Gary Numan time: Dance vs. I, Assassin

Dance is one of Gary Numan’s more interesting albums, coming hot off the heels of his successful trio of Replicas, The Pleasure Principle, and Telekon, which contained the hits and fan favorites “Are ‘Friends’ Electric?”, “Down in the Park”, “Me! I Disconnect From You”, “Cars”, “Complex”, “Metal”, “Films”, “Sleep By Windows”, “Remind Me to Smile”, “We Are Glass”, and “I Die: You Die”. Unlike those albums, which are full of heavy, machine-like synths, heavy percussion, and, in the case of Replicas, punkish guitars, Dance has a much more atmospheric quality, though the prominent basslines present in his previous efforts are retained here. A much more atmospheric quality, almost ambient even, is present, and seems to be an evolution of the more atmospheric sounding synthesizers on Telekon and the basslines are more fluid and funky due to the fretless bass contributions of Japan’s Mick Karn. The electric guitar is present, but not even used on most of the songs. The ones that do use it are able to incorporate it as a support to the synthesizers, but in the process is transforms the songs into synth rockers that sound great with that extra snarl of the guitar. The viola that was used on his albums since The Pleasure Principle is still used to bring lovely melodies to the songs and bring a warmer sounds to the songs, while saxophone is incorporated into some songs as well, giving them a jazzy quality when present. Though this new sound of his wasn’t commercially successful, it certainly separated him from the other electronic acts at the time.

Numan’s follow-up to Dance is I, Assassin, which is in a way an evolution of the sound present on Dance from atmospheric to more dance oriented. The atmospheric synthesizers are retained on I, Assassin but are used more sparingly, with greater emphasis now placed on the percussion and even more prominent bass work, which is played by Pino Paladino here. The guitar is now used even less here, only showing up on 3 or 4 songs (I’m unable to really tell if there’s guitar on the title track), but the way it’s used is similar to that on Dance.

Basically, here’s a simple breakdown of the qualities of each:

Dance

• Atmospheric synthesizers
• Funky quality, due to fretless bass
• Some synth rockers, when guitar used
• More experimental, less cohesive
• Saxophone and viola, gives jazzy and orchestral quality
• Couple songs too long & tend to drag
• Prominent percussion and basslines

I, Assassin

• Dance oriented
• Still funky
• Less guitar incorporation, still good when present
• No viola, little saxophone
• More prominent fretless bass
• Less use of atmospheric synthesizers

~ by isolator86 on August 20, 2008.