Aside from attracting widespread essential acclaim, Orchestral Manoeuvres In The Dark’s debut single, “Electricity,” led to the band signing a significant report cope with Virgin Records subsidiary Dindisc within the autumn of 1979, which led to the discharge of their self-titled debut album early the next 12 months.
The recording of the fascinating, Kraftwerk-esque “Electricity” was overseen by Factory’s in-house producer, Martin Hannett, whose revolutionary methodology on Joy Division’s highly-acclaimed debut album, Unknown Pleasures, ensured his was a hip title to drop – each then and now. However, whereas OMD have been impressed by Hannett’s maverick strategy, they knew he wouldn’t be manning the console for the album.
“We were a bit intimidated by him,” bassist/vocalist Andy McCluskey explains. “We ended up using our self-produced version of ‘Electricity’ for the Factory single, because Martin’s version was too lush, and he also washed [its B-side] ‘Almost’ in reverb, making it far more ambient than we’d envisaged. With hindsight, what he did [to ‘Almost’] was beautiful and I did eventually come to love it. But ultimately, Martin wanted to impose his vision of our music on us whether we liked it or not – and we already had a clear idea of how we wanted Orchestral Manoeuvres In The Dark to sound.”
Listen to Orchestral Manoeuvres In The Dark’s debut album on Apple Music and Spotify.
An entire new palette of sounds
When they pieced collectively their debut album, OMD have been nonetheless a duo that includes McCluskey and keyboardist/co-songwriter Paul Humphreys, although their minimal synth-pop was fleshed out by the pre-recorded sounds they’d saved on Winston, their reel-to-reel tape recorder. However, as “Electricity” and “Almost” had already proven, the Merseyside duo have been studying to craft one thing actually chic from the primitive assets at their disposal.
“All we had at that stage was a Korg Micro-Preset synth – which we’d bought cheaply from a Kay’s shopping catalogue – along with a Korg MS-20 and a Roland FH-1 synth,” Humphreys reveals. “It was all really basic stuff, but while it wasn’t sophisticated, it still opened up a whole new palette of sounds for us. That gear formed the bedrock of both Orchestral Manoeuvres In The Dark and [second album] Organisation.”
Respecting OMD’s imaginative and prescient – and conscious that they had extra within the tank of the caliber of “Electricity” – Dindisc made a radical resolution: they supplied Humphreys and McCluskey the prospect to not solely self-produce their debut album, but additionally agreed to finance constructing a studio to report it.
Consequently, after they completed their first UK tour supporting Gary Numan, OMD quickly assembled their facility – dubbed the Gramophone Suite – on the primary flooring of an previous warehouse in Liverpool’s metropolis middle. Wasting no time in any respect, Humphreys and McCluskey proceeded to report Orchestral Manoeuvres In The Dark, delivering it to Dindisc by Christmas 1979.
“I really love all the songs on it”
“In retrospect, it seems incredible a major record label would give two 19-year-olds 30 grand and say, ‘Yeah, build your own studio and make your own record, without any A&R involvement or anything,’” McCluskey laughs. “But essentially, we were budgeting for failure. We were so utterly sure we wouldn’t sell any records we thought it was practical to spend the money on the studio. That way, we thought we’d at least have somewhere to record when we got dropped.”
OMD’s pragmatism, nevertheless, belied the very fact they have been sitting on a landmark piece of labor. Taking in every thing from the motorik, Neu!-esque “Mystereality” to the mesmeric, mantra-like “The Messerschmitt Twins” and “Dancing”’s summary bossa nova, Orchestral Manoeuvres In The Dark was stuffed with beguilingly brittle digital pop songs – most of which Humphreys and McCluskey had lengthy since honed to near-perfection of their authentic rehearsal house at Humphreys’ mom’s home. As a bonus, their modern debut album additionally got here housed in a memorable sleeve designed by Peter Saville and Ben Kelly which went on to win a Designers And Art Directors Award.
“Ben had designed a door for a shop in London’s Covent Garden which had this die-cut metal grille and he suggested Peter have a look at it,” McCluskey says. “As soon as he saw it, Peter knew the hi-tech die-cut design would be perfect for our album cover. To this day, I’m still convinced half the people who bought it were primarily seduced by the sleeve!”
“Nobody was going to stop us”
When Orchestral Manoeuvres In The Dark was launched, on February 22, 1980, the media shortly realized it was a keeper. Typical of the constructive press which greeted its arrival, NME’s Paul Morley enthused, “How fine and different their melodies can be… OMD’s debut LP is one of the best of the year.” With the constructive reward translating into gross sales, the album peaked at No.27 on the UK Top 40 earlier than yielding the duo’s first gold disc.
Further success adopted within the early summer season of 1980, when a sturdy, re-recorded model of one other album spotlight – the haunting “Messages” – rewarded OMD with their first UK Top 20 hit, successfully launching the band into the mainstream and making certain their longevity.
“Looking back on it, I’m really proud of that first album and I actually really love all the songs on it,” McCluskey displays.
“To me, it sounds like a glorified garage recording, but it has a naïve charm which I still really enjoy. They were songs we’d been writing since the age of 16 and we distilled it down to what we wanted it to sound like. We were young, determined and idealistic – and absolutely nobody was going to stop us.”
This piece was first revealed in 2020. We are re-publishing this interview immediately in celebration of the anniversary of the album’s launch. OMD’s career-spanning field set, Souvenir will be purchased right here.