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In modern recorded music there has always been a section of sheer pop marketed to the masses. Every year we are shown beautiful faces that are soon lost in next years' tide of the new. While some of the music might be catchy, it's sadly just a part of a wider culture based on surface sheen. Only a handful of individuals born of this world have been able to break away and redefine themselves as true artists, listening only to their muse instead of the bottom line or the fashion of the times. In 1982, British tabloids ran headlines featuring David Sylvian as "the most beautiful man in all of Britain." A scant 5 years later, he would alienate the fans he had gained as the lead singer of the glam/early electronic band Japan. He was to do so by creating a work that was only about music, only about lyrics with such depth, complexity, and texture, that it remains a complete 'must hear.' Secrets of the Beehive is an album unlike any before or since. The album features string arrangements and piano by Ryuichi Sakamoto, guitar work by David Torn, and flugelhorn and trumpet played by Mark Isham. Sylvian assembled his band in the same tradition of Miles Davis, allowing his collaborators to color and shape his work without allowing his own voice to be overwhelmed. The lyrics are nothing less then breathtaking—a combination of dark, brooding, and redemptive, all sung in a whisper, deep and resonant in a quality unlike anything in Western music. The stand out single from the album, "Orpheus," may be the most powerful thing to come from the British Isles since Nick Drake's "Northern Sky." With packaging by 4AD hallmark Vaughn Oliver and photography by Nigel Grierson, the whole thing is quite an object d'art as well. It's the perfect album for an overcast day inside. For more information on David Sylvian, please go to the definitive website for him: www.weatherbox.com
--Joseph Buck (email)
Buy or Hear It Now...
Tracks:
1. September
2. The Boy With the Gun
3. Maria
4. Orpheus
5. The Devil's Own
6. When Poets Dreamed Of Angels
7. Mother and Child
8. Let The Happiness In
9. Waterfront
Players:
Ann Odell - String Arrangements
Brian Gascoigne - Orchestration, String Arrangements
Steve Jansen - Percussion, Drums
Phil Palmer - Guitar (Acoustic), Slide Guitar
Ryuichi Sakamoto - Organ, Synthesizer, Piano, Arranger, String Arrangements, Woodwind Arrangement
David Sylvian - Organ, Synthesizer, Guitar (Acoustic), Piano, Arranger, Vocals, Tape, Mixing Assistant, Assistant Producer
Danny Thompson - Double Bass
David Torn - Guitar (Acoustic), Guitar (Electric), Guitar Loops
Mark Isham - Trumpet, Flugelhorn
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