In praise of ... the Rain Tree Crow album

love this album, it is kind of a paradigm-setter for me.

the first time i heard Laughingstock was during a late night community radio show in Madison WI in Nov 1991. The dj led into it talking about how he hadn't thought about Talk Talk in years and his friend had just given him this new album, saying to the dj 'I know you're a fan of that Rain Tree Crow album so you should check this out'. He then played "Taphead" which changed the course of my musical life in an instant.

So RTC and LS were twinned in my mind before I heard either of them. I got LS as soon as I could find it after that night; it took a bit longer for me to buy RTC and for a long time I didn't appreciate it correctly. I was too much of an experimentalist to completely get with Sylvian's vocal style at that time. With passing years it has become possibly the equal of LS for me. Of course they are doing very different things though certainly in the same county as one another.

Has anyone listened to the JBK albums? How are they?

Rain Tree Crow was the album that sent me down the post-progressive rabbit hole. So massively influential on my listening habits. The JB(K) albums are good to great. I've yet to warm to _ism as much as Stone To Flesh, which at its best is like the meeting place of Talk Talk and Rain Tree Crow (at least when Mark Feltham guests). Maybe that's raising expectations too high-- the absence of David Sylvian on JBK albums is def noticed for those hearing STF after Rain Tree Crow.

I recognize that this is fairly sui generis but are there any recent albums that even come close to this idiom?

you already have the two 'o'rang albums i trust?

I just see that there was a similar discussion about Rain Tree Crow on the Japan thread but I think the album deserves a thread of its own...
japan, the band

you already have the two 'o'rang albums i trust?

I do, thanks. I'm looking more for suggestions of releases from recent years. Kinda like Birds Through Fire's Letters To Thurza (some similarities to RTC) or Lone Wolf's Lodge (which is def Hollis-influenced.)

these new puritans - field of reeds

XP - Doug, perhaps look into the two Autistic Daughters records on Kranky

The first JBK album and EP are fantastic, agree that Ism is a step down but not a huge one.

Whenever there's a RTC mention, I'm compelled to chime in with a recommendation for Jansen and Barbieri's Stories Across Borders,
a real special record. Def of a piece with RTC.

listening to Beginning to Melt for first time ever. Side B way preferable to side A imo. "Shipwreck" the standout on first listen.

now stories across borders. Halfway through it. This rules hard.

Jansen and Barbieri's "Worlds In A Small Room" if you're after that late-Japan sound though moving into more of an ambient direction.

This album should be right in my sweetspot, but I've got a curious barrier when it comes to Sylvian. I find him bloated and portentous - things that don't stop me listening to a whole bunch of other stuff.

Anyway, for whatever reason, Blackwater is just about goddamn perfect right now.