In an alternate universe British band Japan would have had the pop star success of Duran Duran, and teenagers would have had Mick Karn and Richard Barbieri posters on their bedroom walls. Alas, it was not to be.
Several hits and moody videos gave us the niggling suspicion that this band was less concerned with popularity and more interested in actual music. When they dissolved the various members concentrated on serious music concerns- concertos, art installations, ambient soundscapes, and so on. Leader David Sylvain has enjoyed a long, fruitful career in the visual arts and music. Often teaming with King Crimson wizard Robert Fripp to create sonic experiments. “Secrets of the Beehive” remains both a challenging and strangely compelling pop album.
Now, let me get this out of the way right from the get-go; I believe you can’t make rock n’ roll if you don’t smile and have a laugh. You cannot take it too seriously or it falls flat. I really should not embrace Sylvain because there is barely a hint of a smile in any of his catalouge. Nevertheless, the work digs in under the skin and does what all good rock does- it moves the soul.
The album begins with the sparse minute and a half of “September” with Sylvain at the piano and a tasteful string arrangement from collaborator Ryuichi Sakamoto. Sakamoto adds synths and strings throughout the work building a cohesive sound that almost translates as movements in a symphony. Sylvain’s voice is deep, plaintive, and dead center in this haunting opening, “September’s here again”.
This leads to the dissonant “The Boy with the Gun”, “he knows well his wicked ways”. The subject “points the barrel at the sky….he knows his kingdom’s gone”. David Torn provides angular electric guitar and Sylvain multi-tracks the vocals creating a call-and-response with himself. A long, quiet swirling guitar fade leads to “Maria”. This is one of the most experimental pieces on the record with tape loops pasting organ, guitar, and synths in counter-intuitive ways. Recorded dark laughter in the background and found radio sounds add a creeping dread to the minimal lyrics that seem to barely rise above the music.
A little sunlight breaks through the clouds with “Orpheus”, maybe the first proper “song” on the album. “Orpheus sleeps on his back, still dead to the world”, rolls along with Japan bandmate Steve Jansen on drums, as a full cohort provides slide guitar, piano, and lovely flugelhorn from Mark Isham. “My wings open wide, there’s a beauty here I cannot deny” speaks to the first time some strength and positivity enter into the characters Sylvain explores. “Orpheus keeps to his promise and stays by my side” is one of the key lyrics of the project. All of the songs have been short and after two minutes this track seems to come to an end but then, after a pause, it picks up again as the journey continues with that very strong flugelhorn showing the way. “The Devil’s Own” heads back into dark territory, with Sylvain and Sakamoto both on piano and organ. “The ticking of the clock…the devil beats his drum”, leads to a very British pastoral movement of quiet symphonic sounds but that is a false lead as we circle back to the “Ticking of the clock, surely sunrise won’t be long”.
The song seems to drag us down. Then, unexpectedly, Spanish guitar leads of the wondrous “When Poets Dreamed of Angels”, a highlight in their career of Sylvain. The subject matter is dark indeed, as a woman contemplates the “bruises on her body”. In an unspoken triumph, the music, led by percussion, handclaps, and that beautiful acoustic guitar, takes the female character away and up to escape the wretched circumstances. It is a remarkable two minutes of salvation. “Mother and Child” seems to be a poem with minimal backing mostly led by the double bass until the piano takes over with random clanging sounds that push the lyrics aside. A not altogether successful experiment. The penultimate track is the most successful pop song here, “Let the Happiness In” is a melodic, hook-filled, melancholy masterpiece. Flugelhorn, trumpet, and strings fill up a beautiful piece that has the character “waiting on the empty dock watching the ships roll in” It is a moment captured to great effect as the narrator consciously decides to “let the happiness in”. “Listen to the waves against the rocks, I don’t know where they’ve been” echoes the peaceful, positive thoughts that this song leaves one with.
The closing track, “Waterfront” stays down by those docks but the narrator looks outward instead of inward watching the boys playing and the ships loading. Watching, observing, but somehow staying detached and ultimately, alone. The album comes right back to the lead track “September” as the rain and autumn wrap around the artist. “Somehow, the stigma remains” is an enigmatic last message. “Secrets of the Beehive” is not commercial, it is not edgy, but it is also not background music.
Charlotte County resident Stephen MacKnight works for Anglophone South & Working NB after a decade spent as a music teacher in the school system and twenty-five years in the music retail industry cycling through Sam the Record Man, Records on Wheels and CDPlus. There have been nominations from ECMA’s & Music NB as a band-member and songwriter. Passionate and opinionated about music Stephen loves when anyone wants to have a debate.
