Berserker (Gary Numan album)

From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia

Berserker
Berserker cover
Studio album by Gary Numan
Released 1984
Recorded Rock City Studios, Shepperton, Middlesex
Genre Synthpop
Label Numa Records
Producer Gary Numan
Professional reviews
Gary Numan chronology
Warriors
(1983)
Berserker
(1984)
The Plan
(1984)

Berserker is a 1984 album recorded and produced by Gary Numan. It was the first Numan album to be released under Numan's self-employed record label, Numa Records.

Contents

[edit] Overview

Numan's contract with his previous record label Beggars Banquet had ended with the release of Warriors, and disillusioned with record companies, Numan decided to create his own record label, Numa Records, in order to give himself full control over his recordings, production work and marketing.

Freed from demands of an outside record company, Numan could take the music on his new album into a new and harder direction. The album was named after a series of science-fiction novels by Fred Saberhagen, which Numan had read at school.[1] For the album itself, Numan was concerned with creating a distinct atmosphere:

The Berserker album doesn't have a central character or a story as such. I was writing about being something, or part of something, fictional. Something that was dreadful, powerful, unstoppable. Something almost alien from what you're used to which is coming your way. I was trying to create a feeling of only half-guessed-at menace. The songs had bits which were specific to me but they were mostly weird fictional stuff about being cold, playing games with people, using people in very unpleasant ways, without every saying what they were, exactly.[2]

Berserker was far removed from the electro-funk stylings of Warriors (and, indeed, the fluid, fretless bass stylings of Numan's previous three albums), instead presenting a more hard rock-like sound, combined with an abundant use of sampling. Heavy-metal-like riffs and guitar sounds were a lot more aggressive than on the preceding albums, and the electric bass contrasted with the heavy guitar sound. Numan also decided to use sound as a percussion, in lieu of conventional percussive instruments. The distinctive sound of the PPG Wave synthesiser was introduced on this album, developing memorable synth riffs; the dream-like female backing vocals were still fully embraced from Warriors. Saxophones were infrequently used on the album, along with the viola that had last been featured on Telekon. Lyrically, the album has a haunting, oppressive theme with several references to God throughout. The poignant track "A Child with the Ghost" was Numan's tribute to his friend and former bassist Paul Gardiner, who died in February 1984 from a deliberate heroin overdose. The Industrial undertones of the album would be more fully explored on Numan's follow-up album, The Fury (1985).

For the visual look of the new album, Numan wanted something completely different from the black jumpsuits, grey coats, and black leather that had formed his visual look up until that that point. Instead he appeared on the cover of the new album (and during the subsequent tour) as a white-skinned, white-clad "Iceman" with blue makeup and hair, resulting in one the most striking looks of his career.

The title track was released as a single in October 1984, a month ahead of the album, but it only made it to #32 on the UK charts, making it his worst-charting single alongside "Sister Surprise" from the preceding album Warriors. The album itself was released in November 1984, but only managed a lowly #45 in the UK charts, making it both Numan's worst-charting album by that point and his first album to miss the UK top 30. In chart terms, Berserker was outperformed by The Plan, an album of early Numan material released by his former record label Beggars Banquet in September 1984 that reached #29. "My Dying Machine" was released as the second and final single off Berserker in December of the same year, but it only managed to climb to #66, snatching the title of Numan's worst-charting single from "Berserker" and "Sister Surprise".

[edit] Different releases

The album was originally released in two different-length versions in the UK. The CD and MC releases featured longer versions of all tracks, while the LP features shorter mixes. [3]

The album was not released in the United States until 1998 when Cleopatra Records issued all Numa Records-era Numan albums with altered artworks and additional bonus tracks. The Berserker reissue featured four bonus tracks, including extended mixes of the title track and "My Dying Machine". The artwork used a different typeface from the original and the colours were slightly more purple-tinted than on the original.

In 1999 the album was reissued in the UK by Eagle Records. This version maintained the original artwork but added five B-sides and outtakes as bonus tracks, and unlike the U.S. reissue, it included liner notes.

[edit] The Berserker Tour

Numan's 19-date UK Berserker Tour of November-December 1984 featured a stylized "high-tech Roman temple" stage set to compliment Numan's white leather jacket/white make-up/blue-hair look. The tour spawned a double-album, White Noise, recorded live at the Hammersmith Odeon in December 1984. The same concert was captured (albeit in edited form) on the video The Berserker Tour; both the album and the video were released in 1985. In early 2008, the video of the entire concert was released for the first time, on the DVD Cold Warning. The DVD contains, as an extra feature, a 2007 interview in which Numan discusses his recollections of the Berserker album and tour. Numan mentions that Berserker was influenced by Trevor Horn's production work with Frankie Goes to Hollywood, and that distribution problems and a lack of media airplay contributed to its disappointing sales.

[edit] Track listing

  1. "Berserker" – 5:50
  2. "This is New Love" – 6:15
  3. "The Secret" – 5:54
  4. "My Dying Machine" – 5:33
  5. "Cold Warning" – 4:03
  6. "Pump it Up" – 4:45
  7. "The God Film" – 4:41
  8. "A Child with The Ghost" – 4:04
  9. "The Hunter" – 4:31

[edit] Bonus tracks on the 1998 U.S. reissue

  1. "Berserker" (extended) – 6:47
  2. "Empty Bed, Empty Heart" – 3:12
  3. "My Dying Machine" (extended) – 9:23
  4. "Here am I" – 5:46
  • "Berserker" (extended) is the longer mix from the original 1984 cassette release that was also released on 12" single.

[edit] Bonus tracks on the 1999 UK reissue

  1. "Empty Bed, Empty Heart" – 3:10
  2. "Here Am I" – 5:44
  3. "She Cries" – 5:58
  4. "Rumour" – 2:45
  5. "This Ship Comes Apart" – 3:58
  • "Rumour", although a Numan solo track for the Berserker sessions, was the B-side to the "London Times" single with Radio Heart in 1987.[3]

[edit] Musicians

  • Gary Numan – vocals, synthesisers
  • Chris Payne – viola, synthesisers
  • Cedric Sharpley – drums
  • Rrusell Bell – guitars
  • John Webb – synthesisers, programming
  • Martin Elliot – bass
  • Andy Coughlan – bass
  • Pat Kyle – saxophone
  • Tessa Niles – backing vocals
  • Tracey Ackerman – backing vocals
  • Zaine Griff – backing vocals
  • Mike Smith – PPG Programming
  • Ian Herron – PPG Programming

[edit] References

  1. ^ Praying to the Aliens: An Autobiography by Gary Numan with Steve Malins. (1997, André Deutsch Limited), p.194
  2. ^ Praying to the Aliens: An Autobiography by Gary Numan with Steve Malins. (1997, André Deutsch Limited), p.193
  3. ^ a b Jonas Wårstad's Gary Numan discography, retrieved 21. 7. 2007.