Orchestral Manoeuvres In The Dark - JUNK CULTURE POLL!

Architecture & Morality and NOW Dazzle Ships (although it wasn't always the case) are the ones that get all the plaudits these days, and Organisation has bowled many a convert over with its dark, cloudy sound. But for me, this might just be the most underrated OMD album of them all. It captures them at their post-Dazzle Ships "what the hell do we now?" period, where they embraced their more 'pop' side, but still managed to keep things a little bit interesting, before they went the whole way with the Crush and The Pacific Age albums.

What strikes me the most about Junk Culture is it embraces textures that they didn't really tackle before or after, especially the Carribean/calypso elements which seem very unique to this album.

Probably my favourite album artwork of theirs too... the picture above doesn't do justice to how sleek and exotic this album feels on vinyl.

Talking Loud And Clear, such a lovely song.

There's a great slew of B-sides from the Junk Culture period too, which I'd probably say was their best time for B-sides overall! I mean, not only did you have '(The Angels Keep Turning) The Wheels Of The Universe' on the free (one-sided) single that came with the album, but also 'The Avenue', 'Her Body In My Soul', 'Garden City'... the original version of 'All Wrapped Up' on the B-side to 'Never Turn Away' ('Wrappup') isn't too bad either!

Tough choice. This was the first new album of theirs since I got into them with "Dazzle ships" in 83, and I devoured this album and the singles on each day of release. Glad you didn't include the embarrassment of riches on the b-sides cos it would be even harder then. From the album itself it's a choice between "Love and violence", "White trash" and "All wrapped up". I think it'll be the latter, not just because the song is wonderful and unlike anything else they recorded (you could say it was the Montserrat spirit, but the album was finished in Belgium - it was the year OMD were tax exiles), but also for the fact at the time of release the song soundtracked the imaginary video in my head between me, the girl in school I had a crush on, and her boyfriend. My only regret is they didn't play it when I saw them tour the album - it was a regular encore starter, they brought the percussion onstage for it, then took it away again. Shame. Good album, good gig too.

"Wrappup" isn't the original version of "All wrapped up". It was a remix done by their manager (Gordon Trolier iirc) to prove his musical credential, and I think it's horrible. The "Never turn away" single did not need to exist at all imo.

Just remembered, the support on that tour was Fiction Factory who were fucking awful. Even "Feels like heaven" went down like a lead balloon.

"Wrappup" isn't the original version of "All wrapped up". It was a remix done by their manager (Gordon Trolier iirc) to prove his musical credential, and I think it's horrible. The "Never turn away" single did not need to exist at all imo.

― Rob M Revisited, Saturday, November 24, 2012 7:07 PM (1 hour ago) Bookmark Flag Post Permalink

You sure about that? It seems like a whole different recording to me rather than just a remix... it's a different vocal, even! I do agree with you that 'Never Turn Away' made for a not-so-good single, although I personally love both songs!

Hmm, this is a weird one for me. I actually prefer "Crush" to "Junk Culture," and listening again to the latter there's not a lot that grabs me. Besides all the obvious stuff that makes OMD so good, of course. Just nothing grabs me as particularly noteworthy. Maybe "Love and Violence?"

Another thing about this record as well is its lyrical content, especially on side two, with tracks like 'Love And Violence', 'All Wrapped Up' and 'White Trash'. I guess I'm referring to lyrics like "if my fist doesn't get you before she tears you apart", and "I'm going to break every bone in your body" and the general theme of 'violence' which runs throughout these songs. Andy McCluskey had definitely never written blatantly angry lyrics like this before, and I don't think he ever did afterwards. Not even 'Was It Something I Said?' from Sugar Tax, a pissed-off song aimed at Paul Humphreys seems as violent; in that song he begs him not to phone him or even 'have him on his mind', rather than threatening to smash his face in! It's curious that an album full of latin percussion, brass, and a 'summery feel' to it should have these moments of angriness. I can only wonder what was going down at the time for the lyrics to come out like that.

I'm incredibly tempted to vote for 'All Wrapped Up', myself, because I think it would have made a great single - and it definitely makes more sense as a single in my mind than 'Never Turn Away', which eventually was a single. However, 'Never Turn Away' is also a contender for my vote... the darkest Paul Humphreys sung track that OMD ever recorded, maybe? I love the mood and atmosphere that the track has.

Definitely going to give this one more thought!

I'm definitely going to give t

-t +it a few more listens before I ultimately decide :)

XP Hmm... I'm sure I read in the "Messages" book that "Wrappup" was a remix by their manager, but looking online everyone on the OMD forum says it's an original recording and "All wrapped up" was a remake. Yes, it's a different vocal, but it may have been on the multitrack. Whatever, I don't like it that much.

One problem I have with "Never turn away" is that the intro sounds almost exactly like the music that Channel 4 would put between their programmes when they didn't have enough adverts when they started.

Going to vote "All Wrapped Up" just to be a dick, alright?

I wouldn't consider you to be a dick for voting 'All Wrapped Up' at all! It's catchy as all hell!

Yup, eventually went with 'All Wrapped Up'.

Me too. Are we the only people voting? Been thinking about "Junk culture" a lot because of this poll, the period of OMD reflecting on failure and what they did about it. But it seems it's only you and me here so I shan't bother.

Oh, I'd be more than happy to read your thoughts on this album :)

I doubt we'd be the only people voting: even on the quietest of album poll threads, there's still a fair amount of lurkers that put a vote in for their favourite tracks. I sometimes can't help it would be nice hearing from some of 'em sometimes, though.

Agreed. I'll write tomorrow when I've got a bit more time, there's a lot I can say about this album.

I'm interested too fwiw!

i am also interested, but because i've never really invested much time into this album i've entered creepy lurker mode

*watches*

Actually I haven't really given this record a proper listen for a long time and even then I've always found it a bit off. So it'd be good to hear some thoughts on it.

Oh God, you'll be hanging on my every word. It'll be long, sprawling, taking in my personal relationship to the record, and the circumstances of the record itself, it'll be horrible... Yep, I'll do it tomorrow.

I'm definitely looking forward to it, because I have a bit of a long history with this record myself!

As I do all my net on my phone, I'll write it on my PC in the morning and upload it in my library tomorrow.

And of course the album features plenty of this on it, which is always a plus ;)

http://api.ning.com/files/WyNEgvwlrIb2QoVUMSkF79TwTJoJlXNQDgQ705mn3L2536n*KvcQs3Xjfo82iCVsWtYybwHc7bDpdv1J2P9RTE3qlsJqz60c/roland_jupiter81.JPG

As well some sounds that came with the Emulator 1, as demonstrated in this video here:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=SEaR7pPFgdI

I'll be mentioning the equipment used too. Loved the Jupiter 8, huge sounding synth.

Influence of the Weir brothers on OMD is important I think.

Yeah, that's a good point, but they only joined to tour "Junk culture" - it was some Belgian session guys on the lp. Certainly by the time of "Pacific age" they were contributing material which Andy and Paul thought wasn't representative of the concept of the band. But I'd forgive them anything for the trombone solo on "Crush".

Ah, maybe next Poll then.

Didn't Tony Visconti do the brass arrangement for 'Locomotion'? I remember reading somewhere that he was brought in to help the band out at some stage of the recording, but he notoriously quit after a few days/weeks (can't remember the specific length of time)?

Re: The Weir Brothers - the only three songs that I know of that they get writing credits for are: '(Forever) Live And Die' (Paul Humphreys song, but they added bits and pieces - including the bassline), 'Shame' (which I think was brought by Graham Weir by the band - he certainly plays all the instruments on the single version, if memory serves and according to an interview I read with him), and 'Southern' (which I assume would be the brass parts, 'cuz the bassline is based on an early version of 'Telegraph' and that's really the only other musical element in the song, aside from the Martin Luther King samples and a bit of keyboard). I only know of these because, while the album credits on The Pacific Age say 'All songs written by OMD', the ASCAP website lists the actual composers of the tracks. They get no co-writes on Crush, and they weren't part of the Junk Culture sessions.

*to the band

Love OMD, but I've never got around to listening to much of Junk Culture. I think I was dissuaded by some friends who wrote it off as the start of the group's decline, and that it sounded quite boring when I listened to it. I've since become a huge fan of 'Forever Live and Die', which is now close to my favourite OMD song (Paul's vocals are great), so I'm prepared to give the post-Dazzle Ships era another go.

>As well some sounds that came with the Emulator 1, as demonstrated in this video here:

that is fascinating. always thought they'd simply used a weird preliminary mix of the O.M.D. song for the bar scene in Blade Runner, but it looks like both the O.M.D. song and the B.R. soundtrack were both constructed very separately and simply using the presets from that Emulator bank?

not too crazy about this album, but I certainly had it. voted for title track.

xpost:

Junk Culture is a very different proposition to Dazzle Ships, but just because it's a more accessible record it doesn't mean that it's any less interesting. For example, the latin percussion and Caribbean feel to a lot of the material was never explored before or since, 'Never Turn Away' in particular is a very moody thing indeed, and the B-sides and the freebie single '(The Angels Keep Turning) The Wheels Of The Universe' showed they could still experiment a little.

Crush is a bit more smoother and more conventional than Junk Culture, I'd say, but even that has stuff like the title track, '88 Seconds In Greensboro', 'The Native Daughters Of The Golden West' and 'The Lights Are Going Out' on it - and one of their best B-sides in 'Firegun', too.

so now that I'm listening again; yep, that's not O.M.D. at all, that is almost certainly just Vangelis jamming on the same presets. the section starts at 4:00.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=80SfpyE3VHY&feature=related

just listened to the O.M.D. version & of course beyond the rhythm loop & horn sample they add many other things, still love that track

Yeah, that's right - they're separately constructed tracks made from the same Emulator 1 preset sounds, although the OMD pitched the 'reggae loop' a lot higher, and overdubbed some additional drums on it to change the rhythm a bit before, as you say, putting many other things on top of it!

-the

Right, just finished my thoughts on this album, took 2 hrs, three plays of the album and just over 2500 words. Haven't got time to post it here today but will do it around 9:30 GMT tomorrow.

Continuing to think about this album, it's one of the last great electronic albums before the ubiquity of both MIDI and the Yamaha DX7. In all fairness to OMD, I don't think they ever used a DX7 which means their mid 80s is slightly less dated than everyone else's, and the choice of a Fairlight was a wise one due to its relative ease of use, particularly in contrast to the Human League's choice of a Synclavier, then spending years trying to program the beast.

As a side note, seeing as we're talking mid 80s synths, does anyone know which synth generated the synthetic sitar sound which is all over "Hyperborea" by Tangerine Dream and the eponymous Dalek I Love You album, both from 83, and I believe is also on Limahl's "Never ending story"? Any ideas?

Yeah, I don't think OMD used a DX7 either, or at least I haven't read anything that has suggested that they ever used one... I think they were using a Fairlight up until 'Dreaming' (I remember reading that the snare sound on that is directly sampled from '(Forever) Live And Die'!), and then after the band split, I think McCluskey went onto the Korg M1 for Sugar Tax.

That makes sense actually. I've got the VSTi version of the Korg M1 on my PC and it's "Sugar tax" all the way.

I've asked my friend who is a TD nut, waiting for him to get back but I found this snippet about a TD track from around that time.

The track "Sound Sampling of No Man's Land" was a on a free cassette
with "Electronic Soundmaker and Computer Music" (but those
with "Electronic Orgy" will know this already, right?) and presents
some of the sampled sounds TD were using at the time. Equipment
includes Emulator, Roland Jupiter 8, TR808 and PPG Waveterm and
a "custom event generator". While the commentary is not explicit
about this, it seems to be the Jupiter 8 producing the the bass sitar
and solo sitar lines, the solo sitar including some pitch bend. There
are also some cool steel drum sounds from the Emulator and Jupiter 8.

xpost:

Yeah, I seem to recall someone saying the 'Universe' patch on the Korg M1 was all over Sugar Tax, come to think of it! It doesn't really surprise me that he used the M1 at this time... it was probably one of the most popular and most-used keyboards in the very early '90s!

"Solo sitar with a pitch bend", eh? When I read that, I started to think about the koto sample with the pitch bend in the middle, which also came with the Emulator. OMD used that on 'Garden City' for the lead riff.

"No man's land" was on "Hyperborea" so that's the one. Just surprised that the Jupiter 8 could make such a complex sound, would have thought it was a PPG but that would be too digital. Thanks! Looks like I'll have to get the Jupiter 8 vst now.

I recommend the Arturia Jupiter 8 VST highly!

I don't know why I haven't got it tbh, I've got their Moogs and ARP 2600 already and love their emulations of classic synths. I've only ever seen a Synthedit emulation of my first synth - a Roland SH3a, huge beast of a thing.

Just found a site that has sound samples of all the JP8's factory patches and listened to the Sitar patch, it doesn't sound like the sound I mentioned, not complex enough, just like a typical Roland polysynth with an inverted filter envelope. The site is www.synthmania.com if you're interested. It's possible the sound was modified, of course. I'll keep searching.

Thanks for the link, Rob! :)

This is the word from my TD/Synth geek friends.

'Either Jup 8 or a PPG Wave, both made sitar type sounds on that one. This may help...'

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=VqhK0dFToJI

From searching around and listening to the above mentioned JP8 samples, I was thinking it was a PPG Waveterm - the sampling offshoot of the PPG Wave. The info I've found indicates there's a sitar preset on the Waveterm.

Oh and thanks to you and your TD nut friend. Cheers.

The horn sound in that awesome Emulator clip sounds like the same one used in "If You Leave."

No probs Rob, look forward to reading your treatise

thanks for posting that 'no man's land' breakdown, that has to be one of anyone's favorite post-78 TD tracks

the sitar preset that comes with the iPad PPG WaveGenerator is distinct from anything on the track, but I've never heard the original Waveterm or Wave

Great app though! - https://itunes.apple.com/us/app/wavegenerator/id554998576?mt=8

The horn sound in that awesome Emulator clip sounds like the same one used in "If You Leave."

― Josh in Chicago, Tuesday, November 27, 2012 8:15 PM (2 hours ago) Bookmark Flag Post Permalink

It does, doesn't it? Although the sax solo on that is definitely performed by Martin Cooper, who receives a writing credit for it... (ASCAP lists that one as a 'Humphreys/McCluskey/Cooper' composition).

Thoughts on "Junk Culture" by OMD, as promised. Because a promise is a promise.

As with most things in my life, it started on the 30th April 1983. It was on that day that I bought my first LP - "Dazzle ships" by OMD. It was so important that I can remember almost every detail of the afternoon, catching the train from Penarth to Cardiff, finding the newly opened HMV shop, picking the LP up, also picking up my first single - the twelve inch of "Doot doot" by Freur - and buying them, getting back to my friend's house, opening the shrink wrap and examining the sleeve - such a complex sleeve, so much information - and then getting home and playing it over and over and over. I was in love. This was my kind of music. I was 13, and at that age every little thing seems so important. I spent night after night playing the lp on the crappy little Sanyo music centre I'd had for Christmas the year before. I had listened to the radio endlessly for two years, but now I was a record buyer. Radio Luxembourg's "Futurist Chart" and the top 40 show on Radio 1 were taped religiously. And OMD seemed to be just the music I was looking for, had waited all my years for. On my birthday at the end of May, I sent my father off to get the other three OMD LPs, and again devoured them. I loved the primitive first album, the darkly gothic second album, the genius third album. And "Statues" became my favourite song ever, not least because of associations with falling into a huge crush with a school friend with that song as a soundtrack. She laughed it off and it was totally unrequited (not that I knew such a word then) but that summer was HER summer, you know what I mean. In the summer, I bought an unauthorised biography of OMD which only went up to the end of 1981, but that was enough for me - it gave me information about their equipment, their history, their influences, and a very comprehensive discography at the back. I wanted these records, and by God I got them. In those days, HMV and Virgin still stocked older singles and over the summer I purchased as many OMD singles as I could, again loving the b-sides, wondering at the strange beauty of "Navigation", the industrial clang of "Annex". This was truly my kind of thing, and it was truly a great time in my life.

Meanwhile, the summer of 1983 was not a great time in the life of OMD. Having grown from a little hobby in Liverpool in 1978 to a hit single creating juggernaut in 1981 with what in reality was a rather strange third album - religion? mellotrons? - it seemed they could do no wrong, no matter what experiments they tried it worked, the public adored it, and they were guaranteed top 5 singles. So they carried on, investing in an Emulator, a primitive sampling keyboard, and in experimenting with it and with political songwriting they created "Dazzle ships", a challenging fourth album which clearly showed signs of fatigue - two tracks had been b-sides to previous singles and one track was a very old song from pre-OMD Liverpool days. Reviews weren't favourable, the big hit singles turned into moderate flops, the ambitious tour had turned into a badly choreographed chore - and don't mention that one time that they had all come in at the wrong time to the tapes of "Genetic engineering" and had made a most horrendous noise for three minutes. Oh, and how come our support band are getting better reviews than us? (Maybe because they are the Cocteau Twins?). The previously supportive record company were breathing down their necks for hits, and quickly. What to do? Well, in the summer of 1983 Andy and Paul had a rethink and wrote a few new songs which seemed to indicate a poppier direction, so a quick tour was booked of small venues for September and let's see what kind of reaction they get in a live environment.

And this is where our paths nearly cross, for that tour came to the Top Rank in Cardiff, a small venue which had been around since the 50s and hosted many a gig over the years, from Merseybeat - my parents saw the Beatles there - to punk and beyond - one of the last gigs there was the Manic Street Preachers, one of the last gigs Richey performed with them. The Top Rank is now a horrible club where I would spend many an unhappy night, but that's for another time. For in September I tried to get a ticket but couldn't get one, but did get a rather splendid A1 poster for the tour which had pride of place in my bedroom for many years, designed to look like the "Dazzle ships" sleeve. Support on that tour was from Howard Jones, who was just starting to get play for his debut single "New song", and he was interviewed on CBC, the local radio station, on the evening of the gig. God, I so wanted to be there... The new songs they were playing were well received, as it turned out, songs like "All wrapped up" and "Tesla girls" and "Heaven is" (which would remain unrecorded until 1993 by a very different version of OMD) so Andy and Paul decided to keep writing, to not be so obviously obscure (if that makes sense), to not write about Tesla coils, but the women who use the power without knowing the reason for it.

Obviously Virgin still had faith in them, because they backed two important decisions for the band. Firstly, they agreed to record the bulk of the album at George Martin's AIR studio in Montserrat, which can't have been cheap. Secondly, they also agreed to purchase a Fairlight CMI, £20,000 of high end sequencing and sampling. At the time, the Fairlight was being used by the likes of Jean Michel Jarre, Peter Gabriel and Trevor Horn, so for Virgin to agree for a pop band to have one was quite a big thing. The Fairlight would make a big difference to what would become OMD's fifth album, "Junk Culture". It's all over it, "Talking loud and clear" is almost entirely sequenced on the Fairlight, the piano on "Hard day" is a Fairlight preset... OMD were well known for not looking further than presets on their equipment, and it shows throughout their career to be honest. And the Fairlight was good for OMD, because it was relatively easy to use. OMD's contemporaries The Human League invested in a Synclavier, a similar computer / sampler instrument preferred by Frank Zappa, but it was such a horrible beast to program that they really lost themselves in it. The Fairlight had two good points - easy sampling and easy sequencing - and some very good presets, as Trevor Horn would utilise all over his Frankie Goes To Hollywood singles. Once recording was completed in AIR, they moved to Belgium to complete it. Here Tony Visconti came in for a few days to arrange horns on some of the tracks, played by some session musicians, and the band realised they'd need a brass section to tour... and then in early Spring the album was finished. Virgin were happy - it sounded like it had hit singles on it. OMD were happy - it still had an experimental edge, but pop songs too. So let's issue some records and see what happens.

And here I come in again. It had seemed like forever since anything new had come from OMD by the spring of 1984. My life had expanded and taken a few turns, as it does when you're a teenager. I'd started looking into other musical avenues, thanks to the OMD book, so had a few Kraftwerk albums, some Tangerine Dream, some Eno, was starting to discover Factory Records from New Order backwards. So seeing that OMD had a new single out was good news. Oh, and emotionally, the first girl I had a crush on had left for another town and I started a crush on somebody else, someone who had a boyfriend, a boyfriend who I hated very much because, well, he had her and I didn't. They would sit by the school gates waiting for me to come past then snog in front of me, then he'd grin at me. God, I hated him so much. Things seem so black and white at that age. And then OMD came back. My dad got me "Locomotion" on the day of release, but got me the 7 inch, not the 12 inch I wanted. Sure, I was happy enough to rub the little box out on the back to win a shiny new CD player (I didn't win), and my god "Her body in my soul" was fucking genius, but I wanted the 12 inch. My parents had a huge row that night, so I played the b-side over and over to drown it out, and even now it reminds me of that. The next day, the 12 inch arrived, and fuck me "The avenue" was good too, again Fairlight train sounds not unlike those on "Magnetic Fields", and when it all goes noisy in the middle my poor record deck could never cope with it and the needle jumped like hell.

In the easter break of 1984, we went on holiday to Oxford. I can remember it so well because... the Richard Skinner show on Radio 1 in the evening had OMD in session, playing one new song per night, and I luckily had my tape recorder to tape them. Five new songs... of course, in reality they weren't in session, they were just playing songs from the album, but I didn't know that until I got the album. "All wrapped up", "Talking loud and clear", "Tesla girls", "Apollo", "Love and violence". This wasn't exactly what I expected, but was very good. I listened to them over and over again, alongside "Rough justice" by Portion Control, which I'd taped off Peel the week before. "How come everyone wants to sound like New Order?" I wrote in my diary that week. "Because they are all using the same technology?" is my reply to that now. In that week I also buy "Power corruption and lies" and "Still". The week before it is released, "Junk culture" gets a dreadful review in the Melody Maker, which I have started reading since Christmas. How can you say such things, I think.

So, April 30th 1984 - one year on from my first LP purchase and "Junk culture" is released. Again, my dad gets it for me, and I sadly break the seal to remove the one sided single and the album - a friend of mine never broke the seal! By now I've heard six songs, but it's nice to have it all. "Junk culture" starts, and sounds like an Emulator preset collection with some live drumming on it (which seems to be confirmed by the youtube links above in this thread, didn't know that!). The little speech samples become part of my life - I frequently quote "Don't stop, just do it". "Tesla girls" seems to be compared to "The reflex" at the time, just because of the stuttering effect. Listening again, it does sound rather richer than I remembered. That handclap on the left hand side could almost preclude "You spin me round". Strange. "Locomotion" is the big hit - they were on TOTP, they were on "Saturday Superstore" playing a steel drum and a Yamaha Omnichord (how I wanted one of those, and still do - it's all over the first Kingsbury Manx album) - but it's about disabled people? OK. Nicely sequenced bassline too. "Apollo" is more exotic, but with lots of cool drum machines, and funk guitar. Andy's bass playing is rather good on this album you know. And then in the middle it goes all acoustic and Aztec Camera! And a dubbed out ending. Jesus, this is good stuff and I never realised. For such an exotic sound, it was written at the end of the Belgian sessions. "Never turn away" however I don't like much, firstly because of what I said before - it sounds like Channel 4 music - and secondly the sort of skewed rhythm does nothing for me. I'll live with it. The big climax is ok, but it's not "Souvenir", let alone "Statues". Why was this a single? Oh, because Virgin said so. So far, side one has been poppy and moody, what about side two.

"Love and violence" is great, more than great. It almost became the title track of the album, as it seemed to mix the two lyrical themes. Those car horn samples! The whole song wants to explode. Oh, and it sounds like the inside of my head when I look at that girl and her boyfriend, cos I want to explode too. "Hard day" sounds almost live, which is a shock for OMD. But it doesn't really go anywhere, and just when it starts fading out, they introduce some more synths which I wanted all along so it annoys me. "All wrapped up" however is totally perfect. As I said, it's the soundtrack to the video in my head of me and her and him, and was utterly perfect for how I felt then that it still feels that way now. I play it and I'm back there, instantly. The song is great anyway, I love the soca influence, the horns, the guitars, I cannot fault this song. SHOULD HAVE BEEN A SINGLE. And they should have let me direct the video. It seems that the original version of this song, as played on the 83 tour, was totally different except for the vocal, so possibly "Wrappup" was that? "White trash" continues the lyrical theme of "Love and violence" so again meets my criteria for the sound of inside my head in 1984, and again the sampled "trash" became a staple of my lexicon. Great sax solo too. Lots of big empty dubbed out spaces too. Finally the album ends on a high note, a note of happiness after the generally bitter feelings of side two - "Talking loud and clear", more Fairlight sequencing and a lovely mellow performance all round. Written as a test piece for the Fairlight, according to the band.

And then we turn to the free single. A return to the more experimental side of things, mellotrons, sampled drum loops, a sign that they can still do their weird things too you know. Listening to it now, it sounds like the Art of Noise crossed with Tears For Fears ("Songs from the big chair" is another Fairlight heavy record). This is a heavy heavy sound, you know.

So life continues. on the 1st June 1984, OMD play Cardiff again, and this time I go along and see them. They play the majority of "Junk culture" but not "All wrapped up". It's a regular encore, and the percussion is brought on stage, then taken off again to never return. Years later I get bootlegs from this tour and find that they really can't carry it off live anyway, so just as well. Also on that day I get "Talking loud and clear" 12 inch - with the rather marvellous reworking of "Julia's song" on the b side, which would be played that way live too. Later in the year, "Tesla girls" would be the third single, with a live take of "Telegraph" as a b side, but a better extra track in "Garden city", more Fairlight games, that cello at the end for instance. At the year's end, "Never turn away" is released as a single for no apparant reason, with a dreadful version of "All wrapped up" on the b side, and the controversial live "Waiting for the man". At the Liverpool gig earlier in the year, Andy had introduced this song with "This for anyone in the audience who's on heroin..." (loud cheers) "...because the next time we play here you'll be dead" (boos). And at the end of the year Radio 1 broadcast a live concert of theirs which I've got on tape in my attic, it's very good, a good representation of how they were on that tour.

And OMD carried on, slowly smoothing out their rough edges and trying desperately to recoup what the label had invested in them and trying to break America and nearly doing it but by doing it forgetting their UK fans and well that's for another time. Fancy cancelling a tour of the UK because they were busy in America. Sigh. But that is for another time, if that time comes then I'll write about it.

In retrospect "Junk culture" does find them at their own crossroads. On the one hand there are experimental aspects of it but they are within a pop song context so not so obvious. Were the lessons of "Dazzle ships" learnt? Yes. Is it a better album than "Dazzle ships" because of this? No. There is a strong progression through each OMD album to the next, as they discover new synthesiser technology - from polyphonic synths to Mellotrons to Emulators to Fairlights - and each record sounds richer because of it. But from here the progress stops. Andy would never write such violent lyrics again, and it's a shame because his anger really works for the good of the album.

So that's me and "Junk culture". Hope you enjoyed the insight into my life and the album's part in it. Feel free to ignore or whatever.

Wow. Nice post.

Someone should write a definitive book on the Emulator (and Synclavier/Fairlight et al.).

Indded, I've just finished reading that myself. A+ posting there, Rob, and one thing I noticed that you did mention is McCluskey's bass playing on this album, and I really do agree. I'd probably go as far as saying that some of his best bass work is on this album. 'Never Turn Away' has some lovely bass playing on it. Not flashy by any means, but absolutely perfect for what they were doing at this time. I love the guitar playing on 'Apollo' as well.

Thank you! It was nice to immerse myself in the album again, picking up details I might have missed all these years, such as the bass playing. And one thing you mentioned which I didn't - the sleeve is lovely and also features colour bars, not unlike the colour codes on New Order's 1983 output. As a side thought, I just remembered I would put the black insert from "8lue Monday" inside the sleeve of "Dazzle ships" to make the dots on the world map go black instead of red / yellow. (But then, it would be black anyway without the insert...)

Yeah, it's just such a shame that no CD issue of Junk Culture truly comes close to how that album looks and on vinyl, packaging-wise. It feels very, I dunno, 'sophisticated' to me.

enjoyed reading that, rob!

*looks and FEELS, I should have said... d'oh!

Great post Rob! Thanks for taking the time. I've always been a fan of Mcluskey's bass playing, not one of life's natural bassists maybe but I like that slight awkwardness in some of his lines. He dances pretty much like he plays. The duel bass parts on the single version of Messages are all-time.

I think it was in the "Palatine" Factory box set booklet that someone described his bass playing as a "just learnt to play" style. There was always a lot of naivete about their early style - "what does this do? How does this sound?" - which was lost over time. At least at this point he was playing bass, he admitted that he played no bass at all on "The Pacific Age"! I think I'll have to go back to that album and see. Thanks for the praise - as you can tell, OMD are important to me!

I maybe should also point out I did no research at all over dates or anything else - I just know all this shit. Sometimes having Aspergers helps. :)

I really enjoyed that post, Rob.

"OMD seemed to be just the music I was looking for, had waited all my years for" p much sums up how I felt about the group when I first heard them. I can't imagine what they would have done to me had I heard them at 13.

Also, MaresNest otm re: McCluskey's bass playing/dancing similarities.

I'm going to dig the Messages book now.

heck *dig out*

Andy's dancing was mocked by Baddiel or Newman on "The Mary Whitehouse Experience" in 91 as 'geography teacher dancing' or words to that effect. It's late here but I'll see if I can find it on youtube tomorrow.

Thanks for the praise - as you can tell, OMD are important to me!

― Rob M Revisited, Wednesday, November 28, 2012 10:30 PM (Yesterday) Bookmark Flag Post Permalink

Hey, you're more than welcome! I, too, have a long history with this band - but it's very different to yours, because I'm a great deal younger than you are! I was born the year that Dazzle Ships came out, but fortunately to young parents who still had an enthusiasm for music and were still buying contemporary records. My dad was 21 at that time, and my mother was 19. Consequently, I have a lot of early memories of OMD's music being played around the house - my dad in particular was massive on them, and in turn they became not just a very early staple of my music listening... but regardless of passing trends, I just never stopped listening to them! It seems incredible to say this, but I have a very strong memory of settling down with my parents to watch Top Of The Pops to watch OMD perform '(Forever) Live And Die'... incredible, because I would have only been about three years old at the time. It would have been around The Pacific Age era or just after when my dad was painting a mural on my bedroom wall, and the he added the logo from the back cover of The Pacific Age album somewhere in it, apparently because *I* demanded that he did so! Another early memory I have of OMD's music is lying down on my parents bed sometime after school in 1991, and listening to Dazzle Ships, and really enjoying it. I didn't really think about music then in the same way as I do now, obviously - at that stage I wasn't really analysing music or poring over it like I would do now - but I do remember a feeling of being moved, and even intrigued, by the music I was listening to - I still remember specific moments on that record that *excited* me at that age... the military drums on the end of 'The Romance Of The Telescope', the bed of synths on 'Silent Running', the vocal performance at the end of 'International'. I didn't even consider it to be weird, for me it was just an album by OMD that I liked listening to... it was only when I entered my early teens and was listening to it late one night (on cassette!) when suddenly the penny dropped and I realised that what I was listening to was actually pretty strange. I reached that conclusion with pretty much all of OMD's earlier work eventually, but because I was so familiar with it from an early age it just sounded like nothing out of the ordinary to me, if you know what I mean? All I knew was that I liked it!

The one OMD album that I ever remember leaving me cold was Liberator. I must have been around 10 when that album came out, I remember getting back from school and listening to it and for some reason it just didn't feel right and being so young I couldn't put my finger on why that was, I just remember this feeling of "I'm pretty disappointed by this" without being able to articulate why I didn't like it. Obviously I have a good idea of why I didn't like it NOW, many years after the fact with a lot more experience of listening to music and obviously growing up as a person, but THEN...

Ha, imagine my disappointment with "Liberator" then. I was lucky enough to buy an electronic press kit for it a month before it came out - a nice box with press releases, a tape with four songs and a video. Things were primitive then. I'll have to check later what songs were on it but I thought it sounded good, I was hopefuly enough for a good album and then when it was released I was so disappointed. As ever, the b sides of the era - "Strange sensations" and "The place you fear the most" - were far better. Luckily "Universal" was a decent return to form and a good way to close their career. For a time, anyway.

Your experience of OMD is like my experience of the Beatles, they were always there when I was growing up, and how my parents must regret letting my brother and I draw all over their "Let it be" box set and book. My first musical memory is hearing "All you need is love" and saying to my mother "Why are they singing 'She loves you' at the end? They didn't sing that song"! I think I was four, cos it was when the Red and Blue albums came out. The Fabs' music was part of the fabric of life, always there at home, in the car. I could read the liner notes of "Beatles for sale" by the time I was five. (again, this is partly aspergers, my son is six now and is also ASD and can read anything, he can also sing any song back to you if he hears it once). It was only when I started to buy the records again in the mid 80s - my parents threw away all their original vinyl!!!!!! - that I realised how strange things like "Revolver" or "Sgt Pepper" were. But that's enough about me. Thanks for sharing your views - I envy you, growing up in an OMD house! I had such stick from everyone else in my family for OMD - "anyone can play a synth, just press a button". To which I refer you to Andy on "Synth Britannia" documentary - "FUCK OFF! I probably got RSI from playing duh-duh-duh on keyboards!" Watching the 1981 gig on the "A and M" reissue proves that. (I had that video, on Betamax...)

Sorry, "thanks for sharing your views" sounds shallow and callous and like I don't care about them. I meant it far nicer than that, always interested to see how people get into OMD. Thanks.

I was born the year that Dazzle Ships came out

Yeah, "Jumping Jack Flash" lyrics need updating!

Playing "The Pacific Age" for the first time in ages, definitely no bass guitar on here, all samples. I had forgotten "The dead girls" - strange that a song that was supposed to update the style and methodology of the "A&M" era - drums from "Romance of the telescope", choirs, religion, Prophet 5s etc - sounds more dated than what it tries to emulate. I do like this album, and think Mal's drumming has a lot to do with it. He is rocking! And I don't mind "Shame" either. It's not typical OMD, but ignore that fact and it's got a killer chord change or two. Oh, can I bypass "We love you" please? Now if they'd put "This town" on instead...

Ha, imagine my disappointment with "Liberator" then. I was lucky enough to buy an electronic press kit for it a month before it came out - a nice box with press releases, a tape with four songs and a video. Things were primitive then. I'll have to check later what songs were on it but I thought it sounded good, I was hopefuly enough for a good album and then when it was released I was so disappointed. As ever, the b sides of the era - "Strange sensations" and "The place you fear the most" - were far better. Luckily "Universal" was a decent return to form and a good way to close their career. For a time, anyway.

My view on Libertator these days is that it seems like Andy was so intent on clinging onto the success of Sugar Tax that he buried most (if not all) of the songs in ill-fitting 2 Unlimited-style arrangements in an attempt to update the OMD sound and sound current, but it just ultimately comes off as a bit cynical and soulless - like he was trying to latch onto a bandwagon that was then-popular that he had nothing to do with, rather than just being content to sound like himself. There may well be some decent songs on there, but they're given a treatment which doesn't suit them - and it lacks the kind of OMD soul and personality which fans of the band generally latch onto. The end result feels like some kind of plastic, lacking-in-substance dance record which doesn't really move me in any way. It was a long time after Liberator came out that I heard the original version of 'Heaven Is' on a live bootleg from the Junk Culture tour and thought "christ, why on EARTH did you 'techno' this up?".

Sorry, "thanks for sharing your views" sounds shallow and callous and like I don't care about them. I meant it far nicer than that, always interested to see how people get into OMD. Thanks.

― Rob M Revisited, Thursday, November 29, 2012 9:19 AM (6 hours ago) Bookmark Flag Post Permalink

Oh, there's no need to apologise - I took it in the way that it was intended, don't worry! And likewise, I've been really enjoying your contributions to this thread since it started :)

Playing "The Pacific Age" for the first time in ages, definitely no bass guitar on here, all samples. I had forgotten "The dead girls" - strange that a song that was supposed to update the style and methodology of the "A&M" era - drums from "Romance of the telescope", choirs, religion, Prophet 5s etc - sounds more dated than what it tries to emulate. I do like this album, and think Mal's drumming has a lot to do with it. He is rocking! And I don't mind "Shame" either. It's not typical OMD, but ignore that fact and it's got a killer chord change or two. Oh, can I bypass "We love you" please? Now if they'd put "This town" on instead...

― Rob M Revisited, Thursday, November 29, 2012 9:59 AM (6 hours ago) Bookmark Flag Post Permalink

'Southern' is magnificent in my opinion - the horns, the drumming, the lot, and I've always felt 'Stay (The Black Rose And The Universal Wheel' to be quite a powerful opener. 'The Dead Girls' is a bit of an anomaly in the OMD songbook, really, because it's one of the few OMD tracks that has a strange (for them) time signature to it! I think it's in 5/4, but stressed as one bar of 4/4 followed by a bar of 6/4.

Automatic thread bump. This poll is closing tomorrow.

I love "We Love You." Perhaps a sentimental favorite coming as it does toward the end of the US hits collection.

My problem with "We love you" is I feel it's obviously written for "Pretty in pink" and a bit cheesy and a lot of it goes back to my absolute hatred of John Hughes films. Partly for taking the music and bands I loved to America - no disrespect to our American readers but look what it did for Simple Minds, I didn't want OMD to become like that - and partly because the films were so completely different to my experience of school. And all my friends loved these films and identified with the characters, and I couldn't see any correlation between my life and these idealised worlds but other people could? I didn't get it, and still don't. (and a bit of a confession, I always wished I looked like Andrew McCarthy, cos he seemed to get the girls, and clearly I didn't look like him in the slightest). So my feelings for "We love you" are mixed up with these thoughts. "Goddess of love" - which was also intended for "Pretty in pink" - overcame these thoughts by being (a) brilliant and (b) the logical follow up to "All wrapped up". "If you leave" also excuses itself by having memories attached to it but you've heard enough of that from me these last few days.

Anyway, poll results soon! And then maybe I'll stop using ILM as a confession booth. :)

I love "Goddess of Love."

I've been lurking around this thread for a while but I haven't posted because I came to OMD so long after the fact (2003, high school, peak of that whole 80's revival thing) that it didn't seem...relevant I guess? Circling back to the topic at hand, I think Junk Culture was the first OMD album I bought. I had to eventually buy a new copy since I played the first one too much (both were vinyl records)!

I would love a series of OMD album polls if there proved to be enough interest in it from others!

I think the segue between 'Flame Of Hope' and 'Goddess Of Love' on The Pacific Age is pretty neat... the way that 'Flame Of Hope' fades back to opening sample, which then just switches to the opening sample of 'Goddess Of Love' - great bit of sequencing, that!

Automatic thread bump. This poll's results are now in.

Mostly can't complain about those results, would have thought that 'Love And Violence' would have got at least ONE vote though!

For those who enjoyed my ramblings earlier in this thread, I've now started a blog of my own and the first post goes into more detail on 30th April 1983 and "Dazzle ships". Hope you enjoy it.

http://agoldfishcalledregret.wordpress.com/

Hey, guess what? Had missed the news but a double disc reissue comes out next month:

http://www.superdeluxeedition.com/news/omd-junk-culture-deluxe-reissue/

Disc 2

1. Her Body In My Soul
2. The Avenue
3. Julia’s Song – Re-Recorded Version
4. Garden City
5. Wrappup – Dub Version Of ‘All Wrapped Up’
6. Locomotion – 12” Version
7. Tesla Girls – Extended Mix
8. Talking Loud And Clear – Extended Version
9. Never Turn Away – Extended Version
10. (The Angels Keep Turning) The Wheels Of The Universe
11. 10 To 1 *
12. All Or Nothing *
13. Heaven Is – Highland Studios Demo *
14. Tesla Girls – Highland Studios Demo *
15. White Trash – Highland Studios Demo *

I'll probably get it for the extended version of "Talking Loud and Clear" alone

Oh yeah, this has been on the cards for months and it was actually initially meant to come out in December, but ended up getting delayed! I'm very much looking forward to it, as you'd expect. The disc of extras is far from complete (there's one or two things from the era that aren't on there, probably due to space reasons - the extended mix of the re-recorded version of 'Julia's Song' being one omission), but in place of stuff that's already out there, there's the original version of 'Heaven Is', which eventually ended up on Liberator (of all albums) and is a bit of a Linndrum-fest in its original form. They road-tested the track in 1983, but the studio version ended up getting dropped because they were worried it sounded too close to New Order. I've heard a snippet of the 'White Trash' demo and it's very different from the arrangement that ended up on the album; they hadn't hit upon the reggae-inspired direction yet, and it's more of a "straighter" version.

'10 To 1' and 'All Or Nothing' are fully completed songs which didn't end up on the album or on B-sides, and neither have been reworked into anything else as far as I know, so I'm definitely looking forward to hearing those. I think I've read that 'All Or Nothing' is a Humphreys-sung song. The extended version of 'Never Turn Away' has an extra verse.

Tell me I'm not crazy, the little mnemonic at 23s on this crappy ad is a rip of Tesla Girls, right?

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=lcRw3hhdMDc

yeah that definitely feels like a homage at least

Yeah, it at least feels like a homage to my ears too.

Uh...

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Q6JZHhejjF8

it's OK but it's no 'humping loud and clear'