Entertainment For Lively Minds
Mick Karn - passed away today 4th January
Posted by über-über on 4 January 2011 - 9:00pm.
Mick Karn, bassist with Japan and solo artist passed away today after battling cancer throughout 2010. An immenselu gifted and unique bass player, he will be sadly missed by many fans around the world. Japan and his bass sound soundtracked my teenage years and his legacy will live on through his music.
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Again a real pity
I used to love Japan as a teenager, and Karn's bass playing always really stood out. A real loss
Indeed,
a fine musician and he will be missed.
mick karn
I'm very sad about this - first pete postlethwaite yesterday ( one of my fav actors ), gerry rafferty and now this - not a brilliant start to the the year :-(
This bass sound..
made the single sound like it was melting
A fantastic bassist...
and a huge inspiration to me. Was only listening to Japan today.
a sad day
What a fantastic player he was. I will always have great memories of some of that Japan stuff, circa 'Polaroids', 'Tin Drum' etc.
I remember seeing them live for the first time, in Edinburgh in 1980. I already knew he was a great musician, but was stunned to discover how graceful a mover he was onstage. Sylvian was the singer, but you just couldn't take your eyes off Mick.
Loved them too
No-one else ever sounded like him.
A unique player
endlessly inventive on the bass and yes, quite a mover.
RIP Mick
The Art of Parties
was one of those 'What the f*ck was that?', jaw droppers that stopped me in my tracks the first time I heard it, and in all the right ways. You don't get many of those in a lifetime. For that, Mr Karn, I salute you.
It's good to see The Word bloggers
being so appreciative of Japan and Mick Karn. I think the music press of the time dismissed them as being somehow lightweight in comparison to other acts or as if they were just Roxy and Bowie copiers. Quiet Life was a single I remember leaping out at the time and still now.
I must admit that I had lost touch with his music after Japan but this is really sad news and all I hope is that he has found peace and all best wishes to his family and friends
Just want to add my voice
to those hymning Mick's praises. It was his playing and his sound that made me buy a fretless bass. It was in trying to learn how to play the bloody thing that I came to really appreciate the complexity and musicality of his playing.
Very sad day indeed.
Sad news
RIP Mick.
Japan were the most important band for me as a teenager and I still love their music today.
Thanks Mick.
This is one of favourite Japan tracks
Japan 'Swing'
RIP Mick
Good on Radcliffe and Maconie for mentioning Mick's passing and ending the show tonight by playing Quiet Life in tribute. The news of Mick's passing was then, rather incredibly, the second story on the main BBC news on Radio 2 at 10pm.
To their credit Samadhi Sound/David Sylvian posted a touching news piece and lovely picture of Mick on their website.
http://www.samadhisound.com/
Incidentally, I have the full version of that OGWT clip of Art of Parties posted above, it was introduced on the show by one David Hepworth... Have to say almost my only criticism of The Word is the virtual total absence of any mention of the work of Sylvian/Nine Horses/Steve Jansen etc. all of whom have released brilliant records (often surpassing Japan's) during The Word's existence, but not one of which has ever once being mentioned in the mag. It seems really strange that despite the large volume of references to Japan and Sylvian on this website the only time I've ever seen anything related to them in the magazine was when David H. recently cited Mick's appeal in a feature on musicians down on their luck. Still, the rest of The Word is brilliant so I won't grumble any more!
For those of you wishing to see what all the fuss is about re. Mick I'd recommend checking out the following 20 tracks for starters:
Japan: Alien, Life Without Buildings, Sons of Pioneers, Swing, Art of Parties (12 inch)
Rain Tree Crow: Pocket Full of Change
Sylvian/Karn: Buoy, When Love Walks In
Kate Bush: Heads We're Dancing
No Man: Sweetheart Raw
Dalis Car(Peter Murphy): Create and Melt
Midge Ure: After a Fashion
Gary Numan: She's Got Claws
Joan Armatrading: Wrapped Around Her
Mick Karn solo: Piper Blue, Sound of Waves, Bestial Cluster
Mark Isham: Grand Parade
Masami Tsuchiya: Rice Music
Jansen/Barbieri: Long Tales, Tall Shadows
Rest in peace Mick. You are missed.
Nice post, Kevin [& what follows is in no way aimed at you]
I had a look at the Samadhisound message. The part that hit me was the very end about donations. I wonder has Sylvian donated the royalties he owes to MIck? It's all in Mick's recent book and isn't just the bitter ramblings of a less successful member of a group having an unjustified moan - Sylvian stiffed him and for good measure he stiffed his own brother, too.
Sorry for bringing down the tone, but it really pissed me off when I found out how big a cnut Sylvian was. Still love the music though - love the songs, not so keen on the singer.
Rant over. Twang on, Mick.
well said
about word's apparent music snobbery over japan/sylvian/karn music over the years - funny how hepworth/ellen were more than pleased to introduce them to me through the OGWT shows in the early early eighties, and now seem to dismiss their very unique input into music in that decade, and beyond duran or spandau they were definately not! Mick self taught on fretless bass, which is a fucker of an instrument to play trust me, and big kudos to him for bringing his unique sound that is evident across everything Japan did, and everything else he did (gary numan had him on his Dance album as he was enthralled at getting the 'Japan' sound, then had someone copy tjis on his next record as Mick wasnt available!). A unique talent who will genuinely be missed by those who know better than to be music snobs! dont get me wrong, i love you word guys very much, but hate the marginalisation of music into just dylan, beatles, springsteen or some obscure artist sometimes here, when just loving the music that you grew up with, whether good bad or indifferent is what made you explore more into it! RIP Mick Karn.
Very sad news indeed
I adored Mick in the Japan days.
He was a great original musician and great stylist, an inspiration.
Nice tribute from John Taylor here http://www.duranduran.com/wordpress/?p=17671
Did anyone buy a fretless
Did anyone buy a fretless bass guitar to play with anyone else in mind? Incredible and unique player and arguably the coolest performer live.
My New Career - Whistle Test:
RIP & thanks for the inspiration
Just as I read this
"Ghosts" is playing on Radio 2, a nice tribute but a bit of a strange choice considering it barely features any of Mick's "trademark" bass.
As a bassist myself of the plectrum bothering variety I've only ever been able to handle Mick's fretless bass playing - he was a real genius on the instrument, a natural like The Ox, Norman Watt-Roy and JJ Burnell - someone who elevated the bass to another level entirely.
I loved Japan, Rain Tree Crow and his solo stuff and it is really sad that he has died so young. Japan never really got any kind of critical appreciation in the music press and I can sort of understand that due to Dave's, shall we say, pretensions, but as a band they were excellent and innovative musicians and deserved more acclaim.
I really loved Japan
Still do. Assemblage and Tin Drum cannot be beaten.
I loved the later Japan
stuff, but this is my favourite Mick Karn track
It's not often that a bass carries the entire song, but Mick was able to do that, both tunefully & with extreme grace. A sorely missed talent that never got the recognition he deserved.
Sensitive
Hurrah, well sought out garyt, a solo single that had a bit of backbite to it in terms of the lyrics (about the break up of japan and the friendships!).
Mick was due to work with Pete Murphy on another Dalis Car project too, which would have been brilliant to hear. I gather a tribute concert was also in the pipeline whilst he was undergoing treatment (by Midge Ure, who was a great friend to Mick), so not sure what happened to that?
Still in shock about it, you always want your teenage music idols to live forever and make music forever - I, amongst many other no doubt, had hoped that David Sylvian would stick his head above the parapet and reform for one last gig to show the world what a fantastic talent they all were as a collective.
Did they ever get round
to playing live as Rain Tree Crow? If so, did they play any "old"? Anyone know?
Rain Tree Crow
.... they didn't tour the RTC project (at least not in the UK, though I recall, possibly on Radio 1 - or even 5 Live if it was around at the time - them doing an acoustic version of 'Blackwater') but Msrs Karn, Barbieri, and Jansen, in their late 90s / early noughties JBK project, would play Japan's 'Life Without Buildings'. On Sylvian's greatest hits tour about 5 or 6 years ago the only Japan tracks he did were 'Ghosts' and 'Nightporter', plus RTC's 'Blackwater'.
I recall seeing Mick, RB and SJ playing as part of the band for their chums in No-Man on a tour in the early 90s. Me and some pals saw them in the Derby Wherehouse and Cov's Tictoc Club where there can't have been more than 30 people in either venue, so you were able to get right to front and see what an incredible bassist MK was with his custom-made WAL fretless, cranking out his percussive, sinuous and serpentine basslines. Afterwards they'd sign all of the Japan albums and memorabilia put in front of them, chatting away and were incredibly down to earth and decent characters - in Derby, pregig, they gave us a tray of Beck's that was part of the rider! (I also recall there and then a pal thrusting out an LP copy of Jansen and Barbieri's ultra limited 'Worlds In A Small Room' they produced for NASA, causing Steve J to blurt 'bloody hell, I don't even have a copy of that!')
Man, this is some proper sad news.
BR
FT
No-Man
Thanks for your reply Freaky, I feel a trip to the loft coming on, have to dig out some of No-Man's stuff, haven't listened to them in ages. There was one album in particular (Loveblows or something like that maybe?) that was excellent, I think some of the Japan guys featured on it.