rlr@pyuxn.UUCP (11/22/83)
Gary Numan (nee Webb) has been around since 1978 or so, making records with his (then) band Tubeway Army. The first album was not in the electronic vein he has become known for. (one song "BOMBERS" survived into live concerts and a live EP) Tubeway Army's second album, Replicas (released in USA as Gary Numan and Tubeway Army - Replicas) is the album that broke him in Britain, with seminal electropop #1 hits like "Me I Disconnect From You" and "Are Friends Electric?". The album reminded some critics of the work of Philip K. Dick. (I disagree, but reading that review after hearing the album resulting in my initial introduction to the wotk of P.K. Dick) Other great songs from "REPLICAS" include "Down in the Park", "Praying to the Aliens" and the title cut. Yes, he was droll and unoriginal (in many ways), owing the world to David Bowie (especially "Low"-- listen to "Asylum", which is the flip side of the British single "Cars"-- a direct ripoff of "Warszawa"), but it was he who started the ball rolling for electropop with some really good cuts. The next album "The Pleasure Principle" (Gary Numan sans Tubeway Army) brought us the top ten US smash "Cars", and a few other tracks worthy of minimal note. "Cars" really is a masterpiece in its own way. Like all of the best of Numan's music, it is linear: no chords, hardly any counterrhythms, just a single melodic line on bass and synthesizers compounded with electronic effects. The added electronic strings are bare, minimal, and effective. First appearing as a basic simple sustain, evolving into a simple countermelody, and then into two countermelodies. Not as sophisticated as I make it sound, but that's the point: through the process of just overdubbing string melodies, he built himself a great song. After the Pleasure Principle, Numan seemed to drown in his own excess of image. "I Dream of Wires" was covered by Robert Palmer, but nothing else of note emerged. His time seemed to have come and gone. I heard very little from "I, Assassin" (what I heard was boring) and nothing from his latest work, but I fear his best days are behind him. Rich Rosen pyuxn!rlr -- Rich Rosen pyuxn!rlr