David Sylvian, Mick Karn, Richard Barbieri and Steve Jansen and on this album, guest guitarist from the country Japan is Masami Tsuchiya. Not to be confused with the name of the band, which is Japan. I loathe groups that name themselves after countries, cities or even states, but Japan is a different type of category. As mentioned before in other of my writings, I have always felt Japan were influenced by Roxy Music, if not in style, in the music adventuresome of the Eno era of that band. What I first thought was imitation, it eventually turns into originality. I can't think of another group at the moment that had that odd journey to me. I fell in love with Japan because of Mick Karn's darkened eyes and David Sylvian's mixture of preppy clothing and makeup. Japan physically and musically changed in a rapid process from glam rock guys after that movement to a more spiritual and at times, border on a New Age aesthetic. Sylvian and company have the good taste to go to the root of their obsessions. Joseph Beuys, Jean Cocteau, Erik Satie, and a Westerner's fascination with the Asian East. That, in a nutshell, is Japan.
One thing Japan never was, is an overnight sensation. With the assistance from their (brilliant memoirist) Simon Napier-Bell, he engineered their changes and a darker melancholy into a salable hit in England and oddly enough, in Japan. The band at the end of their career as a group worked out a sound that was minimal and ambient but still had a funk rhythm, with Sylvian sad sounding vocalizing. The combination was hard for me to avoid, and I ended up purchasing not only their original albums but also all the 12" remixes and the very few b-sides. "Oil On Canvas" was the last official release from Japan, and it's a live album.
For the tour, they brought in Masami Tsuchiya, who was at the time, in a band called Ippu-do. At the time that band sounded like a combination of Bill Nelson and Japan, so his guitar work, as well as his aesthetic (makeup), fitted perfectly in the Japan format and sound. It's a shame that he never became a permanent band member for recordings. Still, this is a live album that is not a museum nor a document of a live show. Among the live recordings are three studio pieces. "Oil on Canvas" (composed and performed by Sylvian, and very Satie sounding), "Voices Raised In Welcome, Hands Held in Prayer" (composed and performed by Sylvian and Jansen) and to finish off the album "Temple of Dawn" composed and performed by Barbieri. It's interesting that these instrumentals are placed in the beginning, the end of side two, and the last is the finishing track on side 4. All of them frame the live material in the sense that these pieces expose the musicians' interest and future, while the rest of the album is very much like the studio recordings. The riffs are longer, and the songs are stretched out, but not that far from the studio work. So like "Oil on Canvas" as you mix paint, it becomes something new or an added texture. I think Japan was of that opinion in that line of thought as well. I don't feel this album is a product but in actuality a statement of sorts. The great painter, Frank Auerbach's work, is on the cover, and he's known for his portraits that merge from massive paint strokes.
The classic Japan sound is really two instruments up front. That is David Sylvian's voice and Mick Karn's fretless bass. The rest of the instrumentation backs up those two sounds, and this is what makes Japan so unique and wonderful.
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