OMD

Dazzle Ships (1983) ...

Orchestral Manoeuvres in the Dark's fourth album, considered a flop after the hit Architecture and Morality, but now regarded as 'influential', comes across as a Cold War take on Kraftwerk's RadioActivity...  This was probably their highpoint in creativity in their 1980s period ...

Dazzle Ships (parts II, III and VII) ...

After the astounding reception afforded to Architecture and Morality in 1981, Dazzle Ships was a commercial and critical failure for OMD. Yet it stands the test of time as a heroic statement, succeeding, from the tinny brass opening of 'Radio Prague' onwards, in walking a tightrope of arch camp aesthetics and a seriously-minded, yet ludicrously overblown experiment. Try reading Andy McCluskey’s lyrics in hard print and they at times feel as empty as a wide horizon. But when harnessed to the deeply elegiac melodies (those rich synth tones, slow-marching drums), and a battery of sounds evocative of war at sea and radio propaganda, the whole comes alive with undeniable panache.

Of course, it was never going to sell, no matter how exuberant a pop song 'Telegraph' might be. Cold War geopolitics appear in 'International', which opens with a news report telling of a girl from Nicaragua whose hands had been cut off at the wrists. 'ABC Auto-Industry', meanwhile, features a Czechoslovakian radio programme on the use of robots in factories. 'Dazzle Ships (Parts II, III And VII)' is a three part instrumental composed of the soundtrack samples of conflict above and below the waves, foghorns and sonar pings, the throbbing of engines heard underwater. This is followed by the preposterously-titled 'Romance Of The Telescope' with its dreamy elegance and chorus of processed voices. 'Silent Running' is so magisterially pompous it demands a half hour of enforced standing ovation, the first one to stop getting a firm hand on the shoulder on the way out of the State Opera... thequietus.com

Radio Waves (Beach Boys meet Kraftwerk) ... 

International ...

Genetic Engineering ...

Dazzle Ships will be performed in full at Museum of Liverpool in November 2014 ...