Orchestral Manoeuvres in the Dark [Original recording reissued]

Orchestral Manoeuvres in the Dark | Format: Audio CD

Product Details

• Audio CD (June 29, 1992)
• Number of Discs: 1
• Format: Original recording reissued
• Label: Virgin Records Us
• ASIN: B000000WG5
• Also Available in: Audio CD  |  Audio Cassette  |  Vinyl  |  MP3 Download
• Average Customer Review: 4.2 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (12 customer reviews)
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #377,896 in Music (See Top 100 in Music)

Track Listings

1. Bunker Soldiers

2. Almost

3. Mystereality

4. Electricity

5. The Messerchmitt Twins

6. Messages

7. Julia's Song

8. Red Frame/White Light

9. Dancing

10. Pretending to See the Future

Editorial Reviews

OMD's first full-length album won as much attention for its brilliant die-cut cover (which MICROWERKS pays homage to) as for its music, and its music is wonderful. For all that, this is a young band, working for just about the last time with original percussionist Winston; there's both a variety and ambition present that never overreaches itself. The influences are perfectly clear throughout, but Andy McCluskey and Paul Humphreys would have been the last people to deny how Kraftwerk, Sparks, and other avatars of post-guitar pop touched them. What's undeniably thrilling, though, is how quickly the two synthesized their own style. Consider Almost, with its dramatic keyboard opening suddenly shifting into a collage of wheezing sound beats and McCluskey's precise bass and heartfelt, lovelorn singing and lyrics. The chilly keyboard base of The Messerschmitt Twins gets offset by McCluskey's steadily stronger vocal, while the swooping, slightly hollow singing on Mystereality slips around a quietly quirky arrangement, helped just enough by Martin Cooper's at-the-time guest sax. There's little doubt what the two highlights are - the re-recorded and arguably better version of Electricity is pure zeitgeist, a celebration of synth pop's incipient reign with fast beats and even faster singing. The mysterious chimes and spy movie dramatics of Red Frame/White Light (inspired by a phone box) are almost as striking. Orchestral Manoeuvres in the Dark is just like the band that made it - perfectly of its time and easily transcending it. --This text refers to an alternate Audio CD edition.

Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

4 of 4 people found the following review helpful:

4.0 out of 5 stars +1/2 - Domestic reissue of 1980 UK synthpop landmark, July 18, 2010

By 

hyperbolium (Earth, USA) - See all my reviews
(TOP 50 REVIEWER)    (HALL OF FAME REVIEWER)   

This review is from: Orchestral Manoeuvres in the Dark (Audio CD)

OMD is one of the transitional entities that bridged early electronic music pioneers like Kraftwerk, Brian Eno and Wendy Carlos, with the synthpop bands that populated the New Wave and dominated the early years of MTV. The band's 1979 single, "Electricity," pushed its synthetic instruments and machine rhythms up front, but warmed them with Andy McCluskey's bass, a catchy electric pianotron riff and a duet vocal from McCluskey and Paul Humphries that celebrated the power source of their music. The flip, "Almost," is an equal combination of synthetics and warmth, but the keyboards are less angular and more expansive, with a soaring lead line and steam-like backing for the lush, Bryan Ferry-esque vocal of longing and indecision.

For this first full-length album, issued in 1980, McCluskey and Humphries followed the same template, using their primitive electronic instruments to create pulsating and jabbing backings for vocals that borrow the strident tone of mod and punk. Their lyrics are often impressionistic sketches of emotions and concepts, including a soldier's life (a theme they'd revisit to even greater effect on "Enola Gay"), the illusions of time, and fatalism. The new-wave "Red Frame/White Light" unspools a series of telephone box snapshots, and the album's most conventional lyric in "Messages" finds the singer recoiling from the unwanted contact of a departed lover. The boozy near-instrumental "Dancing" sounds like a record caught off spindle, and the atmospheric "The Messerschmitt Twins" brings to mind the Human League's first full-length, Reproduction.

Microwerks' CD reissue is delivered in a tri-fold cardboard slipcase that reproduces the original LPs die-cut front cover and adds excellent liner notes by Jim Allen. The original ten tracks are augmented by four bonuses (though not the band-disliked Martin Hannett 7" productions of "Electricity" and "Almost," which were included on EMI's 2003 import reissue). There is a longer single of "Messages" whose bassier, fuller mix greatly improves upon the album version, and three B-sides: the dark "I Betray My Friends," an instrumental remix/dub of "Messages" titled "Taking Sides Again," and a pop-staccato cover of Lou Reed's "Waiting for the Man." Though critics more highly laud the band's follow-ups, Organisation and Architecture & Morality, this debut laid out the template and still sounds innovative today. 4-1/2 stars, if allowed fractional ratings. [©2010 hyperbolium dot com]

4 of 4 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars An under-rated gem, March 13, 2002

By 

"skak1" - See all my reviews

This review is from: Orchestral Manoeuvres in the Dark (Audio CD)

OMD singles give the image of a group devoted to producing good pop tunes. Their albums paint a very different picture. This group was heavily influenced by Vevlet Underground (doesn't the title of 'Red frame/white light' remind you of something? and they also did a cover version of 'Waiting for the man') and Joy Division but also prepared to experiment in the most radical ways with the possibilities offered by new technological advances such as 'Emulators'. The version of 'Messages' here falls short of the glory of the single but the other two singles, the classic 'Electricity' and 'red Frame/White Light', are good. High points for me on this album are the superb 'Messerschmitt twins', the haunting synthesiser of 'Almost' (terrible lyrics though) and 'Julia's Song' (which sounds totally different from anything else they ever produced). 'Pretending to see the future' unfortunately is less convincing than a later live version released on flexi-disc (whatever happened to them?). The experimentation on this album is less radical than it would become but there is a good reason why DJ John Peel liked this group so much- they were very original for the time. The album has a certain youthful naivety which might not appeal to all.

3 of 3 people found the following review helpful:

4.0 out of 5 stars totally unique experimentation, July 1, 2003

By 

Tim Lagcher (Belhaven, NC USA) - See all my reviews

This review is from: Orchestral Manoeuvres in the Dark (Audio CD)

I got this CD at a local outlet store, and i must tell you the content is a beautiful combination of dark, synth driven vocals and superb early 80s electronica. Unlike some of OMD's later albums, this one is much rougher and darker than any other i've heard. "Almost" is my favorite cut on the album, basically because of its fearful and cold driven synthline. "Bunker Soldiers" is one of those songs that really stick in your head for a while, as is "Red Frame/White Light". I also enjoy listening to "Dancing", which is kind of like a puzzle you keep trying to figure out but can't. "Mystereality" comes close to being too lighthearted for the album, though. But you can tell their experimentation pays off in the end with the very succesful "Electricity" and "Messages". Overall I was more than happy with the CD though. A wonderful debut album for OMD, I highly recommend it to anyone who are fans of McCluskey and Humphreys.