Isn't there supposed to be an album due out this year? I know he's been working on something that was initially supposed to come out last year, but I dunno what's happening with that now.
― Coolio Iglesias (Turrican), Thursday, 9 March 2017 16:03 (seven years ago) link
Thing is, I actually really like Metal Rhythm... it's basically the only album of his I'd keep from the 1984-1993 period. Maybe the odd track here and there from the other albums during that period, but I think his songwriting lacked inspiration for many years.
― Coolio Iglesias (Turrican), Thursday, 9 March 2017 16:08 (seven years ago) link
yea he's doing some Kickstarter/Pledgemusic thing, can't remember which is which. album should be out in 6 months or so. though these things always go over schedule. good news too since I happened to think his last one (Splinter) was his best since Telekon, or maybe Dance
for the record I always thought Berserker was the one to save out of his...uh...less good years. love the title track on "Strange Charm" though.
― frogbs, Thursday, 9 March 2017 16:13 (seven years ago) link
Splinter was incredible, his best album since either Pure or Sacrifice for me, even though some days I might even prefer it to be both of those. It's well produced in a way that his stuff since 1994 hasn't always been.
― Coolio Iglesias (Turrican), Thursday, 9 March 2017 16:21 (seven years ago) link
plus the songwriting is quite diverse, which you can't really say about any of his other late career albums
― frogbs, Thursday, 9 March 2017 18:57 (seven years ago) link
It was a huge surprise given that he'd talked the album up for years as this huge, gloomy, noisy sonic monolith, like it was going to be a more extreme and uncompromising version of Jagged or something. Thank fuck that didn't happen!
― Coolio Iglesias (Turrican), Thursday, 9 March 2017 19:15 (seven years ago) link
i loved the recent documentary re the Splinter recording/release process.
(at least i think it was the Splinter album .. )
― mark e, Thursday, 9 March 2017 19:39 (seven years ago) link
Very good new interview with the man in the latest Tape Op magazine. Goes in deep re: his recording processes, production etc
― Acid Hose (Capitaine Jay Vee), Friday, 25 May 2018 22:37 (five years ago) link
Been blasting in cars
― add surface noise (Ross), Friday, 25 May 2018 23:43 (five years ago) link
That Numan interview is really good, he's such a self-effacing musician.
Any suggestions for tunes to check out on his later records with Ade Fenton that are discussed in the Tape Op magazine articles?
― earlnash, Friday, 25 May 2018 23:46 (five years ago) link
in my experience all his stuff is worth the dig, especially in the age of youtube/spotify -- Warriors is great to my ear, the bass is all slinky/warbly/possibly fretless? I suspect so stuff that I really like. if you were around for Cars the first go-round, it's a little hard to square the Numan of Telekon/Pleasure Principle with how much he grew musically, & I think this is down to how little he grew vocally. He has the same vocal style he had in the Tubeway Army all the way through, to my ear...but as a musician, as a songwriter, he goes through truly daring changes from album to album -- New Anger is one thing, The Fury quite another, and so on & on. But there, at the center always because it's so distinctive, is the same sound. So the ear tends to find that as a focus, but to me these days the vocal lines are more -- decorative? While musically, I'm still finding new things to like on so many of his records.
If you end up going all in, the live album from the New Anger tour, The Skin Mechanic, is especially good imo.
― she carries a torch. two torches, actually (Joan Crawford Loves Chachi), Saturday, 26 May 2018 00:10 (five years ago) link
Ah yes the live version of Young Heart is pretty special. I think New Anger / Metal Rhythm is unjustly overlooked with some great stuff on it. Don't Call My Name sounds like it could slot neatly into a David Lynch soundtrack and Voix should've been a single.
― Lemon Kitten (Dan.S.), Sunday, 27 May 2018 11:32 (five years ago) link
I like all of the Beggars Banquet albums (yes, including Warriors which I hated for a long time until I finally managed to adjust to what Gary was doing on that record) - I like Metal Rhythm a lot and find it to be a very underrated record. Then of his recent phase: Sacrifice, Pure and Splinter. All the others I just cherry pick one or two tracks from.
― Le Baton Rose (Turrican), Sunday, 27 May 2018 17:29 (five years ago) link
Ah yes, and Dead Son Rising - love that one too. In hindsight, the recent one (Savage) was underwhelming.
― Le Baton Rose (Turrican), Sunday, 27 May 2018 17:30 (five years ago) link
I didn’t know until today that Tape Op has a digital subscription! So that’s happening for me today. My Numan thing has been to slowly creep forward with a new point on the timeline every few years. For decades Tubeway Army/Replicas/PP was the corpus for me, then I got with Telekon in the 00s, that was a very easy and thrilling add; Dance I digested in the 10s and I don’t think I’d have been able to grok it if I hadn’t gotten into Japan in the meantime. This past year I finally got I, Assassin and I’m still coming to terms with it tbh. I like its soundworld a lot but I do find at this point that his choruses are too often stamped from the “We Are Glass” template of long breathed whole note and half note melodies with portamento-ing monosynth.
― cheese is the teacher, ham is the preacher (Jon not Jon), Sunday, 27 May 2018 17:56 (five years ago) link
when in the right mood, I really enjoy Pure.I have a 2cd live set from that era, Scarred.because they released a LOT of live albums, and they were selling them off at Fopp for £3 each, and I just picked one randomly.
― mark e, Sunday, 27 May 2018 18:03 (five years ago) link
So many great tunes, and I ask: what was his presence -- college radio and otherwise -- in America 1979-1981?
― TikTok to the (Alfred, Lord Sotosyn), Friday, 31 January 2020 02:43 (four years ago) link
Can only speak for commercial radio, it was just "Cars" over here, and it was inescapable in early 1980.
― Gerald McBoing-Boing, Friday, 31 January 2020 02:59 (four years ago) link
can I just say what a fucking phenomenal tune "Complex" is
still yet to find anything that makes me feel like that song does
― frogbs, Friday, 31 January 2020 03:07 (four years ago) link
"Muzig vor gameleons... muzig vor gameleons..."
Despite attempts to change his signature sound with fretless bass and terrible sax playing and whatever, his stuff is so samey - I mean I like it, but listening to a whole batch of it you very quickly notice its limitations. Of course, the music's all written around his extremely limited vocal range, which doesn't help.
― Bridge Over Thorley Waters (Tom D.), Monday, 30 March 2020 14:44 (four years ago) link
limitations are good
― Οὖτις, Monday, 30 March 2020 14:54 (four years ago) link
LOL @ his US chart record, "Cars" got to #9 and "I Die: You Die" climbed all the way to #102. I didn't even know there was a #102.
― Bridge Over Thorley Waters (Tom D.), Monday, 30 March 2020 14:55 (four years ago) link
haha yeah wait how low does that chart go
― Οὖτις, Monday, 30 March 2020 14:56 (four years ago) link
"debuting at #572, it's..."
― Οὖτις, Monday, 30 March 2020 14:57 (four years ago) link
I Die: You Die is better than Cars
― avellano medio inglés (f. hazel), Monday, 30 March 2020 15:02 (four years ago) link
And it goes to 200, no?
Excuse me, "I Die: Yo Die". His singles are great.
― Bridge Over Thorley Waters (Tom D.), Monday, 30 March 2020 15:04 (four years ago) link
those limitations have defined his career from the start, someone (maybe on here?) mentioned that The Pleasure Principle was like 10 different takes on the same tune and that's really stuck with me, actually makes me like the album more
I was really into Pure (his 2000 album) for a while until I realized that he was doing the same trick on nearly every track, you could drop in any chorus on any tune at it would still work
his latest two do seem to mix it up a bit more for what that's worth
― frogbs, Monday, 30 March 2020 15:30 (four years ago) link