|
Rob Dean joined Japan in 1975 at the age of 22. He saw them through their transformation from post-punk band to new romantics. After leaving Japan in 1981 (around the time of ‘Tin Drum’), Rob worked with Gary Numan, Sinead O'Connor, Viva Beat, Illustrated Man and Slow Club amongst others. He spent his time between the UK, the US and Australia. For the past ten years he has been living in Costa Rica far from the music business - he prefers to devote his time to bird watching, guiding and his art, with which he is beginning to make inroads into the Costa Rican scene. He is currently the chairman of the Costa Rican Bird Club and has not touched his guitar for over a year. |
Rob
Dean - The Lost Tapes
On one of his visits back to the UK, Rob Dean was living in London and left a number of tapes at the place he was renting, apparently telling his landlord to take them in lieu of payment as he had no wish to keep them. These tapes have now resurfaced and have not been heard for many years. We have luckily had the opportunity to listen to and review them and they are now circulating to a small number of fans - beg, borrow and steal to get it! The cassette tapes are dated from the early 80s (it is difficult to put an exact date on them but synth sounds and the style suggests a period between 1979 and 1985) and they have been recorded by and written on by Rob. There are two 4-track tapes and a variety of rough demo recordings. Excitingly, there is a genuine 'Air Studios' tape (George Martin's studio where Japan recorded) which is labelled 'MCA demos'. There is also a fantastic live mixing desk recording of the excellent 'Illustrated Man' (see below, left) - the only copy of this in existence? The tapes provide an amazing insight into life after Japan and Dean's interest in both synth-pop but also guitar-based work. Some of the recordings are clearly Japan-influenced (some may even be Japan - it is difficult to say) and others show his development away from that. There are also tapes marked 'Roger' which suggest music he was writing with or for Roger Mason (see 'Gary Numan' and 'Illustrated Man' opposite). It was incredibly exciting hearing them, especially as the sound is so current in today's music scene - here are our thoughts: Our Review of the tapes (February 2004): 1. ‘MCA demos’ – This is dated as being recorded in 1984 on an official ‘Air Studios’ tape. (George Martin’s Air Studios is where Japan did much of their mid and late recordings.) The demos are synth-based with chorused guitar - good catchy tunes with a 'Gentlemen Take Polaroids' feel. Was this for a possible album? 2. ‘Masters’ - Six tracks: chair, bangkok, texas breadknife massacre, metabilly jolly jig, shadow country, harlequins carnival. Quality stuff – a real Japan feel with drum machines, bass, synth and guitar. The question is: 'Masters' of what? 3. ‘Illustrated man – master copy of album’ - Track list is: head over heels, dangerous kind, just enough, days without end, songs of the heart, moving forward, the time of your life, sometimes in the night, emotion away, fall from grace. A great collection of funk-rock songs with the feel of early Japan, Duran, Simple Minds and influencing Inxs. 4. ‘Illustrated man – live – Ritz, New York, 1984’ - An excellent mixing desk recording of an excellent gig. The band were clearly on brilliant form and this is collection of well-crafted performances of mid-80s funk-rock ranging from an early Japan feel to a pumping, Chic meets Simple Minds style. The concert included quality unreleased material that has probably not been heard since. 5. ‘Roger’s Songs’ - Includes some proper studio recordings and a large amount of live taped recordings of acoustic guitar and vocals. 6. '4 track bits n pieces' - ‘Roger’ is written on the tape – various interesting ideas on this 4-track tape. 7. 'Rob Dean Demos' - A 4-track recording of various ideas - mainly guitar and drum machine.8. ‘Demos – Tom Hosie’ - A number of good demo recordings. 9. 'New song ideas' - Various guitar music, some with vocals - nice ideas on here.10. 'New songs' - over 45 minutes of good guitar-based ideas.11. Assemblage – Special Edition - Contained with the tapes and including an extended version of ‘I Second that Emotion’ and ‘In Vogue’ live 12. Japan Fukuoka 1980 - A surprisingly poor recording of this concert13. Japan Budokan Theatre Tokyo 1979 An average recording of this concert but what a great thing to hear!
We can pass on your details if you are interested.
|
|
Rob Dean - Musical history after Japan Vivabeat Vivabeat (supported by Peter Gabriel) combined the influences of '70s British art-rock to the kind of lush, technopop characterized by Bowie, Roxy Music and Sparks. They had a hit with ‘Man From China’ and their work featured the hypnotic guitar work of Rob Dean. Gary Numan - Dance Gary Numan (vocals), Rob Dean (guitar); Roger Mason (keyboards), Mick Karn (saxophone, bass); Paul Gardner (guitar), ; Roger Taylor (drums), Cedric Sharpley (drums); Tim Steggles (percussion); Sean Lynch (programming). Dance was an ironic title for one of Gary Numan's latter-period recordings. This slab of decidedly un-danceable tunes along with Numan's trademark synth rhythms, beatboxes, and beautifully sculpted robotic-analog sounds, remains vastly underrated and unappreciated. Illustrated man - Illustrated Man Could Illustrated Man (1984) be described as a supergroup? Hugo Burnham (ex-Gang of Four), Roger Mason (see below), Rob Dean (ex-Japan) and Australian singer/bassist Philip Foxman combined to produce funk-rock that didn’t set the world alight as much as they would have liked. Songs such as ‘Head over Heels’ ‘Just Enough’ and ‘Fall from Grace’ were well-received and were an edgy pumping funk-rock sound that was much more interesting than a lot that their peers were producing at the time. However, as a mix of Japan, Duran and Simple Minds, they paved the way for bands such as Crowded House and Inxs – indeed, listening to early Inxs (‘what you need’, etc) is almost like listening to an Illustrated Man tribute band. But Inxs became the supergroup – funny old world. Roger Mason Roger was the first international composer to be granted a scholarship by the Robert Redford Sundance Institute which gave him the opportunity to study under acclaimed screen composers Alan Silvestri, Danny Elfman and Michael Kamen. Since those beginnings, Roger has gone on to divide his time between the UK, Australia and Los Angeles, working on a multitude of projects for both film and television. Gang of Four Edgy funk-rock from Jon King, Dave Allen, Hugo Burnham Andy Gill. A cult early 80s band who featured highly on ‘The Peel Sessions’. Sinead O’Connor - The Lion And The Cobra An album pumping tunes such as Mandinka and boasting an excellent cast: Sinead O'Connor, Enya, Leslie Winer, Rob Dean, Marco Pirroni, Mike Clowes, Spike Hollifield, John Reynolds. (1989) The Slow Club - World of Wonders Rob Dean in excellent form with this Australian band (1990) Jansen, Barbieri, Karn - Beginning to Melt The album features Rob Dean and the of course the ex-Japan crew. "The album is fluid, growling bass lines and swelling keyboards spar with Jansen's resonant percussion textures in songs and instrumentals which, however carefully layered on the multitrack, retain an improvisational air and a spontaneous beauty." MUSIC TECHNOLOGY Steve Jansen: percussion, electric guitar,
keyboard, samples, programming Produced by Jansen, Barbieri, Karn
|
|
|
|
Guitar and
Vocals