A Review of "Isolate: The Numa Years" by Derek Langsford
(who gave it 8 out of 10)
August 26th 1996
(originally published in The Gary Numan Digest, date unknown)

This selection represents studio work after he left Beggars Banquet and before he signed up with I.R.S. He's now back on his own label.

The big question: is this all the general public will see of the NUMA catalogue on CD?

These 10 tracks represent extended mixes of tracks from 'Berserker' and 'The Fury' which can be found on the original cassette releases of these albums PLUS two tracks from 'Strange Charm' plus the 'Emotion CD mix' and 'Time to Die' which was only available on the cassette release of 'Strange Charm' and as a b-side on a single. So apart from tracks 1, 3 and 10 this is all new-to-CD material. 'The Fury' and 'Strange Charm' were only available on CD for a very short time and have been out of print for several years. The CD of 'The Fury' had the original album mixes.

This release does not fulfill the desire to have the full albums on CD but acts as a good interim. There is no indication in the insert that the full albums are to be reissued, sad to say. Even though on the back cover there pictures of the three NUMA albums, no catalogue numbers are given. This makes me doubtful that there will be a full release of the material. I hope I am wrong.

It's good to have at least three 'Berserker' tracks on CD at last. I ignored the U.S. 'New Anger' album which messed up the tracks of the UK 'Metal Rhythm' release and tacked on two 'Berserker' tracks which Miles Copeland thought went well with the rest (Hah!). Unfortunately the title track and 'My Dying Machine' are two of the lesser ones to have chosen but 'The Secret' is a gem. Apart from 'The Secret' these are not representative of what I regard to be his most accomplished, intricate and powerful work.

'My Breathing' seems to have had the volume fluctuation problem that was present on the 'Strange Charm' CD cleared up. The extended mixes from 'The Fury' are surprisingly good. Not that much has changed but the added instrumental parts open them up. I found the regular mixes on the original CD to be somewhat repetitive and uninspired after the heights of "Berserker'. The extended mixes from these albums are extensions and explorations rather than 'with added synth breaks' and make the original versions seem short.

'Time to Die' is a classic Numan track or so it seems. Perhaps I am just reacting to a new-to-me Numan track that is not of the current ilk. It's a slower song without the drum machines or wailing backing vox of late. The appearance of 'Emotion' is perplexing in that it is so much newer than the other tracks. The 8.00 min version here is just plain boring!

So, I think this is a new Numan release that is well worth purchasing though I hope it is just an interim one before the full release of the NUMA back catalogue on CD. I know that Numa intend to release these CDs but some may be limited to the UK Fan Club.

If you would like to be added to an informal mailing list to receive monthly updates of Gary Numan's doings etc email me at dlangs@sunstroke.sdsu.edu