Editorial Reviews
Clockworks, Juliet
Music Review:
Music Review
100 Chillout Classics [Box set] [Import]
8 Grand Suites for Harpsichord
7 Colours [CD-single] [Import]
You Can't Keep a Good Man Down [Import]
Ziggy Stardust & the Spiders from Mars [Limited Edition] [Live] [Original recording remastered]
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
Album Description
Alan Replica - "Clockworks, Juliet" Ninthwave Records releases here the new Alan Replica (aka MASQ) album "Clockworks, Juliet" featuring a set of 14 homogeneous tracks of a futurist rock style. The songs, rough cut electro, are filled with pulsating sequences, heavy drums and layers of guitars, developing into anthem-like choruses. The atmosphere, a mix of cold sci-fi machinery, rock guitars and orchestral ornaments supports the insinuating melancholic melodies served by Alan Replica’s precise arrangements and sharp voice. The lyrics, relying on a machines world pretext à la Phillip K. Dick, issue strange emotions like disposable snapshots, while evoking topics such as the place of an individual in personal and social relations, deceiving situations and loss. ‘Underlying, "Clockworks, Juliet" highlights the automatisms we use to evade thinking our mortal condition’ (like making music?). Still, cheer up! The music is not as dark and gloomy, and if the influence of pioneers in the genre like Sparks, Ultravox, Gary Numan, Depeche Mode, New Order, Anne Clark, Visage… Is well present, Alan Replica walks a path of his own; his constructions based on vintage synthesizers and different period ornaments, introduce a concept of multi-storied (stratums?) moments, pleasingly to the ear. The other pleasant surprise (for the eye this time) is the CD cover, finely-worked by designer Todd M. Lemieux. Producer, David Richards at Ninthwave Records (Macondo, Spray, Empire State Human …) who spotted this artist, has, from the quote of Alan Replica himself, exceptionally enough in the business to be outlined here, left full artistic directions to the artist… Hail! Hail! Futurist Rock! Alan Replica is not really a newcomer, he started back in the 80’s with a band named MASQ, then disappeared for a while; this marks a return to studio work. ----------------------------------------------