Yeah, Mick Hobbs of 'The Work' fame, has been a member of Half Japanese for 28 years,since 1990!
Which is the reason for posting a modern, David Fair-less, 1/2 Japanese lp. The music is fair-ly radio friendly american Indie Rock, with an abnormally subdued Jad Fair providing the singing.....maybe he misses his brother? It doesn't stand up to their earlier wild untutored standards, but this always happens when a version of a classic group get back together, minus certain key-members; the same thing happened to Pere Ubu,who also resorted to radio-friendly Indie, probably to fulfill some offers to play a few Avant-Rock nostalgia shows to earn some belated income from the upwardly mobile. This is happening more and more with those bloody awful festivals choc-a-block with dancing dads freaking out to alternative groups with one original member 're-forming' after a 20 year lay off.
I can see it now, Half-Japanese and Pere Ubu playing at the Dingleberry Festival alongside Dolly Parton and Neil Diamond.The swelling crowd of 50-something baby-boomers paying 200 quid a pop, to sing-a-long to "30 Seconds over Tokyo" and "Forever in Blue Jeans"......rock is definitely very DEAD!
Tracklist:
That Is That
We Cannot Miss
You And I
Perfect
Hold On
Man Without A Shadow
Here We Are
Listen To Your Heart
We'll Go Far
That's Called Love
In Your Spell
A New Beginning
That's Right