The GENIUS of Bassist Mick Karn
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- เผยแพร่เมื่อ 22 มิ.ย. 2024
- #bass #basshistory #fretless #transcription #analysis #paulthompson
FINALLY digging into one of the greatest (and underrated) fretless bass guitarists of the 80s and 90s: Mick Karn. From the group Japan to Gary Numan to 'Dalis Car' and his own various solo projects, I'll break down my 5 favorite Mick Karn bass lines and show you what they tell us about his unique and amazing style of playing the fretless bass.
00:00 - Intro
00:41 - 1 - Visions of China
01:33 - 2 - A Subway Called ‘You’
02:24 - 3 - Tribal Dawn
03:23 - 4 - Dali’s Car
05:08 - 5 - Saday Maday
06:28 - 6 - Outro
Website - www.paulthompson.us
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Twitter @pdbass74 - เพลง
Thank you for acknowledging my my dear friend & one of my favorite bassists. Don’t forget to check out his work on polytown.
Cheers Terry❣️
Yes, and I saw Polytown and Mark Isham with Both of you In the bands.
TERRY BOZZIO!!! Thank you for the response...! I am HONORED! and yeah, "Honey Sweating" is my favorite track off POLYTOWN...! And waitaminute...that's YOUR work on that album, too! And Major Kudos to David Torn!!!
Thanks for your feedback, Terry. Yes, Polytown is a great album, I love it. Individually and collectivly, the performance is amazing. And cheers to you, you have played with some of my favorite bassplayers : Mick, Pat O'hearn and my good old friend Tony Levin. Remember you from 78 in Bern, Switzerland, with FZ : Still my favourite line-up.
Polytown? Not sure I know that, any links?
Don Freeman here. Yea moved to London in 89’ and played keyboards on the Joan Armatrading record “ Hearts and Flowers”. I car pooled with two bass players Pino Palladino and Mick Karn to the studio. Mick lived close to me and his Japan bandmate Steve Jansen played drums as well. Manu Katche played the days when Pino played. Mick was a brilliant musician and played very melodic parts on the fretless and maybe a fretted. Check out the album but “ Promised Land” really features some brilliant playing by Mick Karn. Bomaye ❤
Awesome
That's awesome. Joan Armatrading is another name not mentioned nearly enough any more. When it seems like the present day is a little too high on its own sense of novelty, her name is one that often comes to my mind for how much good there was back then.
Pino Paladino’s son Rocco is recording and touring with Yussef Dayes.
I think he deserves a feature.
@@mockbattles the subject of this episode is on “ The GENIUS of Bassist Mick Karn”. We are honoring his artistry and his memory. Secondly I’m not the moderator of this channel.
In Vogue
Finally Mick Karn. A bass hero.
Completely unique, instantly recognisable. Challenging but not bragging, introvert but still elegant, inventive and almost bizarre bass lines that never disturbed the song.
Very well put!
FINALLY, someone talks about Mick Karn. I don't know why no one knows Japan, but getting into them in high school was the reason i started playing fretless bass, and never looked back. Definitely one of my all-time heroes.
And mine! He was simply amazing.
It has been criminal that Mick Karn was not recognized for his work. Amazing bass player. My personal #1 favorite.
BIG Japan fan, here. I want to thank pdbass for this posting. Mick Karn is my fretless bass hero, and ever since I found a Kramer fretless bass, I have been trying to catch his groove. When someone says, "fretless bassist", I do not immediately think of Jaco, Tony Franklin, Pino, Richard Bona, nor Andy Coughlin...much respect to all of them... I ALWAYS immediately think of Mick Karn...period.
...and my favorite Karn track...the whole TITLES (1982) album is brilliant....but "Tribal Dawn", "Savior, Are You With Me", and "Trust Me" are my favorites. Check out his work with Terri Bozzio, and David Torn...!
great taste! im a huge fan of japan and karn@@gizmogearloose3391
So pleased to see Mick Karn being recognised. Wonderful to experience him playing live twice with Japan.
You got to see Japan live twice...you have my utmost envy!
@@gizmogearloose3391 I know, being a real music nut I just got to experience so much 🙏
@@gizmogearloose3391me too!
I saw him with Japan, incredible footwork as well unbelievable bass playing.
Yes his footwork was so cool too. Remember it vividly. He was such a presence on stage. When you are this good on bass, it’s great having that swagger.
I'm amazed that there has been such a slow awakening of Mick Karn's talent. There was no one like him and I suspect there never will be.., a total one-off.. By a mile, the most original bassist of all time... I would also add that no one played a WAL like him.., the two complemented each other so well. 🙏
I’ve thought this too. My theory is that it’s because Japan had a relatively short period of popularity in a commercial sense, and once they’d split up the individual members headed in a less commercial and more avant garde direction. Also the culture of fetishing equipment and players had not yet reached the level it’s at now. They were easily forgotten by the public sadly.
Incidentally, the bass player in the band I was in in the mid 80s was a massive Mick Karn / Japan fan, as was I. He played a fretless bass in my band, and he and I spent a long time trying to figure out the pedals Mick used to achieve his tone. There was very little resource in those days to find out stuff like that without your own trial and error. Eventually we got it!
I also thought the same and then realised that he sounded the same when he was playing a Travis Bean bass. I also think the WAL basses are the best bass guitars ever made (especially the ones actually made by Wal himself and Pete).
"Swing" and "Sons of Pioneers" are two of my favourite Japan songs mainly because of Mick, The studio versions or live versions on "Oil on Canvas" are both amazing.
Oil on Canvas wasn't live.
I think Swing is my absolute favourite Japan song and live it is absolutely sublime.
oil on canvas version of canton is my favourite, also i like him doing the "moon walk" thing when playing on stage in oil on canvas
@@pkhaha161Those are some smooth shuffling feet. 😂
i LOOOOOOVE swing!
Absolutely wonderful you have covered Mick Karn. He is much loved by so many of us and yet rarely gets acknowledged outside his followers. This was a real treat.
Thank you so much for covering Mick Karn. Both him and Sylvian were so young when writing accomplished songs which belied their youth.
canton is cool sound
Mick Karn was a brilliant and instantly recognisable bass player. I still regard Oil on Canvas to be one of the best albums of all time, ironically released after Japan broke up, but the playing on that album across several albums’ worth of material was sublime. Despite no “formal” training (whatever that means) he had a remarkable ear for both phrasing and melody. I can still remember when I heard Titles for the first time. “What the hell is this!” RIP Mick and thanks for featuring him.
that'll be SWING for me
In his auto-biography, Karn wrote that many accused him of overdubbing the parts on ‘Oil on Canvas,’ which he denied. Mick’s intonation was stunning. I have an LP version of Titles, his first solo recording on Virgin. Some of his best work is on that obscure release.
Oil on Canvas is sublime ❤
Dalis Car
Yeah Titles side A was weird at first listen but it grows on you. Mick was essentially playing lead lines and hooks on the bass, which gave it a pop sensibility while also sounding unusual
Mick Karn holds a special place in my heart. In the mid-80s, I was about a year into playing the bass when a high school friend introduced me to Mick's playing via "Dalis Car". My brain broke. Saying that I'd never heard anything like it kinda goes without saying. It was one of those moments that is at once inspirational, but also makes you want to give up. BTW, the friend I mentioned would go on to become a phenomenal bassist, educator, scholar, and composer himself. His name was Sean Malone, who was probably best know for his work with Cynic and Gordian Knot, but also did considerable solo work and collabs. (He's worth checking out.) Thanks for this appreciation of Mick, and for opportunity to honor my friend.
RIP Sean Malone.
Sean 😍
He's the GOAT to me. Totally unique and crooked. Amazing
Nick was a very 'good' player, and extremely wicked creatively, but to say GOAT? Nah - can't hang with Jaco. Nor could anyone playing with one right-hand finger. He's more of a cool trick player than a GOAT.
@@rationalmuscleif someone says he is the “GOAT to me”, then that’s where you could stop yourself and say “that’s cool, we all have our preferences and that what makes us unique” and move on. ;)
@@kevbob- very well put sir.
@@rationalmuscle'Cool trick player'. Seriously? Also, when someone says 'GOAT to me', maybe wind your neck in with your opinion which is unwanted and unnecessary.
I love Mick Karn's bass on Bill Nelson's Chimera Mini-LP.
Cantonese Boy, Swing, Still Life, Talking Drum, All Tomorrow’s Parties, Sensitive, Gentlemen Take Polaroids, European Son, Bestial Cluster, Back in The Beginning… Mick is so amazing!!! 💪🏽❤️😀. Thank you for your continued, excellent work, PD!!!
That is one exquisite list 🙂 "Sensitive" and "When love walks in" are two of my favourites.
I love Mick Karn. He was such a creative player. Still, I don't understand why more people don't talk about Percy Jones, my personal favourite fretless player.
Mick was incredible, and like Percy, he approach’s the instrument (fretless bass) unconventionally as a vehicle of artistry. As an abstractionist might view a paint brush or lump of clay. Mick was fine sculpture artist as well. He left us way too soon.
I believe Mick credited Percy as one of his strongest influences
@@PjRjHj Percy is the only influence I can recall Mick mentioning
I like that Percy and Mick are two players that didn't sound anything like Jaco that came out of that era on fretless. They are two of my favorites for sure.
@@Miykael I love Jaco, but Mick did something other-worldly to me. Such organic liquid playing, but something that simultaneously could've come from a different dimension. Listening to him is like taking a break from normal reality.
I think a dive into Percy Jones would be a good idea..
Interestingly, Mick Karn cited Percy Jones as an influence, and although Mick developed his own voice on the instrument, you can hear that influence in his lines.
Mo Foster too!
@@davidwylde8426it’s very clear that Mick was influenced by Percy Jones especially in terms of his approach to the attack of his notes and use of harmonics and slides. Mick’s note choice seems, to my ears to reflect Turkish folk music (but what do I know?). I still find so much to discover in Mick’s bass playing and song writing. A real once in a lifetime bass player.
Percy like Mick is another player that suffers from criminal unfamiliarity.
I can't believe you are finally covering Mick! I so f'ing excited to watch this!🤩
Super cool to do a segment on Mick Karn. Although he stands on his own, the interplay between him and drummer Steve Jansen in Japan was just amazing.
Amazing, I had to pleasure to tech for Mick Karn on a couple of gigs back in 1996 with Jansen Barbieri Karn. He was such a lovely fellow to work for, still had that Wal, another taken from us too young. I was a huge fan of Bestial Cluster. Check out the gig they did at the Milkveg in Amsterdam, you can find the live version of bestial cluster they did there and also sleepers awake was another one. They had Steve Wilson from Porcupine Tree on Guitar
The Waking Hour by Dali's Car is one of those great underappreciated albums. Just like Mick Karn is one those great underappreciated bass players.
Glad they released a follow up just in time
Mick Karn, was a wonderfully inventive, creative and technical genius RIP
That Angie Bowie clip from The Old Grey Whistle Test was epic.
Mick stole the show. Playing bass was never meant to be cool, but he nailed it.
During a 3 month stay in Japan in 1981 I kept seeing ads for a band named Japan, that I immediately dismissed as a bunch of British posers. So just for sh*it's and giggles I picked up a cassette of "Gentlemen Take Polaroids" at the Tokyo Tower Records and man, I couldn't have been more wrong! 'Huge fan since that day of Mick and the band (no slouches there either - Sylvian's brother, Steve Jansen was a helluva good drummer). Big thanks for spreading the Mick Karn love. 😊
Steve Jansen is one of my drum heroes
I'd never heard of Mick Carn until RIGHT NOW. "Dali's Car" has made me a fan for life.
He's one of my favourite musician's and not just as a bass guitarist. I think his compositions are terribly overlooked. I'd strongly recommend his solo albums "Titles", "Dreams of reason produce monsters", "More better different", "Three part species", "Each eye a path" and "The Concrete twin". The Dalis Car album, "The Waking hour" is a longtime favourite of mine with Peter Murphy of Bauhaus contributing wonderfully on vocals.
You have a lot to investigate.I have loved Japans music for over 40 years.I still am amazed at the incredible progression(more a complete total change) in musical style between their fist album in 1978 & Sylvians first solo album in 1984.If you get a chance to hear those six albums,you will know EXACTLY what I mean.
Artemis ❤
Any mention of Mick Karn by fans, musicians and critics often makes me happy.
1. Swing
2. Life In Tokyo (‘7 remix)
3. Obscure Alternatives (Live)
4. Sons of Pioneers
5. European Son
Some of my favourite parts of Mick Karn that gives me goosebumps in the track "Bill Nelson - Glow World"
❤
I put Mick Karn in the same category as Percy Jones (Brand X) and Les Claypool -- each has a unique approach with a strong flavor. I'm glad they exist, but I'm glad their styles aren't widely copied.
Mick Karn is no joke and Sons of Pioneers is one of my favorite bass lines EVER!!
The Polytown album with David Torn and Terry Bozzio changed my life!
Thank you - I'll look for that one!
You're not kidding. That is crazy. Thanks for that insight.
terry bozzio even commented on this very video
There is also some TH-cam footage of him with David Torn, Mark Isham and Bill Bruford (replacing the unreplaceable Tony Levin). His wide-intonational offerings stretch the tonality of the songs to the breaking point.
There's a few stories re that as well!
So fortunate to see that tour.
Bruford got all ticked off at him when they were rehearsing, because they told Mick to go up higher on the bass, and instead of going down to the higher notes near the pickup, he went up towards the head of the bass. Bruford had a hissy fit and said "I'm a trained musician and this guy's a lout!" Mick Karn was self taught, and might not have been a trained musician like Bruford, but his music was much more distinctive and interesting.
As a big Japan fan, I'm so pleased to see you cover Mick Karn. Can't pick a single favourite track, but the basslines on 'Methods of Dance' and 'Halloween' are a couple of favourites. He's very much missed.
Mick Karn is why I picked up the bass guitar in the first place!
Mick Karn is the reason I didn't bother!
Mick Karn's bass got me interested in Japan. Without Karn, there is no Japan as far as I'm concerned. Japan's debut album had Karn playing regular bass so he was very capable of standard bass lines.
As someone influenced by the likes of JJ Burnel and John Entwistle I always regarded Mick Karn to be a highly underated bass player and someone I would always listen to...... I even bought a Best of Japan a few years ago just to hear him play. Always made me wonder how on earth he came up with the stuff he did :-)
JJ was a frickin' beast with that aggressive P-bass grind. He took over many a Strangler melody line, and made them what they were.
I remember when I came to fully realize Mick Karn’s genius and it was probably on Sons of Pioneers or Still Life in Mobile Homes. It was actually seeing the Japan Live in Concert DVD. So many sounds I had taken for Richard Barbieri’s keyboards were Mick’s wobbles and bends on the fretless. It blew my mind then and still does today. Thanks SO MUCH for doing this piece!!!
God level imagination and sublime tone. Karn is awesome.
Mick Karn is really the only post Jaco player to have added to the language of the fretless electric. Some of the other basslines I love are JBK's "Ego Dance", Kate Bush "Heads We're Dancing", and his own tracks "Feta Funk" and "Bestial Cluster"
I'd probably add Bakithi Kumalo, Pino Palladino, Tony Franklin and Les Claypool to that list, but even so, Karn still stands out in an immediate and striking way.
You should check out Michael manring on fretless 🙂
Im a big Numan fan so my first exposure to Karn's playing was with Gary. He immediately became one of my fav bass players and inspired me to get a fretless. The man was a virtuoso.
PB you’ve had my favorite bass channel for a while. This just blew my head up. I’ve been a big fan of mk since Japan. My favorite album is the one he did with Terry Bozzio and David Torn. Polytown. Thank you so much for featuring him.
That album is EPIC.
Poly town is an awesome album!
I forgot about that album!!! Yes! Amazing album
Legendary Anglos-Cypriot bass man ❤ with Japan, Dalis Car and of course solo .. thank you for this video!!
As a teenager in the early 80s I was a fan of the band he was a founding member of: Japan. His playing stood out for me it was so unique at the time and was probably the main reason why I liked their music. The news of his passing was soul crushing, although I was aware he had been ill for some time. This video is a fitting tribute to a talented musician sadly little known outside of his realm but much revered as a true pioneer of the fretless bass guitar. May his soul rest easy with the greatest of them all. Amen.
I've NEVER heard of Mick Karn. DAMN!!! He is NICE!!! His rhythm, his groove is different.... like Nuwave meets Funk! Here we go... gotta add Mick to the playlist for sure👍🏿
That's why I love this channel!
Japan: Exorcizing Ghots LP is a solid collection of his work with Japan
Rather than plowing through 20 years of random - If you can stand the David Sylvian vocals that are hyper affectation - the music is incredible
"It's like if Bootsy was Moroccan." Avant garde guitarist David Torn on Mick Karn's fretless playing
As far as I'm concerned, Mick Karn was the best bassist to be associated with New Wave. Kajagoogoo's Nick Beggs being the only one close (though radically different in their approaches), while John Taylor (still) gets the attention. John's great, but even he acknowledges he had nothing on Mick, while still praising Mick and acknowledging Japan at Duran Duran Rock & Roll HoF induction
@@PjRjHj you hit it on the head! Nick Beggs leans more toward funk.(now that I hear him more) Mick is almost jazz fusion. Bootsy/Jaco. Wow! This guy really got by me. He's BADD!
@@Andrew_M_Ward I'm gonna check it out 👍🏾
I love him so much. "The Jump" from "More Better Different" is probably my favorite. Such a unique, identifiable voice.
Couldn't get to the "like" button fast enough..! Thank you for introducing Mick Karn and his idiosyncratic bass style to (hopefully) a new group of players..!
PS: Talk about Percy Jones, please..!
Mick was a stupendous player, a great hero of mine, thank you for making this video highlighting his genius. He was also a sculptor. His end was so sad, crowd funding his treatment. Much missed.
Love Mick Karn's bass playing, unique, wild note choices, great feel and tone. He's never had the recognition he so rightly deserves, tiz long overdue.
Best New Wave bassist ever. Unique style indeed. Japan`s My New Career... mic drop. Mick Karn appreciation due.
Mick Karn was the equivalent of Magic Johnson…EVERYTHING Mick played was brilliant MAGIC..Nobody sounds like him Nobody plays like him..My personal favorite from Mick is his playing on Bill Nelson’s “Tender is the Night” and “Do You Dream in Color”
Don't forget "Glow World"!
I was a kid back then and my sister used to love Japan. Heard Mick Karn a lot and it was totally unique. Thanks for the reminder of how talented he was.
Sick! Heard of Mick Karn before but never really listened to him. Imma check him out now. Thanks!
Japan's "Oil on Canvas" live album, or any of the 3 last Japan studio albums are a good place to start
Favourite Mick Karn tracks for me: "European Son", "Life In Tokyo" and "Gentlemen Take Polaroids". Thank you so much for covering Mick Karn. Hard to believe it's been 13 years since his passing.
That was fantastic! thank you sooooooooo much!
@pdbass so glad you included the Gary Numan track! The bass playing on that whole album is really interesting. One of my favorite records of that period. Very cool to showcase Mick Karn, also his unique use of effects on bass, especially chorus!
Numan was intent on being the front man in Japan. He even got Rob Dean to play on that album!
I first heard MK on David Torn's tune "Lion of Boaz," and have been a fan ever since.
So glad you did a video on one of the greatest bass players of all time. His playing was out of this world. Too bad not many people know his massive body of work.
Great to see Mick getting some love here ! Dalis Car .. , titles.. every note.
Never heard of this man. You've created a new rabbit hole for me to go traveling down.
Solid Alchemy and Innovation delivering a mesmerising Phantasmagorical effect.
His hands are moving with such ample agility - the hypermobility of his fingers appears so effortless for a genius in Bass mastery.
As a woodwind player myself - Karns prior Bassoon playing most DEFinitly contributed to the nimble movement of his fingers - totally indelible!!!
The TV clip of Mick playing bass solo on the Old Grey Whistle Test - is so absorbing - the awe and svengali style on the performance of Angies spoken word - the Bass style of Mick dominates Monumentally.
What a marvellous extract - 😂 Thank you for a well overdue - overview.
Larging up such excellence - 1 of Greatest Fretless Bass Players🎉
Dali's Car is essential Mick Karn, brilliant and timeless. Some incredible masterpieces with Japan too. RIP
dude, Mick Karn is one of my earliest bass idols... i am a HUGE fan of Japan, and every side project those guys were ever involved with... I started playing bass as a teen in the 80's, and he, John Taylor and Nick Beggs were the guys i tried to emulate. Mick was incredible, and i love that you go on a deep dive , talking about Dali's Car and other projects. great video... I understand his family auctioned off his basses to pay for medical bills, what i would have given to own one...
Thank you for the AWESOME!!!! video about Mick Karn.
Honestly, the whole of the Tin Drum album features some of the best bass playing I've ever heard
I love that Bestial Clusters line too. It was featured on a Trace Elliott bass amp promotional CD and I fell in love with it.
Mick has been such an inspiration throughout my life with his music and art. Sadly left this life far too early.
My dear departed dad was a bass player and Mick Karn was one of his favourite players. Really great player.
Thank you for talking about Mick Karn. I've sent a bunch of emails to Adam Neeley (when he used to focus on just bass), Mark Smith (Talking Bass), Scott Devine, etc. To ask if they could talk about Karn's playing and maybe give us an explanation of what he's playing. No one seemed to know who he was, even though there was a time when Japan did really well in Europe. There seems to be this moment in recent history where we forgot about some great players, there's no tab and no videos on how to play this stuff.
It's not just bass either. Everyone knows EVH, and you can find any of his songs anywhere. However, The Cars were just as big as Van Halen in the 1980s, but you can't find any tabs or any recent articles on Elliot Easton's fantastic guitar playing.
Saday Maday is also one of my fav if not my favorite bass line from Mick. I would find myself humming that melody at work last summer a lot, great great song.
I knew that name was familiar! Was just listening to Kate Bush's The Sensual World, and he plays what sounds like an odd tapping groove on "Heads We're Dancing". It's fantastic!
His contributions on Heads were dancing are increadible. I am currently teaching myself this tune, and although the part you are refering to sounds like he is tapping (my initial thoughts too), he is playing his usual finger style but incorperating an open G with those higher register notes. Very cool stuff. I think there are a few bass players featuring on The Sensual World and they all kick arse! Great album!
Thank you for this! Mick Karn was inventive and unique. That man had mad skills. His work with Gary Numan is why I had to have a Wal bass! What a tone!
Please consider do one of these on Percy Jones, co-founder of Brand X. Nuclear Burn is a must listen.
So melodic, funky and percussive. I connected with him on socials a couple years before he passed. Super cool guy. Sadly missed.
The video that those of us who are enamored with the fretless bass were waiting form. Boom. Love your videos and your analysis. Also, the musical diversity of the artistic styles feature is phenomenal.
Excellent article as always. The thing that I really like is the transcriptions. Most of us wish to be at that level. Your ear is incredible.
Surprised and gratified to see a piece on Mick! I'm no expert on his work, coming to him mainly from that Dalis Car record, but he is so strong, so fully developed, so individual that just that record is enough to blow your head open. I've played it for some of the best players I know and they were always baffled. His otherworldly whoops, slides, and smears only barely belong to Western tonality. Never mind his snakey funk and time feel. I guess I've always wished he didn't belong to such a glammy, new wavey era and genre, but there is certainly art in limitation. Mick made some of the most outstanding.
Yes, Dali’s Car FTW!!!!!!😊❤
Dude, we need to hang. SO MANY BASSLINES! (Visions... is definitely at the top for me.)
Dalis Car - The Judgement Is The Mirror
Rain Tree Crow - Pocket Full of Change
Japan - Art of Parties
You never disappoint, my brother. 🙌🏾🙏🏾
Absolutely one of the most amazing, creative and original bass players of all time. Hugely influential on me, though I never tried to imitate- its way beyond the capability of my brain or fingers. Frankly, I'd pass on Jaco 8 days a week to listen to Mick. I'm now going to do a complete re-listen to all of my Japan albums as well as Mick's other works. Thanks so much for (finally) getting to Mick.
Oh man once again!!! This dude was from another planet!!
Another great video! Quiet Life, with Japan, is one of my favorite performances of his. Complex, yet locked in.
Great and original player and also a terrific stylist, very dear to my listning to this day. "Sensitive" and "Still life in mobile homes" are favourite among many others. He also published memoirs "Japan & Self existence" wich i highly recommend. Thank you for making this tutorial about this very inventive musician.
I`ve always loved Mick Karn`s bass playing. The guy was unbelievable & he played a Wal mostly. Whenever I think of his basslines I think of Vision of China.
Dali's Car's Waking Hour is definitely one of my favourites. Thanks for this awesome video.
Wow, I had not heard of this bassist or his music. Thanks for the music lesson again!
He was so marvelous, a true one of a kind. I followed his work to the end. It feels like social media has incentivized imitation - 60-second slap playalong videos get more attention than original music. I remember the time before that, when it felt like music was a marketplace of ideas and individual artist's voices were prized. Karn was a stellar example of that. He was completely unschooled on bass (I remember an anecdote from Bill Bruford about this, when working with Karn on an album) but was an outlier who fully realized his own voice on the instrument. Great to see Dali's Car and Bestial Cluster featured here. Another great later record for folks to check out is Polytown, an instrumental record he did with Terry Bozzio and David Torn. Cheers!
Thanks for making this video, loved Karn since the Japan days, Dali's Car - Waking Hour has been one of my favourite albums for 37 years. Lucky enough to see Jansen/Barbieri/Karn with guest Steven Wilson on guitar in 97, a magical evening.
Favourite Mick Karn track? Can't pick one!
Plaster the Magic Tongue, Mick on Vocals
Open Letter to the Heart of Diaphora - Karn, Torn, Bozzio
All of Dali's Car
Cantonese Boy
I knew Mick from Japan, but a little ashamed to admit that despite being a massive Numan fan I didn't realise for ages that it was him on the Dance album :-O His early passing was sad, and kind of gives me the same feels as when we lost Michael Brecker, another extraordinary and original talent. RIP Mick.
Great video. Mick Karn is why I chose to play fretless bass. You nailed the choices, and I echo your selections, or at least the albums you mentioned. I had the good fortune to see him live twice - with Mark Isham and with Polytown, both of which had Terry Bozzio on drums. At the time, I kind of dismissed Japan, and really came to understand his genius on the Numan album "Dance." He made that album both groovy and spooky. 'Dali's Car' was divine. I loved "Titles" and his other solo works. I was (and still am) a huge Kate Bush fan, and his work with her blew my mind. Of course, I went back to the music of Japan, which by then I could understand as some of his most intriguing work, and still can't get through a week without a dose of 'Cantonese Boy,' solely for his bass-line. Thank you for a thoughtful and touching tribute to his work. You could very well make several videos featuring five songs at a time that demonstrate his unique contribution to the art. In the same breath, the bass work of Pino Palladino on Numan's 'I, Assassin' was like a continuation of some similar ideas, but played by another fretless icon who also has amazing skill and a unique style of his own.
Thank you, Paul. Mick's is my favorite by far and I really appreciate your nod to his GOAT-ness!
WOW that guy was awesome, that's the first time I've ever learned of his name thanks, this gives me something too do today!!!🤯🤘🤘
Genius bassist - one of a kind!
I remember reading that he had tracked the fretless lines 2x and panned them left and right…to create a Haas effect.
Yes. Mick!!! Thanks for giving props to this genius. He jumps your brain out of beaten paths. Such a creative spirit and bad ass bassist.
I love this video and analysis thank you so much. You are right, Mick Karn is impossible to replicate even if you learn note for note...Thing is with this kind of player it's more about his unique voice, his inflections that are heavily coming from his Mid Eadtern roots (he's a Cypriot) so its almost like another language. His harmonic language is beyond mid eastern tonality really..sounds like language from another planet or dimension... the kind of stuff you might hear in dreams.Unique talent (and not comparable to Jaco) Ive read that Mick Karn was very influneced by Percy Jones ..another ET player. Love the tunes you chose to cover especiallySaday Maday..My Friend from Chile is the one who did vocals on that track..Mario who lives in Koln, Germany
One of the most underrated bass players of all time.
At last!!!! Thank you sooo much. One of the greatest, innovative but most underrated bassists of all time. About time got some recognition. My fave bass parts….everything from Tin Drum:)
Among all the virtuosos I have followed since I first played bass in 1965-1989, what a talent I needed to be more familiar with his work.
I'm sorry he's no longer with us! Yep, a second Jaco on his own! Wow!
Thanks for this, PD; I will check out those videos and albums! Another home run (6, as we say in cricket) from you!
Thanks for highlighting someone who really deserves some love and respect. I was fortunate enough to see Japan live in London on the Tin Drum tour. Astonishing. If I had to pick a Mick Karn album, I'd go for Polytown. Mick Karn, Terry Bozzio and David Torn. That's a fantasy musician league lineup right there. He was an amazing sculptor too. If you ever get the opportunity to see his work out in the world, grab it. One utterly unique artist.
I agree with everything you said. This is required listening for my students. This guy was a true virtuoso and way ahead of his time. I actually cried when he passed .
Huge thanks for telling us about Mick Karn. You're right : nobody plays like Mick Karn. Bought his first solo album when it was published and it changed my vision of bass playing forever. Totally original, unique tone and style. Was lucky to meet Mick a few times in the mid nineties, sharing talks and drinks with him . Very nice guy. His death devasted me, but fortunately, his music remains and should be better known.
I LOVE MICK KARN'S PLAYING !!!!! Truly a unique voice on the bass, which is probably the hardest thing to achive since everything has been done as they say. Thank you for spotlighting him. 👍