Tubeway Army - Replicas

Original UK Album plus Six Bonus Tracks. Remastered with Expanded Artwork. Album Details

The best of the Synth movement in the early 80s

Welcome to early synthersizer driven music. As kid back in those days I was already into Kraftwerk, (Trans Europe Express, Numbers, etc.) early pioneers of synthersizers, basically early electronica music if I had to compare, and Devo.

So while the New Wave was hitting the airwaves in the early '80s I heard Gary Numan's Cars, I was hooked like a crack addict. I snached up every Gary Numan album that was out durring that time. Replicas is by far my favorite! I converted so many of my friends back then to this music.

I recommend listening to "Are Friends Electric?" first, I think this will give you an idea of what this is all about. Good vocals? Yes, and no while Gary is certainly no singer his voice eerily haunts the dark gothic type tracks effectively. Try the self title track "Replicas" with it's dark strings, desonants sounds, and spooky movie bass line.

For me in my youth I got a yearning for something totally new, and different to listen to, something that would be a real cool escape from the standard genre music I was listening to. Gary Numan was that escape for me. I was very happy to find this music here and available for download!

Try the samples! December 12, 2007

A Master At Work

"Replicas" contains some of the best early work by Gary Numan, while he was still with his band Tubeway Army. The tracks are synth-heavy new wave, with more guitar than his later breakthrough "The Pleasure Principle".

"Are 'Friends' Electric" and "Down In The Park" are the songs most people rave about, although "You Are In My Vision" is also a standout. My personal favorite on the CD, however, is "Me! I Disconnect From You", a phenomenal two and a half minutes of music.

If you are thinking of buying this album - do it. You will be listening to an emerging genius, just hitting his stride. Five stars! June 18, 2007

trendsetting music

Hard to believe, but I just recently heard this album for the first time. Supposedly a concept album, this collection of songs is a great snapshot of the early new wave music movement. Nobody (including me) knew it at the time, but Gary Numan was destined to be a trendsetter in composition and musical style. If your sole exposure to Gary Numan is his hit single "Cars" you owe it to yourself to listen to "Replicas" and "Pleasure Principle." May 6, 2007

An Enjoyable Electronic Album

Gary Numan hit the jackpot in the UK in the late 1970s with the single "Are Friends Electric", contained in this album. Replicas contains some of Numan's all-time best work (the aforementioned single, "Me! I Disconnect From You", "Down In The Park", and the excellent instrumental "I Nearly Married A Human") and shows that he now has developed his trademark "fat" Minimoog sound fully.
Numan's previous debut album with Tubeway Army was a guitar-based, metallic, punky affair. Of course Numan was never a punk, as he fondly recalls in the liner notes from that debut.
Unfortunately this album has not all stellar tracks and some are downright dull and the album seems very long in length.
I suggest if you wish to purchase one Numan album, get his next album, The Pleasure Principle- one of the all-time greatest New Wave/Synth Pop affairs. March 8, 2007

Do you want New Wave or do you want the truth?

This isn't even a Gary Numan record, it's from when he was still part of the band Tubeway Army. I have read a few reviews that talk about how the record was "trendy" or "sounds dated." But I think they might miss the point. Gary Numan (along with a handful of others) was a post-punk pioneer, that somehow inadvertenly created what is now known as "New Wave."
This record sounds like early primative electro or new wave, because that's what it is! This music is awash with analog synthisizers, and yet uses guitars and a real rhythm section (much like New Order would do a few years later.) But ultimately this record just rocks, and Gary Numan wrote some great and memorable songs. He just had a penchant for experimenting with the new technology that was available at the time, and now that that technology is not really widely used nowadays, it sounds like a record recorded at a particular place and time. (does that mean it's dated? I mean the Beatles sound like "60's music" but no one says they sound dated!)
This sound would become hugely influential with indie bands like Trans Am, and Wolf Parade, after analog synths became "trendy" again.
Gary Numan's lyrics are very heavily sci-fi influenced, and are on the bizarre side, but if you don't take this aspect too seriously, you will get much enjoyment out of it. Well, if you hate music with lots of synths, you'll hate it no matter what! December 5, 2006

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