Live in Japan

David Sylvian & Robert Fripp

Credits

February 1995
laserdisc

Recorded 26 October 1993 at Nakano Sun Plaza, Tokyo

Tracks

Side 1:

God's Monkey 6'18
Brightness Falls 6'23
Every Colour You Are 5'36
Jean the Birdman 3'53
Firepower 6'59
Damage 4'27
Exposure 5'29
Gone to Earth 2'23
20th Century Dreaming 8'29

Side 2:

Wave 5'58
Riverman 4'57
Darshan 10'58
The First Day 5'05
Blinding Light of Heaven 3'49

Notes

A soundboard bootleg of this concert, most likely recorded off the Japanese television broadcast, has been released as A New Dream.

reprinted from Elephant Talk, with author Kirk DeGrasse's permission:

"The performance is outstanding. It is informative to witness this show to realize just what everyone in the band is actually contributing. The easy presumption to make is that Fripp carries the weight of the guitar chores, and while he is the main voice on guitar, there are significant contributions by Michael Brook, David Sylvian and Trey Gunn in this area. I was surprised at how much melody and soundscaping is supplied by Gunn on the stick, in addition to the bassline chores. Sylvian contributes a fair amount of rhythm playing and riffing, and Brook adds some intriguing counterpoint melodies and solos. Pat Mastelotto does a great job with the percussion lines originally laid down on album by Jerry Marotta.

The camera work and editing is for the most part good. You get a good variety of shots of each of the players, and the editing usually focuses on the right person at the right point in the music. What is not good about the camera work is the use on two songs of what I would call the drunk cameraman effect, where the camera is flailed about (or the effect is simulated in post-production) to create a wildly unsteady shot. I suppose the film editor was attempting to add some excitement to the proceedings, since none of the players are flashy in their moves, but it the effect wears very thin with me. There are some interesting segments combining b&w footage with subtle color background images. Interestingly, for a laserdisk recording I was somewhat disappointed in the film quality output; it is not as crisp as I would have expected. It is not bad either - just average.

The show is from the Sylvian/Fripp "Road to Graceland" world tour of 1993, and was recorded October 26, 1993 at the Nakano Sunplaza (in Tokyo I believe).

For those interested in finding a copy, mine is published 1995 by VAP Inc. Tokyo, from the VAP Video Super Rock series, catalog # VPLR-70517. Playing time is 88 minutes.

Those with the Red Phantom bootleg "A New Dream" (sorry Robert) will note that this is supposedly from the same show. If so, the sound mix is quite different; most notably, Michael Brook is featured much higher in the mix. The performance quality ranks with those found on the album "Damage".