When i first bought my first CD player I snagged a few expensive CD's at the time and Japan's Oil On Canvass was one of them ! And what a dissapointment it was. The original CD version was very blah and muted sounding and I found that over time I didnt enjoy listening to this album! I traded the CD in a long long time ago and only recently picked up the original 2 LP set which is waaaaaaaaay better! ....in fact so much so that you would think it was the same album!
Oil On Canvass is taken from their world tour back in 1983 and I think was also the ending of Japan so it kind of a key album as a swan song. Now that I can finally really hear this treasure I have discovered that not all the songs are live with both "Gentlemen Take Polaroids" and "Nightporter" being studio remixes. So I guess 13 out of the 15 tracks are live and two are not. "Methods of dance" live sounds amazing on the vinyl mix and now I know what I missed with the CD all these years.
On this live album Japan were David Sylvian (vocals, keyboards), Mick Karn (bass, clarinet, alto saxophone, vocals), Steve Jansen (drums, marimba), Porcupine Tree's Richard Barbieri (keyboards) and Masami Tsuchiya (guitars).
Most of the music is lifted off the Quiet life, gentlemen take polaroids and tin drum albums. Japan were always an acquired taste I suppose but they were a band I love right from the early days. David sylvian live sounds just excellent and no question they were a special band.
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