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Dramatis "For Future Reference" on CD at last....well, kinda

R. Stott | Aurora, CO USA | 08/26/2000

(3 out of 5 stars)

"Dramatis was essentially the backup band for Gary Numan in the late 70's, early 80's. They released an LP called "For Future Reference" which, if it had not been for the die-hard Numan fans, probably would have gone completely unnoticed (even if it HAD been released in the US, which it wasn't), despite some fun, hook-laden songs ("Oh 2025" for example). This CD will likely only appeal to the Numan fan masses or fans of early 80's synth/new wave material. The material does not really stand the test of time, unlike the bulk of Numan's material (check out "Replicas" or "Telekon" for a truly Numan experience). Numan appears only on the track "Love Needs No Disguise" and yet the CD is marketed as a Tubeway Army/Numan CD billing it as "Project Dramatis" for some inexplicable reason. I wish this had been released in it's original form with, perhaps, some unreleased material that may have been uncovered in the archives. On the plus side, for those of us who were never able to actually FIND the original Dramatis LP, it's a blessing to finally have this material released particularly on CD :)"

For Future Reference

DJ Gilbert | Phillipsburg, NJ United States | 06/29/2002

(5 out of 5 stars)

"Dramatis was a band formed by Gary Numan's back-up musicians. Their only album, "For Future Reference" was released in the mid 80's with guest vocals by Numan on one track, "Love Needs No Disguise". The rest of the album, whose songs were sung mainly by keyboardist Denis Haines and guitarist Rrussell Bell (that's not a typo) was highly creative and masterfully performed and sounded very much like Ultravox in their prime. My personal favorite track is "Human Sacrifice" which has a hard, industrial feel though it predates the movement by a good year or two. Some remixing has been done to the album for the cd release ("I Only Find Rewind" has a different drum machine track and "Turn" and "Take Me Home" no longer fade into eachother as they did on the original vinyl) but these minor changes really don't disturb the overall sound. I was a little disappointed that this album didn't feature the later singles as bonus tracks but either way you can't beat having this classic and long ignored album on CD."