JAPAN
Quiet Life BMG
Thrilling three-disc reissue casts Japan as decade-defining pioneers.
When Japan were recording Quiet Life at Air Studios, Kate Bush, invited by producer John Punter, sat cross-legged on the floor while he played her the sorrowful, melodramatic six-minute track Despair. “Oh wow,” she said as it faded. “It’s so big, isn’t it?” It was big, but it was also sparse, subdued. Influenced by Bowie’s Low, as was most art rock of the era, Despair described a path Japan would soon stride along. Yet this profoundly melancholy album mainly did its serious young man brooding through throbbing rhythms and exploratory electronica.