Clockworks, Juliet [Import]

Alan Replica (aka MASQ) | Format: Audio CD

Product Details

• Audio CD (April 13, 2004)
• Original Release Date: April 13, 2004
• Number of Discs: 1
• Format: Import
• Label: Ninthwave Records
• ASIN: B00020KC0Q
• In-Print Editions: MP3 Download
• Average Customer Review: 4.6 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (5 customer reviews)
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #832,333 in Music (See Top 100 in Music)

Editorial Reviews

Obskure.com June 2004

...a collection of calibrated, melodic and lively Pop, Wave songs...

Obskure.com June 2004

est une collection de chansons Pop et Wave calibrées, mélodiques et dansantes

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Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

5 of 6 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars Electronic alternate soundtrack for Brazil?, September 28, 2004

By 

Eleanor Skinner (Albany, NY United States) - See all my reviews
(VINE VOICE)    (REAL NAME)   

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This review is from: Clockworks, Juliet (Audio CD)

I love every song on this album and frequently just listen to the entire album. The songs all have similar sounds, so it's nice to just listen to them all in a row, like different movements of a long piece, but they're different enough I only feel like I'm listening to the same thing over and over again in a *good* way. It's nice electronic stuff with a beat, some machine-oriented lyrics, and often a nice mood of melancholy as well as beauty and energy - sort of like goth and klezmer, if they were written as techno or ebm. Alan Replica is listed as Masq on the album Electricity II, which includes 'The Machines' from Clockworks. I hate trying to describe music in print reviews, but this album deserves a review and 5 stars. This album sort of sounds like a less angry Apoptygma Berzerk, a more gothy Spray, or S.P.O.C.K if they were a lot better & not singing about Star Trek.

1 of 1 people found the following review helpful:

3.0 out of 5 stars A Lifelong Numan Fan Comments...., October 16, 2006

By 

Sean (Earth) - See all my reviews

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This review is from: Clockworks, Juliet (Audio CD)

With a name like Replica and song titles like The Machines, Soul Corruption and Dream Deceiver, comparisons to Gary Numan are bound to occur. Listening to the CD and reading the lyrics (from his website - no lyrics with the CD itself) makes Mr. Replica's study of Numan's back catalogue rather more obvious.

Trying to imitate Numan's lyrical phraseology and song structure is OK up to a point, but comes unstuck when you realise Numan's overall sound is based very much upon Numan's own voice and the way he sings. Unfortunately Mr. Replica hasn't got the voice to pull this off and he doesn't offer the listener much in the way of vocal range, style or passion either. In fact, most of the album is sung in a monotone `I've got a cold' kind of way. The most effective singers/vocalists have a distinctive voice and vocal delivery. Mr. Replica demonstrates little of either on this CD.

On to the music. Well, the opening track "Isolation" is actually pretty good. Musically. Lyrically it's awfully close to something Numan himself would have penned around 1979 or 1980. Strike 1! "Intrusion" borrows heavily from the live version of Numan's "Everyday I Die". Strike 2! "My Time Warp" is practically Numan's "We Have A Technical" all over again. Strike 3!

In between there are some solid and enjoyable moments of synth indulgence ala Numan, Ultravox, Tears for Fears and Depeche Mode. Overall though, you can't help feeling this effort is the amalgamation of half a dozen albums Mr. Replica must have listened to before sitting down to write is `own' material. They say imitation is the sincerest form of flattery, but when it's this close to your rather obvious influences it becomes plagiarism.

1 of 1 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars Numanesque, January 3, 2005

By 

John Liosatos (Crook County, IL United States) - See all my reviews
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This review is from: Clockworks, Juliet (Audio CD)

I first heard Alan Replica on the Electricity II various artists CD. The single 'Machines' was billed as being by Masq, his band in the 80s. Clockworks, Juliet takes the listener back to post-punk, pre-funk Numan, when cold robotic rhythms dominated the music. It's very reminiscent of Numan's 'The Pleasure Principle' and 'Telekon'. Replica immitates Numan's vocal style throughout the CD while adding his own style as well, and even includes a couple Numan covers, 'Factys II' and 'This Device'. Finally, Clockworks, Juliet attests to the brilliance of Gary Numan. More than 20 years after his greatest phase, he is still a big influence in the music world.