“And what if God’s dead?/ We must have done something wrong /This dark facade ends/ We’re independent from someone / This wreckage I call me/ Would like to frame your voice.”

(Lyrics from ‘This Wreckage’, from the album Telekon)

If you like science fiction novels, sweeping film soundtracks or dazzling live shows that leave you breathless, then read on. If not, read on anyway, you are about to be introduced to an amazing experience, and if you can, grab some tickets for Gary Numan’s show at the Olympia on Thursday 29th March. It’s going to be epic!

For those of you new to the world of Gary Numan, I am going to attempt to draw a picture of the complex dystopian future worlds created in the vast soundscapes of his albums over the years.

Artists across a variety of music genres have regularly praised and tagged Numan for inspiring their own journeys into the world of music. From Prince, Marilyn Manson, Trent Reznor to Nine Inch Nails, Foo Fighters, Kanye West, Smashing Pumpkins, Basement Jaxx, Fear Factory – Gary Numan has quietly and steadily built a dark and stunning universe of sounds, attracting millions of followers, year after year.

 

“And when the sun fell down/ And when the moon failed to rise/ And when the world came apart/ Where were you?/ Were you with me?/ When my light burns out /And when my fire is cold/And when my breath is the wind Where will you be, dear God?” (Lyrics from the new album Savage, ‘When the World Comes Apart’)

 

This week, on Thursday, March 29th, he plays at the Olympia Theatre here in Dublin. His new album is called Savage (Songs from a broken world). Thirty-five years ago, the musician landed his first top 10 album on the Billboard Charts and so it feels like perfect timing to release new music. The new album explores the repercussions of global warming in its depiction of a near-future apocalypse. As he says describes it himself in an interview with Official Charts:

“When you think about it, it’s not the happiest subject matter in the world – the album is about a global warming apocalypse – it’s not happy listening, it’s not dance music and it’s not particularly radio friendly. There’s quite a lot of things that, in a way, hold it back. When you make this sort of music though, you’re aware of the obstacles to cross. It’s the kind of music I want to make, so it’s all the more satisfying when it does do well and it gets into the chart.”

 

So, where to start? One Saturday afternoon in the city centre, I was browsing through the bargain bin in a record shop. There was one single record going cheap. ‘This Wreckage’ by Gary Numan. Who could resist such a bizarre title?

The sound on the single is like a broken mechanical voice, barely able to talk. Numan replaced guitars with big crushing metal synthesizers in ‘This Wreckage’ and the accompanying album, Telekon. Live, the sound was totally unprecedented. It fills venues with this all-encompassing, sweeping sound. Synths had never been used on this scale before.

But at the forefront of it all is the melody – sad and dark melodies. In some moments, Numan reverts to a piano to really hit the heartstrings. In others, there are sounds that conjure up shadows and dark mechanical creatures, creeping across the walls of an old subway tunnel.

 

And so, after stumbling accidentally on ‘This Wreckage’, I was hooked. What was this? No guitar solo. Why does it all sound like the epic soundtrack to some obscure 1970’s science fiction movie? It was enough for me. Time to buy the album.

Investing in a Gary Numan album is like immersing yourself in ten different Blade Runner-esque worlds. These tracks combine to paint a wonderful mix of crazy, bleak futuristic cities and landscapes, of twisted androids and corrupt people.

‘I dream of wires’ is one such example, from the album Telekon. This song tells the story of a lonely electrical engineer, explaining what was great about his experiments and his high tech, totally automated life, before civilisation finally collapsed and it all went horribly wrong.

“We opened doors by thinking/ We went to sleep by dialing ‘o’/ We drove to work by proxy/ I plugged my wife in, just for show/ New ways, new ways/ I dream of wires/”

I had no choice but to get his other material and dive in. The Pleasure Principle was amazing. Hard metallic synths, pumping out machine workshop beats. The standout single ‘Metal’ was later covered by Nine Inch Nails –

“We’re in the building/ Where they make us grow/ And I’m frightened by/ The liquid engineers/ Like you/.”

 

With the first album, Tubeway Army, there was an apparent sense of raw energy, rooted in punk.  As his music developed however, Numan began to examine the world from within rather than as an outsider. Numan’s album Pleasure Principle, takes us deeper, exploring a world completely run by machines, by robots and androids. Nothing is flesh anymore. Nothing is human. And there is a deep unrepentant logic to it all. In our contemporary society, it is easy to draw parallels with Numan’s earlier work.

 

Dance was the name of Numan’s 1981 follow-up to Telekon. The perfect name for an album that contained not a single dance-worthy song. Leading on from the post-apocalyptic landscape established in Pleasure Principle, the dregs of the cities are now overrun with Illegal markets selling bio-technology.

The machine sounds have reduced somewhat, with some lonely human tones and more fretless bass and saxophone sounds.Those Blade Runner streets became the settings for more soundscapes in the I, Assassin (1982) album. Jump ahead to Splinter, (Songs from a Broken Mind) (2013), with its grinding industrial sounds driving home each melody.

I attended the Splinter tour back in 2013. Gary and the band played in the Button Factory here in Dublin for that one. It left me completely breathless and energised by the close. A truly unforgettable live performance by Numan and a concert experience that I will cherish for years to come.

Now in anticipation of his gig this Thursday, I find it incredibly interesting to review each album and dissect each track. It reveals how there is an interwoven narrative path that is connected by each album. A story of a posthuman world slowly unravels throughout Numan’s impressive corpus of work, one that popular culture owes a lot of credit to.  

I can’t wait to see  Savage performed live in the Olympia. Given the scope and breath of the material on the album, this man and his band of brilliant musicians will present an awe- inspiring show.

Gary Numan plays at the Olympia Theatre this Thursday. Tickets are still available at Ticketmaster.