Japan ‎– Adolescent Sex (1978)

Adolescent Sex is the debut album by English funk-rock/art-rock quintet Japan. Released on Ariola in April 1978, the album fuses the subterranean buzz of London’s underground haunts with the rhythmic chic of New York’s strobe-laden nightclubs.

The songs

Wedding the sonics of Eno and concurrent Ultravox to the precision of Kool & the Gang and the Ohio Players, Japan forge an unparalleled buzz-funk signature across the album’s ten tracks. The stylistic fusion bristles on the title-track, where Sylvian’s trebly rasp is guided by a spiky guitar figure amidst slick, sliding precision. Elsewhere, the album radiates with the titanium riffage and lyrical stridency of “Communist China,” the angular buzz and exploding chorus of “Transmission,” the sassy swagger of “Don’t Rain On My Parade,” the pulsating heat of “Suburban Love” — which name-checks another influence, Earth Wind & Fire — and the thundering modulations of the epic “Television.”

Few acts have landed on the world with such a polished, confident, and fully-realized first album.

Tracklist:

A1. Transmission
A2. The Unconventional
A3. Wish You Were Black
A4. Performance
A5. Lovers on Main Street
A6. Don’t Rain on My Parade
B1. Suburban Love
B2. Adolescent Sex
B3. Communist China
B4. Television

Credits:
David Sylvian — vocals, guitar
Steve Jansen — drums, percussion, harmonies
Mick Karn — bass, harmonies
Rob Dean — guitar, harmonies
Richard Barbieri — keyboards, harmonies

Ray Singer — production, harmonies