Ex-Japan members: David Sylvian or Mick Karn (Mick Karn RIP)

Mick Karn has been diagnosed with cancer

http://www.mickkarn.net/

Apologies, has been posted on another thread already. I hadn't found it at first. ( Fretless bass playing + Japan/Mick Karn/Percy Jones/Ippu-Do/Masami Tsuchiya/YMO/Ryuichi Sakomoto/Bill Nelson )

Mick Karn made an album with Peter Murphy, (Dali's Car) so I'm going with him.

And guess what:

http://twitter.com/petermurphyinfo/status/22551651474

Word of a fundraiser/tribute album:

http://councilpartners.com/atributetomickkarn/index.html

RIP

He was one of the best, RIP.

Aaah man. Even though everything I read about this said it was really bad I was still hoping the guy would pull through. RIP, who now is as good and distinctive a musician as Karn was? Not many.

Ah crap. So sad he lost the fight.

Can instantly recognize him in any recording he's on, and I know nothing about bass players. RIP.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=WhC8LnFd2LE

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=m8WNeb_Lg9A

His one off album appearance with Gary Numan on Dance had plenty of keepers -- this one pretty much predicted Dalis Car:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=B5UVIiXM_HY

"visions of china" was the first thing that came to mind when i heard. RIP

Oh man, very sad about this. One of my all-time favourite bass players, such a shame he didn't pull through. RIP Mick.

so sad. F U Cancer!!!

RIP.

RIP (even though I only know his Japan stuff, never knew what was worth checking out after that)

Really sad news... Such a distinctive bass player...

RIP...

StanM - the Dalis Car album is worth a listen

actually that undersells it, it's a good album

Thank you for the tip, will listen.

In fact a lot of his later solo stuff is excellent, esp if you like noodly kinds of work.

This is devastating news for me, for many very personal reasons this man was my greatest hero and inspiration. He visited me in a vivid dream once and taught me how to find my inner creativity (srsly) and if affected me for months. I'm shattered by the loss.

That is intense, Trayce!

It was! He came up to me, in a gallery surrounded by his own sculptures, laid a hand on my head and looked me in the eye with this... energy.

Later in the dream he showed me he was able to turn into a bird. When I asked him how would I know which bird he was among all the others, when I needed him, he said "I will come and tap on the glass of your window, and you will know it is me. You'll just know".

It.... changed me. It was very weird. I'd not thought at all about him for years til that happened.

Wow.

So as you can imagine I'm deeply affected by this sad loss :( Such a brilliant man.

One could put together an excellent sampler from his solo work, but I never bought into the multi-tracked woodwinds playing lugubrious chords that he was fond of. His (like Jansen and Barbieri) drifted into the neo-prog world by the mid 90s, and the only original album from that era I really loved (I owned most) was his drum n'bass collaboration with with Yoshihiro Hanno from 1998 entitled Liquid Glass.

booooo fuk u mortality

RIP

I liked "Each Eye a Path", especially "Venus Monkey" which is a really evocative track. Some stuff on "Bestial Cluster" also good - it is indeed neo-prog and noodly in places though.

Heigh ho, he weared it well....

Horrible news. RIP :(

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=35trBS-LWok

Jesus, so sad....Van Vliet/Gerry Rafferty/Mick Karn. Let's hope it stops at a horrid three
BTW, Did Sylvian gip the other band mates out of $? Said that in the you tube comments, that would make me even more sad.

it's odd because I woke up this morning with two songs knocking around my head, Moonchild and the Art of Parties. Hopefully that doesn't mean Fripp is going to kick off today too.

This is sad, I know Karn's fretless bass went out of style there for a while but it is a sound I adore.

dreams of reason produce monsters was a good record.

(well except for that one song)

His best work outside of Japan was Dalis Car (which is fantastic, not merely good), Rain Tree Crow (the Japan reunion in all but name), "Beginning To Melt" and the "Seed" EP with Jansen & Barbieri and his solo albums "Dreams Of Reason Produce Monsters" and "Bestial Cluster". I've heard much of his other material and collaborations and it's all fine but not as immediate or lasting as the things I just listed.

I hesitate to say we'll never hear another like him but it doesn't seem like a fretless bass revival is upcoming.

Ah yes, "Beginning to Melt" is fabulous, that got me back into his work actually. I had a vinyl copy of "Titles" when it came out too but lost it/gave it away and I greatly regret that now.

RIP ;_;

I wonder if anything of this will see the light of day

petermurphyinfo Peter Murphy
I wil be working with Mick Karn on our second Dali's Car Albumin september. It a pleasure to announce
30 Aug Favorite Retweet Reply

I hesitate to say we'll never hear another like him but it doesn't seem like a fretless bass revival is upcoming.

And the other master of the fretless bass is already gone.

do you mean Jaco Pastorius?

Pino is still alive, so I guess he does mean Jaco.

Blasted this really loud in the car yesterday:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=G8Gqqb3IPmU

Probably not his most strikingly er archetypal (?) playing, but a great number nevertheless and one of my favourites.

apart from the guy's great fretless-styings, his timing was great, he was a rock.

I remember the slating that the Dali's Car album got when it came out, oh no it's "pretentious", "arch", w/e. Took me a few years to catch up with it and realise it was great. Screw those guys, fucking yahoos.

Just heard about this, really sad news. If I ever want to hear incredible bass lines I always go for Chic or Japan.

http://www.nytimes.com/2011/01/06/arts/music/06karn.html?_r=1&src=twrhp

I feel like this one is missing in this thread. Perhaps Mick Karn's best ever moment as an instrumentalist, at least during his Japan years:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=VxQoB7vEvYU

good one, Geir--you're right on there

Rob Dean is definitely the most accessible former member of Japan; I've seen him involved in the FB fan community and he's friends with at least one fellow member of Team Mick Karn, my friend Angie. He seems to be living a happy, satisfying life in Costa Rica these days, but I still wish he'd been involved with the Rain Tree Crow project. And I have definitely seen that performance of "Swing" and agree with you wholeheartedly about Dean's guitar playing in that.

Costa Rica, eh!? What a poor, tortured soul! :D

Is there anyone going who sounds even remotely like Mick?

*checking to see if Percy Jones is still alive*

Percy Jones was an influence on Karn's playing, true, but even Jones himself admits that Karn took those influences and created something of his own from it.

Q: I want to go in another direction, and bring up a few other names. When I think of somebody that might sound sort of similar to you, I think of Mick Karn. Do you know Mick?

Percy Jones: Yeah, I met him in Japan some years ago. He and Richard Barbieri were in Japan (the band) together. Yeah, I can hear some similarities. He even came out and said I was an influence on him, which was very flattering. But what he's done is taken something and turned it into a whole thing of his own. He's distinctive. I mean everybody takes something, influences from other people. I was influenced by Mingus and took things from him. You use other people for inspiration, and they're usually a bit older than you. You tend to go through that in your younger years. You take in all this stuff, and turn it into something that is more "you", and I think that's what he's done. I like a lot of his work, what I've heard.

There was a Japan record called "Tin Drum", which was pretty much pop music, but it was good work; different. I thought the rhythm section stuff was interesting, and Richard Barbieri's sonic approach was interesting. Very advanced at the time, which was 20 years ago. I also heard a track from one of Mick Karn's solo records, just in passing, somebody played it for me. I can't remember exactly what it was, but I liked it. I think it might've been from "Dali's Car".

Not much discussion on ILM of Richard Barbieri's solo work. I'm listening to "Things Buried" for the first time and quite like it, a bit of a merger of Rain Tree Crow instrumentals but a bit more prog at times.

I heard a track from his latest, "Under A Spell" which I'll listen to next as I heard a track on local college radio and it was great.

i like jansen / barbieri worlds in a small room a lot ... it was recorded in tokyo in the mid-80s and has that youtubecore / algo-ambient vibe that is currently popular

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=9dIbYcXXpnw

not familiar w/ barbieri's solo work but i enjoyed this recent vid where he demonstrates some tin drum style synth timbres on a nord lead

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=uO91uLBsx5w

Pretty sure Things Buried used to be on Spotify – there are a couple of tracks from it on the Introduction release from a few years ago. I have one of his records kicking around on my iTunes but I haven’t spent too much time with it.

Barbieri is an incredible texturalist – his work in Japan, obv., but also RTC and the duos with Jansen are excellent. He has this way with evolving pads and melodic lines I find super listenable and pretty unique. You can see why folks like Porcupine Tree have come to him over the years.

As a composer I’m less sold as the solo stuff proper I’ve heard often feels a bit like slightly noodly trip hoppy prog. I will give it another shot tho.

Worlds in a Small Room manages to be intimate, unobtrusive and melodic all at the same time, the palette of sounds they use are very warm.

Agree -- that's a good'n.

(which I note that missingNO had mentioned earlier)

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ds8sVhxdvfA

Not a Rick Roll

Rick should be glad that Mick didn't do his crabwalk move and steal the show.

Speaking of Rick, check his first choice here https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=eS2sGGE_pDU