Gary Numan

[Ryan]

Bumping because it's so awesome:

http://www.kcrw.com/music/programs/m...an/hd-showcase

Live In Studio
One of the founding fathers of synth pop, Gary Numan's influence extends far beyond his lone American hit, “Cars,” which still stands as one of the defining new wave singles. That seminal track helped usher in the synthpop era on both sides of the Atlantic, especially his native England, where he was a genuine pop star and consistent hitmaker during the early ’80s. Even after new wave had petered out, Numan’s influence continued to make itself felt; his dark, paranoid vision... Read more about Gary Numan on Last.fm.


Set in video:

I Am Dust
Everything Comes Down To This
The Calling (screwed up the third line at the beginning; sung the wrong thing)
Splinter

[Interview break] - posted this about it in NIN spotting:

http://www.kcrw.com/music/programs/m...an/hd-showcase

24:10 mark there is an interview break. Gary talks extensively about Trent and how caring he is for his friends, and how one of Gary's daughters thought Trent was the gardner at his house when he was showing her around, LOL. Also talks about the upcoming Floria shows with NIN.

Absolute must watch.

The whole thing really, but if you just want that bit, skip to 24:10.

Lost
Love Hurt Bleed
We're The Unforgiven
My Last Day
Metal
Are 'Friends' Electric?
Down In The Park
Cars

[Ryan]

P.S. does anyone have the bonus disc in digital format yet? Just tried to get it from iTunes but can't get it from my store. Would like the iTunes PDF booklet too.

[WorzelG]

Telekon
Beserker
Pure
Jagged
Dead Son Rising
Splinter (Songs from a Broken Mind)

Nice list - I think Berserker in particular is really underrated. (I would also add Sacrifice, I really loved that album, I got into Gary Numan in about 1992 and that was the first 'new' album since then I think)

[theburningreptile]

Nice list - I think Berserker in particular is really underrated. (I would also add Sacrifice, I really loved that album, I got into Gary Numan in about 1992 and that was the first 'new' album since then I think)

Yeah, I think Berserker is my favorite Numan album and phase besides Jagged. Also of which contain awesome songs. I need to listen to Sacrifice again. OH! Check out Hybrid too!

[Ryan]

http://thequietus.com/articles/13630...plinter-review

For a long time, Gary Numan's music career has felt like some kind of bizarre accident. The man who is often dubbed the "godfather of electro" was originally signed as frontman of a supposed punk band, Tubeway Army; he only discovered synthesizers because a Minimoog was left in the studio. His first major hit 'Are Friends Electric?' was one of the most unlikely number one singles ever - over five minutes long, with lengthy spoken word bits and a robotic prostitution lyrical theme, cobbled together from two unfinished songs and based around a flubbed note. His famous, often-imitated makeup-heavy image and stiff stage presence were little more than the honest result of putting a shy kid with bad acne on one of television's biggest stages. 

All this left Numan with a rather strange career trajectory - he couldn't handle fame when he had it (famously 'retiring' in 1981), then couldn't recapture fame when he wanted it (releasing 16 albums since). He was routinely derided in the press, often by the same publications that would call him a 'legend' a decade later, when acts like Nine Inch Nails and Basement Jaxx started namechecking him. There's reason for this - while most 80's synthesizer music sounds inexorably tied to its era, Numan's best work has always felt timeless. Overplayed as it is, 'Cars' still feels relevant today, and just may outlive all of us. When his late-career resurgence began in earnest with his 1994 darkwave album Sacrifice, it never felt like an attempt to recapture past glories - if you didn't know about his past, you'd think he was just some new guy with an odd voice who listened to a lot of industrial music. Luckily, now two decades into this "second career", that odd voice has held up. 


This is important, because really, that's Numan's strongest asset - while he's always been an expert in the sort of chord progressions and atmosphere that inspire some serious chills, all he really has to do is let his voice fly. Just listen to 'I Am Dust', the opening track here; when he belts out the song's big chorus, it conjures the sort of power that all the Trent Reznors in the world couldn't capture, no matter how loud they yell. No disrespect to Reznor, but Numan's voice really is a singular thing. There's nobody who sounds quite like him - it's all up to the way he uses it.
Thankfully, the songs on Splinter are built to show off the man's strengths. In a way it's the album we've all been waiting for since Sacrifice turned him around - while his last few tended to repeat certain things from song to song, there's some real variety here. The loud guitars and skittering industrial beats are still there for the most part, but this time he knows when to let things breathe a bit - 'Where I Can Never Be' gets a lot of mileage out of a creaky, gothic atmosphere, while 'Lost' is just him and the keyboards. There are dramatic, poisoned string arrangements ('The Calling'), monster disco floor-fillers ('Love Hurt Bleed'), earworms ('Who Are You'), and slow anthems ('Everything Comes Down to This'). There's even something for those who liked the vintage Numan - the brooding and relentless title track harkens all the way back to Replicas. He even has a few tricks up his sleeve instrumentally (perhaps courtesy of his sidekick Ade Fenton), such as glitched out techno beats on 'A Shadow Falls On Me', or the beautiful coda of 'My Last Day', which has a layered, cinematic feel to it. Even at 55 minutes (quite long for a Numan album), it's full of ideas.

This is the sort of inspiration that only seems to hit him when he's going through a rough patch. Nice for his fans, but a little unfortunate for him. Pure, the album that was seen as his real comeback (even spawning a top 40 single!), was mostly inspired by the loss of an unborn child and a dog. Even when he was in the doldrums of the mid-80s, the unexpected death of Tubeway Army bassist Paul Gardiner led him to write 'A Child With the Ghost', one of his greatest songs ever. This time Numan struggled with depression in the past few years (which nearly broke up his marriage). This all comes through in the lyrics, which are mostly good (one particularly haunting line: "I don't believe in the goodness of people like me"), even if they lay it on a little thick sometimes. Still, it provides a pretty good idea of what's on Numan's mind - 'My Last Day' is Numan reflecting upon just that, the sort of depressing thought that inspired him to subtitle the album "Songs From a Broken Mind". He's telling the truth - that mind was apparently too broken to even write songs for a good while, hence the long wait. That such a period resulted in arguably his best album in about three decades is just another odd twist in a career that's been nothing but.

[Ryan]

Deluxe Edition arrived today. Still waiting on the 'Limited To 12' version with the hand written lyric sheet.

Images:

[Ryan]

Demo version of The Calling is amazing. Additional vocal lines.

[Volk]

This album is fucking fantastic.

[Ryan]

This album is fucking fantastic.

Correct.

The demos and remixes from CD 2 are equally as amazing.

[Ryan]

Set list @ Masonic Lodge -

1. I Am Dust
   
   
2. The Fall
   
   
3. Everything Comes Down to This
   
   
4. Metal
   
   
5. Here In The Black
   
   
6. Films
   
   
7. The Calling
   
   
8. Down in the Park
   
   
9. Splinter
   
   
10. Dead Sun Rising
    
    
11. Lost
    
    
12. When the Sky Bleeds, He Will Come
    
    
13. We're The Unforgiven
    
    
14. Love Hurt Bleed
    
    
15. A Prayer for the Unborn
    
    
16. Encore:
17. Cars
    
    
18. Are 'Friends' Electric?
    
    
19. My Last Day
    

[koz-ivan]

splinter is a really good album, minor nitpick - i'm not a huge fan of the art direction.

at times gary's albums get an almost "paint by numbers" type of feel to them and sound a bit too "samey", whereas splinter feels like a more complete work, incorporating various vocal treatments & styles, and a more diverse set of sounds and sonic textures.

there aren't many bands / artists that can still really push themselves beyond their own established sandbox, splinter is gary pushing it. even if the album was a failure that should be worthy of praise, the good news is the album works.

this is one of the better albums i've heard in awhile.

[Ryan]

1. Resurrection (Introduction)
   
   
2. I Am Dust
   
   
3. The Fall
   
   
4. Everything Comes Down To This
   
   
5. Metal
   
   
6. Here In The Black
   
   
7. Films
   
   
8. The Calling
   
   
9. Down In The Park
   
   
10. Splinter
    
    
11. A Shadow Falls On Me
    
    
12. Lost
    
    
13. When The Sky Bleeds, He Will Come
    
    
14. We're The Unforgiven
    
    
15. Love Hurt Bleed
    
    
16. A Prayer For The Unborn
    
    
17. Cars (with Rob Holliday on guitar)
    
    
18. I Die: You Die
    
    
19. Are 'Friends' Electric?
    
    
20. My Last Day
    

[Ryan]

Demo version of The Calling is amazing. Additional vocal lines.

Those being (sung over the synth part and harking back to previously used lyrics) -

I'll be waiting here and I'll miss you
I'll be waiting here and I'll find you
So, goodbye until god calls you
Please don't cry, I will wait for you
And I'll guide you home

[botley]

...and just like that, Splinter became the first Gary Numan album to chart in the UK top 20 since 1983!

[Ryan]

http://thelineofbestfit.com/features...en-mind-139640


As accidents go, the now legendary discovery of a synthesiser by Gary Numan isn’t a bad one. In a curious twist of fate, this then punk upstart began to tread the route of his new career trajectory – one that would see him become a true pioneer of contemporary electronic music. This year’s new studio record, Splinter (Songs From a Broken Mind), marks a return to form, and looks set to sustain its place in the Top Ten come the week’s end. To mark the latest addition to Numan’s remarkable oeuvre, we caught up with the man himself for a track by track run-down through, from the personal lows that manifested in the record’s pervasive darkness to the most important song he’s ever written.
“I Am Dust”
I have been in the process of writing a science fantasy novel for a long time. I write endless notes and small sections, but never really start the book. I think I’m scared of finding out I can’t actually do it, to be perfectly honest. But, from time to time, I take ideas from the book and turn them into lyrics for songs and this is one of those. It tells of an isolated community who have tried their best to stay hidden and uninvolved in the chaos and war that is erupting all around their mountain hideaway. But, the horror finds then just the same and so they run and try to escape, but they are hunted, until in the end they are almost begging for death, for it to be over.
“Everything Comes Down To This”
More than anything the album is about the four year period following the last album ‘Jagged’. For various reasons I began to suffer badly from depression and I was, eventually, put on medication for it for a number of years. While I was struggling my wife Gemma was also going through several years of post natal depression. Our beautiful and idyllic marriage began to crack and we started to argue, first a little, then a lot, then all the time. This song is about coming to terms with that new situation and, at that time, not being able to see a way through it.
“Here In The Black”
I wanted to write about depression but not in a literal, descriptive way. So, I put it into a setting, like a scene from the book, where you are being hunted by something evil and terrifying. It’s dark and cold, you are outside and totally alone and you know something is coming, you can feel it’s presence sniffing the air, getting closer all the time, and you know it’s coming for you. It’s powerful and deadly and has no conscience or mercy at all. You’re trying to hide but it finds you and you’re too scared to even open your eyes. But, when it reaches you it stops, and in a horrifying twist, it waits for something even more terrible to come and destroy you entirely. For much of the time that’s exactly how it felt when the depression was at its worst.
“The Calling”
I guess you’re already beginning to notice that it’s not an album to pull from the shelf on the sunniest of days. This song is a man arguing with God as to why it should be his time to die. As he says, God doesn’t know him, doesn’t hear him, doesn’t love him and yet calls him. He has young children who need him and so asks the question to God – “is this some kind of game for you?”. A number of the songs on the album have very cinematic sections and this is definitely one of them. I would like to one day move into writing film music and I think that I was, without consciously being aware of it at the time, building things in to the album that were examples of what I could do in that area.
“Splinter”
This song lists many of the things that make me not believe in God, and the ways that I think man actually learns, or should, the lessons that life teaches us again and again. We are inherently cruel as a species, so many of us are hopeless and lost, shamed and faithless (like me). And as it says, “I don’t believe in the goodness of people like me.” I have been fascinated for many years by the instrumentation and melodic flow of Eastern music and I have sprinkled a number of flavours of that on to the Splinter album. This song especially has a strong hint of the mysterious East about it.
“Lost”
My relationship with Gemma deteriorated to such a point that I began to think about leaving, of running away. I found out years later that she was having similar thoughts at the time. I began to write about it one morning. I was looking for a lyric for a pretty piece of music that was essentially just piano with a tiny and gentle percussion groove behind it. I started to write about how I felt about Gemma, and more importantly, how I would feel if she wasn’t a part of my life anymore. It began to feel very important that I wrote exactly what I was feeling, without poetry and disguise, just real feelings. To do that I had to think very very deeply about how I felt and I began to realise just how much I loved her. I was able to put all of the anger and bitterness from the constant arguing to one side and I realised that arguing and anger makes you forget why you love someone. You don’t stop loving them deep down, you just forget. Writing the song made me remember, it was like falling in love with her all over again. The lyric, when it was finished, is actually written as a series of questions from me to her asking how she feels about us being over, but that’s just the way I ended up expressing questions to myself about whether I should leave or not. It made me realise that so many of the problems we were going through were my fault. When it was finished I went indoors, apologised, and we started to put it all back together from that day onwards. It didn’t take long. I can’t say that writing the song saved our marriage but it was certainly the cause of us fixing it. Probably the most important song I’ve ever written.
Page 1 Page 2



“Love Hurt Bleed”
Another idea very loosely taken from a rather despicable character in the book, it looks at someone who will do absolutely anything to get what they want. Greed, but taken to a horrific degree. This is probably one of the most powerful and driving songs on the album musically, but with the simplest of lyrics.
“A Shadow Falls On Me”
Back to depression with this one. The unfortunate thing about depression is that the cure comes with a different set of problems but that are almost as damaging. They flatten you emotionally to such a degree that you simply don’t care about anything. You can have the best news, or the worst, and it just passes you by. Gemma calls my medication period the Forrest Gump years. I became extremely unattractive apparently, on many levels. Gemma and some friends did an intervention on me at one point to try to shock me into realising that I was a borderline Zombie. I hadn’t written a song for years, my career was slipping away and I just didn’t care. All I could think about while they were talking was kittens. But, I began to realise eventually that I needed to back out of it and find out what the new ‘normal’ was going to be for me. This song looks at that early period of trying to decrease the medication and how ‘normality’ comes back in waves, good days and bad days.
“Where I Can Never Be”
A ghost story. The songs appears to be a man singing about someone he’s lost. He can see the love and the dreams they shared slowly fading away as time passes. At the end you realise that he’s the one that’s died, and the person he’s singing to is still alive and getting on with their life.
“We’re The Unforgiven”
This is the other song that’s taken entirely from ideas in the book. It’s about a race that were so dominant they were treated as Gods, and so they came to see themselves as Gods and became cruel and and savage, lost in their own feelings of power and righteousness. Eventually they imploded, as all great civilisations seem to, and the remnants of that once mighty race are ruined and forever unforgiven. The song is them singing their story.
“Who Are You”
This was written for the outro credits of a new movie called Plush which is just about to be released. Although the lyric is a mirror of the main character in the film, it does seem to fit in rather well with the overall vibe of the album which is why I decided to include it. This was the first song I wrote after moving to America.
“My Last Day”
When my children started their new school in Los Angeles we met a mother who was living the most terrifying life. She had a brain cancer that was very large and she had been told that it was inoperable. She lived, as did her family, with the knowledge that she could die at any moment. Every day could be her last. I was amazed at the courage she showed and the way in which she was dealing with something that I know I couldn’t cope with at all. It made me think that, if I was ever told I had one day to live, what would I regret the most. As the lyric unfolded it became a list of all the things I would miss about the children growing up. In a fantastic turn of events, the lady did find someone who was willing to undertake a highly risky operation, which she came through successfully, so it’s a very happy ending all round. The ending of this song is another hugely cinematic piece of music that builds to a massive climax. I guess I wanted to end the album on the same emotional level that a dramatic film might end. I wanted it to feel as if I was soaring to Heaven (not that I believe in Heaven). I’m not sure it achieves that but it’s a big piece of music nonetheless.
Splinter (Songs From a Broken Mind) is out now on Mortal Records. Numan will tour the UK throughout November – for more information head here.

[jmtd]

My brother and I have tickets for the NCL UK show

[Maximilian]

I love this album.

I love that his voice still sounds the same as it did 30 years ago, also dig the usage of the old synth sounds. I'm a bit stuck in the past with Gary, but I do appreciate the fact that he's always moving his sound forward.

[nin5in]

Interesting article in the L.A. Times about him.

[joplinpicasso]

Is any NYC-area ETSer interested in a ticket to the sold-out show in Williamsburg on Oct 29? I got a bit too trigger-happy while purchasing tickets last month and need to recoup funds. I'm obviously selling at face-value + charges ($35). PM me!

[Space Suicide]

I gave the new album a spin this morning. It was immediately lovely to my ears. That deluxe edition posted by @Ryan is super awesome. Thanks for sharing.

[Ryan]

I gave the new album a spin this morning. It was immediately lovely to my ears. That deluxe edition posted by @Ryan is super awesome. Thanks for sharing.

Still waiting for this one to arrive! -

Limited Edition bundle

In addition, a limited to 12 only bundles were also made available: http://garynuman.shopfirebrand.com/o...dition-bundle/

The Limited Edition bundle of Splinter (Songs From A Broken Mind)

• Limited Edition Bundle
• Price: $250.00
• 'Limited Edition of 12 ONLY'

As long-time fans of Gary will know, he's not just a songwriter but an artist who always searches to present his music with some genuine flare and panache. So when it came to the new album, 'Splinter (Songs From A Broken Mind)', Gary's vision was not just a musical one, but a visual one too. From the tracks themselves to the song order, and from the photo shoot to the artwork, Gary knew what he wanted. This is your chance to own a piece of how Gary's brilliant artistic mind works with these limited edition artwork production prototype pieces that were hand-made, printed, stapled and constructed by Gary himself to demonstrate his vision to the art director of the 'Splinter' album artwork. Each piece is Signed and Numbered with availability Limited to just 12 pieces. Also includes a hand written lyric sheet from Gary himself. He has written one lyric sheet for each song on the album. The sheets will be chosen at random for the 12 orders. This exclusive bundle includes the tee, hoodie and limited, hand-numbered and signed Gary Numan lithograph along with all three formats of Splinter - Double Vinyl, Deluxe Edition CD and Download. Includes an instant download of 'I Am Dust' at time of purchase.

[Jinsai]

wwwwwow, this is an amazing album

[Ryan]

Sick fucking bitch:

Gary Numan Official ✔ @numanofficial This is so upsetting. PLEASE help stop this sick, animal torturing fucker. Sign this petition. GN http://tinyurl.com/mxo47bw

http://www.thepetitionsite.com/takea...8&cid=email_na



STOP ASHLEY NICOLE RICHARDS FROM TORTURING AND BRUTALLY MURDERING ANYMORE INNOCENT ANIMALS

• author: Leeann Norris
• target: Harris County District Court
• signatures: 61,174

61,174
62,000 we've got 61,174 signatures, help us get to 62,000

• 92,957
• 1,872
• 0

Ashley Nicole Richards, who filmed herself torturing and killing kittens, puppies, cats and dogs is about to get away with torturing and murdering innocent animals . judge Sim lake is calling the heinous torture freedom of speech . this is an outrage i still cannot believe this is even real that there are psychopaths like this and that our courts are defending them and encouraging more disgusting crush videos to be made by doing nothing . please visit the links provided to read more on this horrific story these twisted phycopaths need to be stopped .i am beyond horrified, shocked and sickened that this is going on in our world and i am equally disturbed at the thought that the judge dismissed charges and claims that this is freedom of speech .

[Ryan]

Also, looks like Gary is a bit upset on twitter -

• Gary Numan Official ✔ @numanofficial
  What a shame. I was having such fun reading Twitter comments for the first time ever this last week. It's back to reclusive for me. Bye. GN
  
  Expand
  
  • Reply
  • Retweet
  • Favorite
  
  
  
• 2h Gary Numan Official ✔ @numanofficial
  Bye Steve. Miss you. If someone could let me know how I supposedly did it tho I'd appreciate it. I might want to not do it again someday. GN
  
  Expand
  
  
  
• 2h Gary Numan Official ✔ @numanofficial
  A Steve Wilkins has just claimed I've banned him. I've no idea how to even do that on Twitter. Perhaps I should find out GN
  
  

[Ryan]

Here are photos of the lyrics from the actual booklet for anyone who wants them:

Sorry for the blurriness on Where I Can Never Be. You can still make them out though:

http://img191.imageshack.us/img191/3265/xvyq.jpg

http://img21.imageshack.us/img21/3973/dxsi.jpg

http://img690.imageshack.us/img690/8455/17oe.jpg

http://img28.imageshack.us/img28/6535/o8ok.jpg

http://img24.imageshack.us/img24/7248/b3v7.jpg

http://img843.imageshack.us/img843/7991/nv2m.jpg

http://img266.imageshack.us/img266/7540/zd9t.jpg

http://img203.imageshack.us/img203/7352/qd80.jpg

http://img854.imageshack.us/img854/7641/itvw.jpg

http://img30.imageshack.us/img30/1116/nggm.jpg

http://img189.imageshack.us/img189/7562/t3ns.jpg

http://img577.imageshack.us/img577/6028/6d9n.jpg

http://img29.imageshack.us/img29/9185/pw7y.jpg

http://img404.imageshack.us/img404/5163/h3v1.jpg

[Ax Mr. L]

Just received the Deluxe CD and vinyl, haven't yet listened the vinyl, but the album is really good. Also there was a nice surprise inside the vinyl (or at least I didn't know there would be a signed print there):

[Deadpool]

The new album is great! Such a good, solid listen. Hard to pick favorites, but I really like the Roman Remains remix of "I Am Dust" - Liela Moss' vocals make it. Been a fan of hers since UNKLE's "May Day."

Gary's voice is still awesome, and he brought it vocally for that KCRW performance! Speaking of which, why did they refer to Gary's last album as "Jagged" during that interview? Does "Dead Son Rising" not count for some reason? That album got me back into Gary.

[voidnz]

Gary doesn't refer to it as an album but a collection of songs. He easily could have called it an album though because it's good enough! Selling himself short a bit.

[botley]

He liked it well enough to issue a companion remix album for it.

[jmtd]

What the fuck surely that animal torture thing isn't real