We Have a Technical
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| Replicas | |||||
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| Studio album by Gary Numan / Tubeway Army | |||||
| Released | April 1979 | ||||
| Recorded | Gooseberry Studios, London, January 1979 | ||||
| Genre | New Wave, Electronic, Post-punk | ||||
| Length | 42:02 | ||||
| Label | Beggars Banquet (UK) Atco Records (USA) | ||||
| Producer | Gary Numan | ||||
| Professional reviews | |||||
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| Gary Numan / Tubeway Army chronology | |||||
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Replicas is an album by Gary Numan and Tubeway Army, released in 1979. It was the second and final Tubeway Army LP, following a self-titled debut the previous year. It was also the first album of what Numan later termed the "machine" phase of his career, preceding The Pleasure Principle and Telekon, a collection linked by common themes of a dystopian science fiction future and transmutation of man/machine, coupled with an androgynous image and ground-breaking synthetic rock sound. Fuelled by a surprise number 1 hit single, "Are 'Friends' Electric?", Replicas also claimed the top spot in the UK charts.
Something of a concept album, Replicas was based on a book Numan hoped to complete someday, set in a not-too-distant future metropolis where Machmen (androids with cloned human skin) and other machines keep the general public cowed on orders from the Grey Men (shadowy officials). Whilst the album’s setting and lyrics were directly inspired by the science fiction of Philip K. Dick, particularly his seminal work Do Androids Dream of Electric Sheep?, the title was, surprisingly, not. Though similar to 'Replicants', the term used for androids in Ridley Scott’s Blade Runner, based on Dick’s book, Scott’s film came out three years after Tubeway Army’s album and Dick never used the word 'Replicant' in his original 1968 novel.
Musically Numan’s chief influences were the as-yet commercially-unsuccessful Ultravox who pioneered the integration of synthesizers with conventional rock instruments; David Bowie’s Low, especially tracks like "Speed of Life" and "Breaking Glass", and general air of disaffection; and Kraftwerk’s The Man-Machine, in particular the long and wistful "Neon Lights".
The recording was a development of the sound of its predecessor, the Tubeway Army debut. Whilst tracks like "You Are in My Vision" and "It Must Have Been Years" recalled the earlier album’s guitar-orientated rock, the rest were built solidly around an analog synthesizer, the Minimoog. Along with "Are 'Friends' Electric?", this included "Me! I Disconnect from You", the atmospheric "Down in the Park" (released as a single prior to the album and acquiring cult status if not, at the time, commercial success), the multi-layered title track and the closing instrumentals "When the Machines Rock" and "I Nearly Married a Human", the latter featuring Numan's first use of a primitive drum machine; it made an appearance the following year in Carl Sagan's TV series Cosmos: A Personal Voyage.
Replicas' fat synthesizer sound and occasionally nihilistic lyrics had a major impact on the industrial acts that came to prominence in the mid-nineties such as Marilyn Manson and Nine Inch Nails, each of whom have appeared on stage with Numan and covered his songs on record. Both Manson and Foo Fighters released versions of "Down in the Park" whilst "Are 'Friends' Electric?" has been covered by a number of artists and was most recently the backing for Sugababes' "Freak Like Me". Numan has always played tracks from this album on stage with "Me! I Disconnect from You", "Are 'Friends' Electric?" and "Down in the Park" being mainstays, whilst "Praying to the Aliens" and "Replicas" have also lately become part of his live repertoire.
Of the bonus tracks released on CD, "Do You Need the Service?" and "We Are So Fragile" were B-sides on the vinyl singles "Down In The Park" and "Are 'Friends' Electric?", respectively; "I Nearly Married a Human (2)" was an additional B-side on the "Down in the Park" 12-inch; and "The Crazies", "Only a Downstat" and "We Have a Technical" were outtakes from the Replicas sessions first released on vinyl in 1985.
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