You can change your choices at any time by visiting Cookie preferences, as described in the Cookie notice.

The album was compiled and produced in consultation with lead singer David Sylvian, two years after Japan dissolved. The 103 third parties who use cookies on this service do so for their purposes of displaying and measuring personalized ads, generating audience insights, and developing and improving products.It’s notable for a few song variations, including the 1981 remix of ‘Taking Islands in Africa’ and the extended version of ‘The Art of Parties’.

It's also for me really worth having for the both sides of the pre-Tin Drum 12" Art of Parties single, with Life Without Buildings b-side (one of their finest tracks for me) that has never been re-issued. It features three recordings from the band's early career on the Hansa Records label (such as 1979's Quiet Life) but mainly focuses on material from their two studio albums on Virgin Records; Gentlemen Take Polaroids (1980) and Tin Drum (1981). David Sylvian and Mick Karn etc produced some great songs during their time together and this CD encapsulates that period brilliantly. Exorcising Ghosts is a compilation album by the British band Japan, released in November 1984 by record label Virgin.Mastering on LP1 was warm but a bit murky (vocals), however the instrumentation definitely did seem crisper and more detailed - just a shame neither copy were playable throughout. This career spanning ‘Best of’ features three recordings from the band’s early career on the Hansa Records label (including 1979’s Quiet Life) but mainly focuses on material from their two seminal studio albums on Virgin Records; Gentlemen Take Polaroids (1980) and Tin Drum (1981). Quiet Life' and 'Ghosts' sound immense on this pressing and that's just a couple of the highlights, a very enjoyable and superbly packaged release. To calculate the overall star rating and percentage breakdown by star, we don’t use a simple average.

The LPs are housed in a gatefold sleeve with printed inner bags, a print of the band, the all important Abbey Road half-speed master certificate, and a cover-empathetic obi strip.

Exorcising Ghosts was compiled and produced in consultation with lead singer David Sylvian two years after Japan dissolved. Besides top 40 hit singles like " Quiet Life", " Visions of China", " Ghosts", and " Nightporter", the double-album set includes album tracks like "Methods of Dance", "Talking Drum" and "Swing" alongside a selection of rarities such as the single B-sides "A Foreign Place" and "Life Without Buildings", the 1981 remix of "Taking Islands in Africa", the instrumental studio recording "Voices Raised in Welcome, Hands Held in Prayer" included on 1983's live album Oil on Canvas and the 12" mix of " The Art of Parties". It also gives a good idea of what the band were about by including a couple of interesting instrumentals - A Foreign Place the Quiet Life b-side in particular sounds really good here.

This new 2022 pressing is really excellent - there's detail I can hear that I have never heard before.As to fit the album onto a single disc, the original CD release omitted five of the sixteen tracks; "Swing", "A Foreign Place", "Taking Islands in Africa", "Sons of Pioneers" and "Voices Raised in Welcome, Hands Held in Prayer". It must be mentioned that the selection of tracks was most definitely geared towards the Japanese market, with a large proportion of tracks previously unavailable on an album in that country. Exorcising Ghosts' represents an interesting cross-section of much of the best material released by Japan in their all too brief career in the early 1980s.