日本

October 14, 2010 5:53 AM


By chance I came upon this band from the 80s that I had forgotten - Japan.

The bassist, Mick Karn, seems to be in distress.



posted by Zenabi (7 comments total)

Mick Karn

This is not a shill.

This is just something I happened upon.
posted by Zenabi at 5:56 AM on October 14, 2010


Don't quite get what you mean re Karn being in distress? Japan were one of my favourite bands of the 80's (Quiet Life was a great album - "Alien" etc) and David Sylvian is someone who's work I greatly respect and like. Unfortunately they were marketed as a sort of teen-band and weren't perhaps taken as seriously as they deserved. They were actually good musicians not afraid to experiment. Bloody good band actually. And although Karn was arguably derivative of Jaco Pastorius and other "electric" jazz bassists, he did a lot to popularise the instrument, and I'm very fond of is playing. Check out his work on "I Second That Emotion" for instance or on several tracks on "Quiet Life". Magic.
posted by MajorDundee at 1:58 PM on October 14, 2010


Hey MD, it says in the wiki that he's suffering dying with cancer. Poor guy, here's wishing the best to him. I hope hope he's getting plenty of pain meds.
posted by snsranch at 4:26 PM on October 14, 2010


Thanks for that sns. Sad news indeed. Good luck to him. Oddly enough I was in his home country (Cyprus) only a few weeks ago and I didn't know he'd returned to live there again.
posted by MajorDundee at 11:32 AM on October 15, 2010


i think Karn was actually way more influenced by the great Percy Jones. there's not much Pastorius in there thankfully. apparently he's back in London now, having raised some money for treatment - a tribute album is just out too. i wish him well - one of my favourite electric bassists...
posted by peterkins at 12:13 PM on October 16, 2010


I'm not going to bite on the "thankfully" part of that P! You're quite right re Percy Jones now I think about it. Nevertheless, I think Karn did bring that sound to the masses.
posted by MajorDundee at 1:08 PM on October 18, 2010


I'm not going to bite on the "thankfully" part of that P!

aw, go on...:-)
posted by peterkins at 4:32 PM on October 18, 2010


« Older Writing For Another Voice   |   Mad Scientist Voice Newer »

You are not logged in, either login or create an account to post comments