Replicas Redux - Expanded 2008 Tour Edition with Bonus 3rd CD.

In early 2008 Gary Numan celebrates his 30th year in music and turns 50. To celebrate this, the pioneering electronic album Replicas is being re-issued as Gary Numan & Tubeway Army - Replicas Redux on February 25, 2008. This is a week before Numan performs the original LP plus B-sides on a 15 date UK tour in March 2008. The album includes the breakthrough single 'Are 'Friends' Electric?', which gave Numan his first simultaneous Number 1 single and album when Replicas joined it at the top of the charts a few weeks later.

The new Redux re-issue features for the first time a complete earlier version of the Replicas album recorded in late 1978 and January 1979, along with the original B-sides and further out-takes, adding up to 27 tracks across the two CDs of the standard release.

However, released exclusively though NuWorld until March 31, 2008, is a special 3 CD version of the Redux album containing these extra tracks:

Are 'Friends' Electric? (Renegade Soundwave Mix)
Replicas (Early Version 2)
Down In The Park (Early Version 2)
Are 'Friends' Electric? (Early Version 2)
Replicas (Early Version 3)
Are 'Friends' Electric? (Renegade Soundwave Instrumental)

Here are some of the early Redux reviews: 
'It's a fact that in 1979 - Replicas' original year of release - Gary Numan's impact was all-conquering. 'Are 'Friends' Electric?' was an authentic, Peel-flavoured sensation. The album followed the single to No 1 and being weirdly, coldly funky, transfixed a generation with its clipped, machine-age imagery. It was 'Down In The Park' that did the most damage. Stark and utterly compelling, it's a frozen monster.'
Uncut 4/5 

'Replicas still feels timeless 29 years after its original release. The plaintive, wounded residue of humanity in Numan's petrified, robotic whine becomes more affecting the further we get away from the record's inception, but it was also the start of what we now know as industrial, injecting an element of personal testimony that formed the template for Marilyn Manson, NIN and a host of others. The thrill of recognition whenever you hear 'Are 'Friends' Electric?', the neon-streaked, monotone funk of 'The Machman' or the atmospheric hinterlands of 'Down In The Park' isn't just down to the various cover versions, samples and adverts that have recycled them since, it's also because Replicas, for all its future-shock thrills and chills, still resonates as a pristine musical utopia.'
Classic Rock 8/10 

'May 1979, when Tubeway Army appeared on Top Of The Pops with that curious, chorus-less synth epic ' Are 'Friends' Electric?' was the moment 21-year-old Gary Numan, and not Phil Oakey or John Foxx or any of the other claimants to the throne, became Britain's first star of electronic pop music. As a snapshot of 1979, Replicas is just as accurate a reflection of the popular imagination as London Calling or Armed Forces. 'Down In The Park''s gorgeous melody and the dizzying 'Me! I Disconnect From You' are just two of the many standouts.'
Mojo 4/5 

'The use of electronic keyboards in the late 1970s was seen as a revolutionary act in itself, decried by the Musicians Union as taking away the jobs of the establishments jobbing sidemen. Numan took this to an extreme within the mainstream pop world, creating a Frankensteinian monster which would soon get out of the control of its creator (ain't that always the way) who would have to take radical steps to save himself . . . Whether it's 'Are 'Friends' Electric?'s alienated pop or 'Down In The Park's twisted entertainment, Replicas is the ultimate man machine. Highly recommended.'
Art Rocker 

'Now repackaged with a bonus disc of early versions, this 1979 synth landmark's blend of alien strangeness, Kraftwerk electronica and uneasy paranoia and isolation has aged well. Besides the Number 1 'Are 'Friends' Electric?', 'Me! Disconnect From You' remains a great pop moment and 'Down In The Park' still carries an icy chill.'
Q Magazine