It isn't necessarily that blemish is so drastically different than anything David Sylvian has done before. He's done ambient, both alone and with such visionaries as Holger Czukay and Robert Fripp, and some of it has verged on being noise to me. (I'm not a fan of noise-as-music, but I do like good ambient.) And he's of course done his share of vocal pieces - first as the voice of Japan and then solo. But never before has he blended these elements together quite the way he has on blemish, a new recording released on his Samadhisound label and available only from his site.…
Article comments
26 - Glenn
Having heard 'Fire In The Forest' prior to the albums release I was unsuprised and at the same time very disapointed by it.Listening to the comments and reviews of the subsequent album release on various forums,I simply cannot bring myself to buy the thing.Up until a few years ago I would have bought anything with either Sylvian or Japan's name on the cover.Art for arts sake?You bet!!
Cheers
27 - Richard
As a long time fan of David Sylvian's music, I was initially dissapointed by 'BLEMISH'. However, I was intrigued enough by several tracks, and had enough faith in Sylvian's past music to play the CD a few more times at my leisure. Gradually I discovered what a wonderful album this is. (This was FAR from my original opinion of the CD!)
It is almost as if I/we had to catch up with David Sylvian and his subtleties and all the influences that he has absorbed in the past few years.
I wouldn't rank it alongside his previous solo albums, but I don't think it's that intention - this is definitely a 'stop-gap' album rather than a major project, and I think this was made pretty clear from the press releases. Surely, most Sylvian fans can expect the unexpected from him! With his own label, Sylvian now has the freedom to realise ALL aspects of his creativity.
Some have commented that his recent output is below par - this is only partly true. Dead Bees on a Cake was flawed and far too long, however 5 or 6 of the tracks were remarkably beautiful.
Blemish is definitely not for everyone, but for the inquisitive, it's a very rewarding experience.
28 - Jonathan Piper
I have yet to buy and listen to Blemish, but consider myself a hard-core Sylvian fan. Some of the posts above really surprise me - David's music should be allowed to grow and develop without this ridicule from his fanbase. We don't want another SOTB or GTE, but something new, surprising, different and totally DS. Originality pushing the envelope of music is what we expect from him and that's not going to always be easy to accept.
He's an artist - in ten years time we might turn around and suddenly realise how perfect this or that piece is - time adds all works of art, that is how they either fail or succeed.
David must be allowed to experiment otherwise he will just fade away, creating music for his own consumption; which would be a tragic loss to lose one of pop music's most enduring and brilliant innovators...
29 - Rachel Hughes
I dont think anyone doubts David's eagerness to pursue a more abstract and obscure music.(after all, even at the height of Japan's success, he was writing pieces that were a million miles away from the mainstream)
Some people will always want to hear variations on what they have already heard and loved, but personally, one of the reasons a new David Sylvian release is always worth getting excited about is because it will be different to his last.
As Jonathan says, he is truly one of pop
musics most enduring and brilliant innovators.
(and boy do I get off on his voice!)
30 - Evil Bill
Haha, this looks like the only place I can express my thoughts on this album. Yeah, I know the other comments are five years old.
It's a difficult album. You'd have to be in a very strange mood (saying that, I've listened to this album quite a few times) to feel the need to listen to the whole album (A Fire in the Forest is an exception). There are a lot of people here who've been listening to Japan/Sylvian since they first got big in the 80's, but I'm an avid fan and I'm only thirteen (hence the low quality of this comment, haha), so, I've heard some "glitch electronica" and other obscure genres which portray some sort of dissonance and I try to keep an open mind about music. It's not for everyone, I guess, but you shouldn't disregard it for the lack of simple melody.