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About
Gary Numan has released his first new studio album in just over five years. Out on Mortal Records (CD001) and licensed to Cooking Vinyl. Co-produced with underground electronic artist Ade Fenton, Jagged is an aggressive, forward-looking album which takes the best elements of his previous work and gives them an anthemic, contemporary twist. Numan launched the Album with a one-off gig at The Forum on 18 March which is followed by a full UK tour.
Unusually amongst his contemporaries Numan has come into his own in the 21 st Century both as an artist and as an influence. In 2000, his Pure album was described as 'the best music he's made since his 1979/80 heyday' by The Sunday Times , while Kerrang enthused, 'if you like your melancholia dense and dynamic, you won't want Pure to end.'
Three years later, he released Hybrid , an album of collaborations and re-worked version of classic tracks which included the Top 20 hit 'Crazier', featuring electronic punk Rico. According to Mojo , the album's 'sheer quality wins through . . . revealing the dark soul of a true pioneer', while Time Out were not only 'blown away' by the revised versions but also noted the presence of 'three tantalisingly good new songs'. At the time Numan was also 'cool again' thanks to Basement Jaxx's sampling his songs on 'Where's Your Head At' and the impact of Sugababes's Number 1 single, 'Freak Like Me' which was based around his 1979 chart-topper, 'Are 'Friends' Electric?' Yet since then Numan's cultural relevance has, if anything, grown stronger than ever before thanks to the likes of Goldfrapp, White Rose Movement, The Rapture, Queens Of The Stone Age, Jacques Lu Cont, The Faint and The Killers. Meanwhile, Jagged is one of the heaviest and most electronic albums of his career, re-wiring the apocalyptic synthesizer pop of Numan's own 'Down In The Park' into something equally unique and powerful. Like his best albums it gets to the essence of Numan's appeal - a vocal that is alienated yet strangely soulful; a desire to push technology as far as he can and dark, atmospheric sounds lashed to power chords dream-like melodies. Numan also mixes rock elements into the album through the sky-scraping choruses - especially on 'Fold,' 'Haunted' 'Melt' and 'In A Dark Place' - but they're given a new potency through the siren-like wail of machines as well as guitars. And for the first time in 20 years, Numan has re-introduced live drums onto the new album, including two tracks 'Haunted' and 'Halo' played by Jerome Dillon (ex- Nine Inch Nails). Rob Holliday (Sulpher and the Prodigy's new live guitarist) and Monti (Sulpher, former Curve drummer) also guest on Jagged , along with dance producer Andy Gray and Martin McCarrick (ex-Siouxsie & The Banshees) on cello.
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