Orchestral Manoeuvres In The Dark: Architecture & Morality & More Live

Introduction

After a successful spot at the Nokia Night of the Proms in Germany, Andy McCluskey and Paul Humphreys had the great idea of reforming 80's synth legends Orchestral Manoeuvres In The Dark and taking them back on the road. Re-recruiting backing stalwarts Martin Cooper and Mal Holmes, the band went on tour in 2007. Following the trend of other 80's legends (namely Gary Numan, Human League and John Foxx), OMD decided that the focus of their concert would be their seminal album Architecture and Morality.

Released in 1981, the album was named from an idea by Martha Ladly from Martha and the Muffins and was the album that catapulted OMD into the limelight and worldwide acclaim. The initial single Souvenir was the first single to feature keyboard whiz Paul Humphreys take lead vocal duty from bass-playing lead man Andy McCluskey, but perhaps more importantly introduced the OMD choral synth sound that permeated this album and gave it a rich warm atmosphere. The other two singles from this album were odes to a French female martyr, Joan of Arc and Maid of Orleans. All three singles hit the UK top 5.



Then sadly it all went wrong with the release of fourth album Dazzle Ships. Described as a fractured masterpiece, Dazzle Ships dropped the choral trademark and featured a host of sampled tracks that were a little ahead of their time. Sales were poor and the experimental synth band had to learn to sing for their supper, ratcheting up a myriad of hit singles until their disbandment in 1988, musical and creative differences taking their toll.

McCluskey came back in the 90's with a new lineup and a trio of albums before calling it a day again and unleashing Atomic Kitten and Kerry Katona on the world - see if you'd just bought Dazzle Ships at the time, we could've been spared. Still, the last laugh appears to be with McCluskey and Humphreys as Dazzle Ships has recently been remastered and re-released to pretty much all round critical acclaim.

Is the world ready for Orchestral Manoeuvres In The Dark again? Here's hoping so, the world needs more OMD and more Peter Saville designs...

This DVD is the visual accompaniment to the recent live CD release of virtually the same setlist (a handful of tracks removed due to media storage limitations).

Visual

It's a 16:9 picture and it looks great. Variety of shots that are nicely edited together, and the picture is sharp and really shows off the glorious video backdrops by Hambi Haralambous.

Audio

Choice of three soundtracks; DTS, 5.1 Surround and 2.0 Stereo. I sampled the DTS soundtrack and it was perfect. Bass was thumping, drums had a really large sound and the synths so clear. This was designed to be played loud.

The interviews are subtitled in English, German, French, Spanish, Italian, Dutch and Portugese.

Extras

Alternate Edits of Joan of Arc (Maid of Orleans) and The New Stone Age - different visuals to the main concert as the video backdrops (or portions thereof) are integrated in the picture. I was really impressed with the result for Maid of Orleans, but sadly The New Stone Age wasn't that great for me as it just reminded me of Top of the Pops.

Band Interview - a great 20 minutes spent with the band, interviewed separately and edited together under different subject headings. Nice to hear Martin Cooper and Mal Holmes interviewed as well.

Hambi Haralambous Interview - short interview with the designer of the video backdrops, talking about what was required by Andy McCluskey and a short demo of some of them.

Overall

Well, here we are again…

It's been a good and hectic six months or so for fans of Orchestral Manoeuvres In The Dark, it's almost as if there's been a bit of a reappraisal of their importance in the history of synth music. There has been a raft of re-releases of material that has pleased fans of this band no end.

Aside from the fantastic Dazzle Ships re-release, the other four releases have centred around their seminal classic Architecture and Morality. Aside from the last reissue of A&M (this time coupled with a DVD of the Drury Lane concert in '81), we had the fantastic Rob Finighan produced documentary called Souvenir which traced the history of the band up to and focussing on Architecture and Morality. This documentary also covered the Nokia concert and the rehearsals for the forthcoming tour. Now we have twin release of audio and visual records of the highly successful tour from last year.

What strikes me about this DVD, and to a lesser extent on the CD, is the enthusiasm of both the fans and the band. They haven't played together for about 19 years, but god, do they sound tight. There is a certain amount of sequenced stuff and the stage setup is very simple (no banks of keyboards here, modern technology allows all the sounds required to be sampled into one for each player), but these guys can still cut it live. I watched with envy as Martin Cooper's hands slid effortlessly across the keyboard for the likes of Sailing On The Seven Seas, and bar some minor improvements on a couple of songs, it sounds musically at least like it did on vinyl. It's as if they've never been away...



One of the seven wonders of the world is Andy McCluskey's windmill dancing, and it's only half an hour before he lets rip on Maid of Orleans. It's a joyous sight to behold, although quite why he feels he has to apologise for it is beyond me. It's an OMD staple and it wouldn't quite be the same without it.

I'm hopeful that new material will come in the next year or so from this band, and whilst I hope there'll be room for the experiments and the choral, I'm pretty confident I'll like it regardless. I suspect even fair-weather fans of the band and of the 80's will like this as it covers some of their very best and well-known material, a slew of hit singles played after A&M. A fantastic 'waste' of an hour and a half that I will happily repeat quite soon and often.

Recommended.