New Wave Outpost Forum

The new issue of Electronic Sound magazine (with David Sylvian on the cover) mentions at the end of an article on the early years of Japan that BMG are issuing a deluxe version of Japan's Quiet Life in January 2020.

As this is one of my all time favourite albums I'm rather excited about this, although Japan's reissues have been underwhelming, to put in mildly, in terms of bonus material.

Anyone have any idea what is being planned for this 'deluxe issue'? Hopefully more than just the addition of b-sides and single edits and all 381 (approx.) mixes of Life In Tokyo. Japan are one of the few bands I'd welcome a peak period live set from, but demos, outtakes, alternative takes would be a dream come true.

They would be great news, but many of us would probably want a complete Anthology containing stuff that hasn’t been available before. I think the Japan reissues from 2003 were decent, although some remixes particularly on Assemblage were off. For me Gentlemen Take Polaroids was their epic and should be expanded and reissued if possible. Only time will tell... I’ve already submitted a question on Steve Jansen’s Facebook page asking for more information regarding the supposed QL deluxe. Both David & Steve are not very fond on reminiscing their new wave years I hear, so let’s see if there’s a response.

Long ago I made this list of my own suggested tracklist for a 2-CD:

CD 1
Quiet Life 4.50
Fall in Love with Me 4.30
Despair 5.56
In vogue 6.30
Halloween 4.23
All Tomorrow's Parties 5.43
Alien 4.59
The Other Side of Life 7.23
A Foreign Place 3.14
I Second That Emotion 3.45
Life in Tokyo (long version) 7.08
European Son (Extended) 5.00
Life in Tokyo (ASSEMBLAGE cassette version) 6.18

CD 2
Life in Tokyo (short version) 3.30
Life in Tokyo (part 2) 3.29
European Son (single version) 3.37
Life in Tokyo 3.59 [edit of Assemblage 1979 alternative 6.18 version] (SOUVENIR FROM JAPAN version)
Quiet Life 3.34 [1981 single edit]
All Tomorrow's Parties 4.13 [special Assemblage edit]
Life in Tokyo (Giorgio Moroder 1982 special remix) 3.59
Life in Tokyo (Theme) 3.53
European Son (Steve Nye 1982 single remix) 3.48
I Second That Emotion (Steve Nye 1982 single remix) 3.52
All Tomorrow's Parties (Steve Nye 1983 single remix) 3.32
Life in Tokyo (Giorgio Moroder 1982 extended remix) 7.08
European Son (Steve Nye 1982 extended remix) 5.33
I Second That Emotion (Steve Nye 1982 extended remix) 5.15
All Tomorrow's Parties (Steve Nye 1983 extended remix) 5.15

/DiscogInfo
http://www.discog.info/japan-hansa.html

Isn't all the extra material better suited for a double/triple Assemblage Deluxe Edition?

Yeah, "... Polaroids" was my favourite Japan album, as well. Kind of sucks that the Virgin/EMI era remasters I have are copy-controlled. Need to track down the non-kack editions. I would be okay with the jewel case reissues, but too bad they didn't include "The Art of Parties" CD5 tracks on the jewel case edition. A-holes.

The non copy controlled versions are readily available at least used, I think. Yes an expanded Assemblage would be great. I also have the Japanese 2CD “The Singles” from 1996 which is better than Assemblage but it too has some minor flaws. I guess getting the perfect Japan best of that pleases everyone is out of the question.

What's wrong with the Japanese 2CD “The Singles” from 1996?
It looks very complete for this era.

profil wrote:What's wrong with the Japanese 2CD “The Singles” from 1996?
It looks very complete for this era.

Details here:

http://www.nightporter.co.uk/pages/thesinglesCD.html

Thanks I know about this.
It's by far the best compilation to cover all the different versions of the singles included and accompanying the Quiet Life album:
Quiet Life / All Tomorrow's Parties / Life in Tokyo / European Son / I Second That Emotion

profil wrote:Thanks I know about this.
It's by far the best compilation to cover all the different versions of the singles included and accompanying the Quiet Life album:
Quiet Life / All Tomorrow's Parties / Life in Tokyo / European Son / I Second That Emotion

Figured the few little issues raised in the Nighporter.co.uk entry might account for Omar's reference above to "some minor flaws" - not necessarily anything missing.

Wasn't meant to sound harsh or ignorant.
Appreciate any information or discussion about such a great album.

profil wrote:Wasn't meant to sound harsh or ignorant.
Appreciate any information or discussion about such a great album.

No offence taken!

I love the Singles set, although it is better suited to judicious programming, or just dipping in and out.

For this reason, I think a second disc with Quiet Life, merely replicating part of the Singles compilation, might be disappointing.

Any chance there's a live performance in the archive which might occupy Disc 2 instead?