Dramatis - For Future Reference
#552
November 1981
Dramatis
For Future Reference
Genre: The Bow Wow Wow of SynthWave
When Gary Numan left Tubeway Army to be a monster success musician and mediocre pilot the rest of the guys put together Dramatis, got Gary to sing on a track and made a go of it.
What’s weird is all the other members of the band are listed as “backing vocals” with Gary on one track, “Love Needs No Disguise” but right at the open it sounds like someone trying to BE Gary Numan and failing hard.
What they are trying to do is recreate Gary’s early success but they aren’t as interesting or dystopian as he is.
So what we ultimately get is watered down Numan. And it should surprise no one that not only is this only available on YouTube, but it’s through Gary’s channel and the comments are turned off, cuz if those comments were turned on…
“No One Lives Forever” is slightly intriguing to me but only because the backing vocals sound like the pirate stuff Adam Ant was doing the year before.
The singles I “Love Needs No Disguise” on which Gary sings lead. It’s ominous and moody and while Gary had no hand in writing it it sure sounds like it fell off Dance. It’s not good enough to have been a part of that record but that’s what it sounds like.
The second side includes a most interesting curio in “Turn”. It starts off with a new-classical piano and then veers into latter day Yes epic prog with twists and turns and guitars that seem to want to emulate Brian May’s Star Fleet Project. I can’t Highlight it, but if you wanna see what it’s about, you should.
Ultimately this album would be pretty interesting as a Twyla Tharp dance piece, especially “Take Me Home”, which is hauntingly lovely.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=WPk4Yvzj28M&list=PLjIuADMrDKIZ9FBTZOWG96LaRUGQSsP_C
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