Secrets Of The Beehive [Remastered] - David Sylvian

Advantages: A live album as it should be
Disadvantages: There's no version of Darshan - why???!!!

...The pairing of Robert Fripp and David Sylvian was always going to be something special. Fripp brilliant guitar work on Sylvian’s second and best solo album, Gone To Earth augured most favourably for an extended collaboration. The studio album Sylvian/Fripp released in 1993 (The First Day) was full of ambient soundscapes, Fripp’s grinding, crashing guitar salvos, Sylvian’s tremulous, vulnerable vocals and Trey Gunn’s funky grooves… Bliss… It was a triumphant return for Fripp after spending a decade running his Guitar Craft sessions and prior to his reformation of King Crimson. Moreover, Sylvian and Fripp were made for one another. Sylvian was always going to tone down Fripp’s occasional musical excesses, while Fripp pushed Sylvian out of his laid back posture. Some people at the time felt Fripp ran rough-shod over Sylvian... Read review

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Advantages: Intelligent sculptures of sound
Disadvantages: Perhaps not enough variety throughout

...Japan were one of those bizarre groups who fought their way into the mainstream and then, just as they found popular and commercial acceptance and success in 1981, pulled the plug. The four members (David Sylvian, Richard Barbieri, Mick Karn and Steve Jansen) went off to pursue solo and collaborative projects but never quite hit the big time again. Singer David Sylvian did have moderate success with his early solo outings but for all of these, the art always came before the profit. It is strange that a band which had gained a large cult following would decide to reform and release an album of new material, but without much fanfare and even with a new name. Rain Tree Crow is the name of both the band and the album which was recorded over an eight month period between 1989 and 1990 in an enormous variety of locations in Italy, France... Read review

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Advantages: Plenty of pop catchiness and experimentation from one of the most important musicians of his generation
Disadvantages: A slight unevenness of tracks

...Everything and Nothing is a rather unusual album, containing two CDs of music spanning David Sylvian's entire career. Yet this is no ordinary best of album, if anything it's not a best of album at all though it does contain some of his best work. The album is constructed out of many of his best work but intriguingly it also contains a great many songs that have previously only ever been released as singles or had never been released at all. It is these unreleased tracks that if anything are the highlight of Everything and Nothing, and often as not of such quality that you wonder how they had never previously been released. The problem has always been, with so many David Sylvian albums, that the quality has been indifferent. The quality on Everything and Nothing is not quite as varied though not all of it is to my taste... Read review

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