beautiful Despair as Sylvian croons in French. Yes, the previous two albums had their moments, but this now sounds totally different class. What an album it really was.

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