Metamatic Forums John Foxx John Foxx Metal Beat

Thanks again Cris C. for your review. I hope someday John could realese a big and complete colection of their material from Metamatic and after from The Garden.

I'm a big fan of that ages of John Foxx. I love too Ultravox with John as a singer. I think he his a very clever and a wonderfull musician. In my opinion, not only Kraftwerk, but Gary Numan, John Foxx, Jean Micheal Jarre and Vangelis are the pionerers from electronic music. And for shure Robert (Bob) Moog is the God of synthesizers.

I had asked Steve Malins for a definitive tracklisting for this CD, to go on my website, on the Metal Beat page - but he confirmed that all the tracks came from unmarked tapes.

Nothing to add, except that I have finally listened. And that it's great.

Amazing how 27 years seems no time and yet 3 weeks a minor eternity.

I also finally listened to this this weekend. All good stuff although I was expecting more about the actual songs themselves (?).

TOUCHY SUBJECTS ALERT 2:
Anyway (bomb about to drop here...) even tho I've always loved Metamatic and related stuff, but I've often wondered if,at the time of recording / writing) John had been listening to ...(wait for it) Gary Numan and the Pleasure Principle ..which came out a few months before.. (memberD runs away to hide in the nearest Islington cupboard )...

We shouldn't be afraid to speculate such things here. It's an interesting question.

We all know that Gary Numan was hugely inspired by SOR. That album came out towards the end of 1978 (so I believe), with Numan releasing Replicas and The Pleasure Principle in 1979.

I would say that while Numan had taken inspiration from the synth elements of SOR and shaped his own sound and style, John was, in the meantime, progressing what he had started musically with SOR.

Both of Gary's albums were released to great success at the same time as John was writing and recording Metamatic. IF (and it is only an "if") John borrowed anyhthing from Numan's style, it was the multi-tracked, almost spoken vocal style. Underpass is probably John's most "Numan" vocal. However I would say it is probably coincidence.

The lyrical style of both albums couldn't be further apart to my ears. John's writing is evidently more 'down to earth', unlike Numan's sci-fi concepts. As John says in the interview, it was never intended to be seen as a concept/sci-fi album.

I guess having a similar sound to the (by then) hugely successful Numan, comparisons were unavoidable. Personally I don't think they are so alike AT ALL.

However I would probably stand by the viewpoint that it is most likely to be coincidence. Two artists excited by the new synthesiser technology.

Or maybe John did hear what Gary was doing, and thought about what he could do that would be different, yet still electronic.

Thanks for your opinion Alex .. it's just that when JF says that no-one else was recording that kind of music, no-one else was producing it etc etc I just thought it was a bit of a sweeping statement, and certainly The Pleasure Principle Lets' also not forget bands like The Human League and other 'fringe' bands who were also making use of synths as a main instrument. If I remember rightly Numan also recorded TPP in a cupboard (albeit larger to get the drumkit in)altho in the centre of London rather than in Islington / King's Cross.... correct me if I'm wrong.

I guess the majority of groups in the charts in 1980 were your new romantics and the dregs of disco. In 1980 Numan was busy touring The Pleasure Principle, so I guess the only other bands which came close, would be the likes of Soft Cell and The Human League. There are quite a few synth sound similarities between Travelogue and Metamatic, most noticeably the farting/handclap type sound that the League used on Being Boiled v2 and John used in Young Love.

Prior to Metamatic, there was Replicas and the Pleasure Principle, Oxygene, Low, Reproduction and The Man Machine. For me, Metamatic sits right alongside these other great albums.

WIthout referring to Numan's autobiography, I can't tell you where he recorded TPP. But I think you're right in saying it was a studio the size of a broom cupboard!

There are some interesting photos of Gary in the studio recording TPP on a recent Numan website. I just can't remember the URL...

Ok Alex let me know if you find it cos I remember something like that too.
Obvioulsy there would be a similar sound in ,say, Metamatic and Travelogue as i imagine the range of equipment was fairly limited at the time (perhaps you techies know more about that than moi). I remember Oakey saying that Numan stole their thunder by having successful singles before them, but I also know he holds Metamatic and JF in high regard.

I cannot even fathom a comparison between those two (other than the fact they both used synths).