In some ways you’d have considered Gary Numan mad. Plenty more would’ve concurred when the singer attempted to fly solo around the world (twice), but that was in the future. In the late spring of 1979 the band he fronted Tubeway Army were still reeling from an ascent so rapid it was almost worthy of a nosebleed; their second album Replicas was selling unexpectedly well, and it’s gloomy single Are Friends Electric? would in a few weeks be Britain’s first synth pop number one. All it seemed was rosy in the mechanised garden.
But change was already very much on the way. By the time Numan entered the BBC’s Maida Vale studios to record a second session for the maverick late night DJ John Peel in May Numan had already taken the decision to go solo, bringing with him four songs that would all feature on his debut album The Pleasure Principle. With Ultravox’s Chris Currie as part of his supporting cast of musicians, a revolution in electronic music was about to begin.
Most of the attention here will focus on Cars, the smash hit in the making that would be the catalyst for it. Not as relentless as in it’s final form, it’s nascent structure was already in place, but it’s the other material that provides the most interest. Here Currie’s violin – so prominent on Ultravox’s classic Vienna – sparks melancholia on The Conversation, whilst Airlane has the seeds of protean techno and Films would be sampled more than once in early hip hop. Was Numan mad? Maybe. But even a robot could hear this music’s vast potential.
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The Voice Of Unreason 