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Orchestral Manoeuvres in the Dark

From HitStory, the pop encyclopedia of School of Rock · Artist

Orchestral Manoeuvres in the Dark, OMD for short, is an English electronic band. Andy McCluskey (vocals and bass) and Paul Humphreys (keyboards and vocals) knew each other from primary school in Meols, near Liverpool. As teenagers they played in local bands and discovered Kraftwerk. In 1978 they started OMD together. They chose the long name so that nobody would mistake them for a punk band. They had little money and played on second-hand instruments and home-built equipment. On stage they played along with a tape recorder that they called Winston, after the protagonist of George Orwell's 1984.

Music and breakthrough

Their first single Electricity was released in 1979 on Factory Records, with a sleeve by Peter Saville. Gary Numan took them on tour that same year. With the advance from their new label they built a studio of their own in Liverpool. After the debut Orchestral Manoeuvres in the Dark (1980) came Organisation, with the anti-war song Enola Gay, which was a hit all over Europe. Architecture & Morality (1981) yielded three hit singles. The experimental Dazzle Ships (1983) was poorly received, after which the band became more accessible with Junk Culture (1984) and broke through in America with If You Leave from the film Pretty in Pink.

Influence

OMD combined a bare, experimental approach with pop melodies: synthesizers, drum machines and clear vocal lines. In doing so McCluskey and Humphreys became important founders of synth-pop. After a split and a period with McCluskey alone, they came back together in 2006. Many later electronic acts cite OMD as an example.

Listening

Listening tip. Listen to Enola Gay from 1980. Notice the cheerful synthesizer melody and the fast drum machine, and how they sound against the lyrics, which are about the atomic bomb on Hiroshima.

Discography

Studio albums

In School of Rock

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See also

Categories: Artists