from the LP Adolescent Sex, Ariola Hansa Records, 1978It’s always difficult to try picking apart why one band’s brilliance can make them superstars, while another’s complex intellect and vision dooms them to the sidelines; in the case of Japan, who formed a few years before the punk situation but didn’t release their first album until a few years after, I don’t think the critics ever really knew what to do with them initially. Their time sweating it out on the club circuit served these guys very well: the rhythm section of Mick Karn (bass) and Steve Jansen (drums) are tight as fuck here, Rob Dean wails on guitar and Rich Barbieri adds just the right touch of keys & electronics. Singer and primary songwriter David Sylvain is an unsung hero, too smart and artistic for his own good probably, but a sharp genius no less when he croons, “…they throw shit in your face, and you still come up smiling; you've got nothing to believe in, the diverse, the young and the breathing…but it's all you want, all you want…nocturnal television, your fucking television…”
