Gary Numan

[Ryan]

A snippet of the Japanese bonus track "The Dark In Me" can be heard here:

https://www.wasabeat.com/tracks/6789...japan-original

[simonn]

A snippet of the Japanese bonus track "The Dark In Me" can be heard here:

https://www.wasabeat.com/tracks/6789...japan-original

He's missing a trick a here. In the La La Land trailer he mentions that he gets more money if the tracks are above 149 bpm (who from I have no idea!). So he has We Are The Unforgiven @ 148bpm, and A Shadow Falls on Me @ 149. Fiscal suicide!

Any idea what the 5A, 7A, 8A etc are after the bpms on the track descriptions?

[voidnz]

He's missing a trick a here. In the La La Land trailer he mentions that he gets more money if the tracks are above 149 bpm (who from I have no idea!). So he has We Are The Unforgiven @ 148bpm, and A Shadow Falls on Me @ 149. Fiscal suicide!

Any idea what the 5A, 7A, 8A etc are after the bpms on the track descriptions?

You do realise that was a joke aye?

[simonn]

You do realise that was a joke aye?

Didn't seem like it to me, he seemed pretty serious about it, but as I say I can't see who he'd actually be getting money from to push it to 150...! If so, he's got me good and proper!

[Ryan]

Gary Numan Official ✔ @numanofficial You can listen to a stream of the new #Splinter album courtesy of @NoiseyMusic here. GN http://bit.ly/16V7f37

[Jinsai]

I'm 98% sure I passed by Gary Numan on the street earlier today. I never really get starstruck, but it was hard not to run up to him and say something. I guess I have a rule about not pestering people when they're going about their daily routine.

[Ryan]

• Gary Numan Official ✔ @numanofficial
  
  Splinter is out in Japan now on Beat Records, first place in the world that it's officially available. GN
  
  
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• 10 Oct Gary Numan Official ✔ @numanofficial
  A 3 page feature in Billboard Japan. GN http://bit.ly/17lvwbU
  
  
  ^ Does anyone have "The Dark In Me" bonus track now the Japanese version is out?
  
  

[simonn]

Loved his little dig at Midge Ure (the 'other' vocalist in Ultravox). Wouldn't even mention him by name...some history there?

[Ryan]

The Dark In Me (Japan Bonus Track) -

[theburningreptile]

Damn this blew me away. Favorite album of the year. Favorite song so far is Here in the Black. I can't wait to hear some of this stuff played live. Also hoping for a live album. Hnnng.

[Ryan]

oh yeah!! -


Your Order from Gary Numan has been updated

PRODUCT

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Limited Edition Bundle: '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,...	1	$250.00
Splinter (Songs From A Broken Mind) Vinyl: Splinter (Songs From A Broken Mind) Vinyl Outline T-Shirt: Outline T-Shirt Splinter Hoodie: Splinter Hoodie Splinter Limited Edition Lithograph: Splinter Limited Edition Lithograph Handwritten Lyric Sheet: Handwritten Lyric Sheet Custom CD Sleeve: Custom CD Sleeve Splinter (Songs From A Broken Mind) Deluxe CD: Splinter (Songs From A Broken Mind) Deluxe CD

[Ryan]

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.

[Ryan]

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

[simonn]

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:



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

That has got me well pumped up for a month today in London! Heard the album 2-3 times now - really liking what I'm hear. Bizarrely, with Robin playing on it, it actually sounds a little less like NIN than I was expecting - don't get me wrong, there's definitely the NIN gene in there, just a little less pronounced than I was expecting. Sounds very Numan, and I'm pleased about that. Good stuff.

[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

[voidnz]

That was an awesome watch.

[imail724]

Essential Numan albums post-Pleasure Principle?

[theburningreptile]

Essential Numan albums post-Pleasure Principle?

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

[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!

[koz-ivan]

telekon
sacrifice
jagged
(haven't heard the new one yet, so no comment)

[botley]

I'd also put Dance in there, but then... I would, wouldn't I? *nods to avatar*

[simonn]

Pure is still my favourite Numan album.

[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.

[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.

[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!

[Volk]

This album is fucking fantastic.