Mick Karn

The bass is really up front on this one. This is the most fully formed Mick Karn album, but still something seems to be missing. Or it's really that there should be more missing. Sometimes all the instrumentation gets a bit to busy. I could do without a lot of the guitar for instance. Although nothing here can obscure some of the greatest bass lines Karn's come up with. Songs like "Plaster the Magic Tongue" and a few others will amaze the bass crazed. There's lots of middle eastern and jazz fusion sounds to be found here. It's similar to Bestial Cluster just more consistently good, and sometimes darker or more middle eastern sounding. Mick Karn's best up to this point.

Mick Karn - Each Eye A Path (2001) {2016 Kscope label digipak CD edition KSCOPE418}
EAC rip (secure mode) | FLAC (tracks)+CUE+LOG -> 219 Mb | MP3 @320 -> 100 Mb
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© 2001, 2016 Kscope / Mick Karn | KSCOPE418
Rock / Experimental / Art Rock / Electronic

Originally released on Medium Productions (Karn's joint venture with ex-Japan colleagues Steve Jansen and Richard Barbieri), this uniquely adventurous and evocative selection of tracks written and arranged between 1995 and 1999 was finally released in 2001. Each Eye A Path reveals Karn at his most intimate and unfettered, Steve Jansen (who mixed the album) adds some typically tasteful drum and percussion parts.

David Torn, Mick Karn, Terry Bozzio - Polytown (1994) {CMP Records CMP CD 1006}
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© 1994 CMP Records | CMP CD 1006
Rock / Jazz / Experimental Rock / Fusion / Alternative / Electronic

Guitarist David Torn, bassist Mick Karn, and drummer Terry Bozio play a total of over 20 instruments in this far-reaching musical experiment, released in 1994 on avant- fusion label CMP Records. Led by Torn's scattered almost-melodies, these ten tracks present a tribal jazz ambiance and near-constant guitar and bass noodling that fans of Torn and Karn's prior work will enjoy. Bozio's expressive percussion stylings are up to the drummer's world-class standard, and carry Polytown beyond the new age oblivion similar records inhabit.

Mick Karn - More Better Different (2002) {2016 Kscope label digipak CD edition KSCOPE416}
EAC rip (secure mode) | FLAC (tracks)+CUE+LOG -> 243 Mb | MP3 @320 -> 104 Mb
Full Artwork @ 600 dpi (png) -> 277 Mb | 5% repair rar
© 2002, 2016 Kscope / Mick Karn | KSCOPE416
Rock / Experimental / Art Rock / Electronic

Kscope label digipak CD edition of the sixth solo album from Mick Karn (originally released on the Invisible Hands label in 2004). More Better Different sees Karn utilising guitars, clarinet, samples and spoken word in nine mood pieces, which swing from the winningly funky The Jump to the cinematic noodling of The End Gag to the wah guitar and 80's sci-fi soundtrack stylings of Atyan B-Boot.

Mick Karn - Three Part Species (2006) {2016 Kscope label digipak CD edition KSCOPE415}
EAC rip (secure mode) | FLAC (tracks)+CUE+LOG -> 396 Mb | MP3 @320 -> 156 Mb
Full Artwork @ 600 dpi (png) -> 285 Mb | 5% repair rar
© 2006, 2016 Kscope / Mick Karn | KSCOPE415
Rock / Experimental / Art Rock / Electronic

2016 release from the former Japan, Rain Tree Crow and Dalis Car bassist, his seventh solo album, Three Part Species, illustrates more than any other, how completely in command of musical composition he has become. A mixture of so many diverse types of music that, somehow never, even for a second, sound confused in direction. It's impossible with each piece to predict which genre will come next, as the listener is guided through Mick Karn's unique world. At times, there are elements of Motown rhythms and gospel choirs, classical arrangements and Rock guitars, passing through Hip Hop and Jazz Fusion, ethnic traditions and Pop songs.

Steve Jansen, Richard Barbieri, Mick Karn (JBK) - Playing In A Room With People (2001) {Medium Productions MPCD13}
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© 2001 Medium Productions | MPCD13
Experimental / Ambient / Atmospheric

I'm biased by the fact that I feel JBK can do no wrong musically, though their work does not always strike a chord with my personal moods, this album is an exception. The idea is a novel one, and the result, superb. Jansen-Barbieri-Karn performing live some of their best material. One can almost say it is like a live Japan album minus Sylvian on vocals, as they cover material from each of their own repertoires, including a Rain Tree Crow piece. From the pulsating electro-atmospheric opener "Walkabout" by Barbieri, ending with the downbeat track "Types of Ambiguity" by Jansen, every number is a gem and performed with the utmost of professionality and originality. Expect no less from this trio.

Rain Tree Crow - Rain Tree Crow (1991) {Digitally Remastered, Virgin 094636306629 rel 2006} (David Sylvian related)
EAC rip (secure mode) | FLAC (tracks)+CUE+LOG -> 249 Mb | MP3 @320 -> 115 Mb
Full Artwork @ 600 dpi (png) -> 238 Mb | 5% repair rar
© 1991, 2006 Virgin Records Ltd. | 0946 3 63066 2 9
Rock / Art Rock / Experimental Rock / Experimental Ambient / Alternative

Rain Tree Crow is the result of a collaboration between former Japan members David Sylvian and Mick Karn. Sylvian and Karn teamed with keyboardist Richard Barbieri and Steve Jansen, adding guitarists Phil Palmer and Bill Nelson for their self-titled debut. Like a mellower, new age-oriented version of Japan, Rain Tree Crow explores stark soundscapes that sound alternately beautiful and desolate. Although it is a bit too challenging to provide a good introduction to Sylvian and Karn's music, the album remains fascinating for their fans.