Blackmail...

[Guest Game of Chance]

I think he's pretty much an all around good guy, but he likes such shitty music.

Plus he likes DC better than Marvel.

[JaneDead]

:laughing

[Blackmail]

I think he's pretty much an all around good guy, but he likes such shitty music. 

Plus he likes DC better than Marvel.

<{POST_SNAPBACK}>

This is a personal attack and I am writing a private message to a moderator.

So, Game Of Chance - Be expecting the message sometime today.

[Guest Game of Chance]

Are you going to write it to me?? :laughing

[Blackmail]

:laughing

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I'll write you a message too if you don't watch it.

[Blackmail]

Are you going to write it to me??  :laughing

<{POST_SNAPBACK}>

well you are a mod, aren't you? I hope you take swift and stern action....against yourself.

[phee]

Not sure, I like good music, but I like it in a really shitty way....

[Guest Game of Chance]

I'll put that on the agenda :grin

Should I use Shock and Awe? :laughing

[BlackSkittles]

What do you mean? He has awesome taste in music. I've never met such a fanatical OMD fan in my life.

[Guest Game of Chance]

What do you mean?  He has awesome taste in music.  I've never met such a fanatical OMD fan in my life.

<{POST_SNAPBACK}>

Ahem. No comment.

[Blackmail]

What do you mean?  He has awesome taste in music.  I've never met such a fanatical OMD fan in my life.

<{POST_SNAPBACK}>

http://www.trouserpress.com/entry.php?a=or...res_in_the_dark

Moving from electronic tape experiments to highly polished synthesizer pop and beyond, Liverpudlians Andy McCluskey (bass/vocals/keyboards) and synthesist Paul Humphreys (with other fulltime members, including — very significantly — a corporeal acoustic drummer) were among the most successful practitioners of electro-pop, as first demonstrated by a delightful string of singles. They proved early on that electronics were capable of interacting comfortably with regular rock instruments and not chill the mood. Abandoning their formula after two albums, however, OMD proved capable of far more ambitious creations not tied to the apron strings of technology.

Orchestral Manoeuvres in the Dark is a demonstration of stylish electro-pop. Aided by Dalek I's Andy Gill, McCluskey and Humphreys build the songs up from computer-generated rhythms, polishing the synthesizer song into a full-bodied medium. Thanks to a knack for melodies and hooks, notable attractions are the catchy "Electricity" and "Messages."

Organisation (which originally included an excellent bonus single of early tape experiments and live tracks) introduces drummer Malcolm Holmes and ethereal synthesizer techniques that suit the depressive subject matter of "Enola Gay" and the like. It also pays attention to ensure variation in the tunes, a problem that mars the first LP. With nods to John Foxx and David Bowie, OMD overlays melodies to dramatic effect; the performances are excellent.

O.M.D. is an American condensation of the band's first two British albums, including both catchy OMD standards, "Enola Gay" and "Electricity." Recommended.

Architecture & Morality struggles with new techniques, and includes two magnificent, ethereal hit singles: "Souvenir" and "Joan of Arc." OMD is again experimenting with sound and much of the album sounds more naturalistic than electronic. An intriguing and highly inventive use of the technology.

The conceptual Dazzle Ships overreaches by a mile, succumbing to excessive found-tape gimmickry in lieu of adequate songwriting. It does contain the striking "Genetic Engineering" (which integrates a Speak and Spell toy to make a point) and "Radio Waves," as well as some amazing sounds and a powerful atmosphere to recommend it. Impressive but not satisfying.

Junk Culture is much stronger, pulling away further from sparkling pop while retaining smart melodies in far denser and newly dance-based styles. "Tesla Girls" employs scratch production to great effect while fixing on science as a clever lyrical base (shades of Sparks); the rhythm-heavy "Locomotion" and the more fanciful "Talking Loud and Clear" are likewise ace tracks.

Despite its easygoing ambience and a shortage of really memorable songs, Crush — OMD's least stylized, most mainstream album — isn't half-bad. "So in Love" and "Secret" are the obvious romantic singles, but the record has more serious moments as well: the topical "88 Seconds in Greensboro," "Women III" (an ambiguous consideration of feminism) and "Bloc Bloc Bloc," wherein McCluskey sings some truly stupid lyrics with only a trace of embarrassment. (That McCluskey's highbrow lyrical pretensions were without intellectual foundation may help explain the group's subsequent American success.)

OMD's international commercial breakthrough began with Crush but exploded when "If You Leave," a dull ballad from the Pretty in Pink soundtrack, became a Top 10 American single. That song was thankfully omitted from OMD's subsequent album, The Pacific Age, but so was anything that might have prevented the record from being tiresomely ponderous and self-important. (Typical of the band's well-meant missteps is "Southern," an instrumental bed over which excerpts of Martin Luther King speeches are played.) OMD's expansion from a duo to a sextet — the three latest arrivals play horns, guitars and more keyboards — has cost the group focus and clarity. Except for the smoothly contrived hit "(Forever) Live and Die" and the catchy "We Love You," this dilettantish mess is less a set of songs than a meaningless collection of sounds. Re-recorded and released on an EP, "Shame" was combined with a couple of other Pacific Age tracks and the 10-inch edit of "Messages."

The Best of OMD is the ideal remedy for The Pacific Age. After a concise recapitulation of the band's artistic development — via fourteen A-sides, from clever synth-based pop ("Electricity," "Enola Gay," "Souvenir") to well-realized audio experiments ("Tesla Girls," "Locomotion") to increasingly bland chart fodder ("So in Love," "If You Leave") — it ends with a promisingly pert new single, "Dreaming." (The CD adds two bonus 12-inch versions of "We Love You" and "La Femme Accident.")

Toward the end of the '80s, the low-profile Humphreys bowed out, leaving his more outgoing partner with the band name. OMD/McCluskey pressed on with Sugar Tax, a confident album consistent with the band's recent work. For all the synthetic-sounding keyboards and halfhearted forays into various unchallenging stylistic realms (mainly designer soul and energetic club beats), the melodramatic edge in McCluskey's voice and the stability in his prosaic songwriting deliver it all back to OMD's doorstep. The album is simply ordinary and mediocre, a disappointment from a once-captivating band.

Liberator heads straight for the dancefloor, taking two different routes. While "Dollar Girl," "Agnus Dei" and "Love and Hate You" run through the house, "Everyday" and "Dream of Me" (which explicitly acknowledges its obvious debt to "Loves [sic] Theme") are more than a little touched by the hand of Barry White. While it's hard to imagine many rock artists less inclined to have a Love Unlimited or Village People epiphany, both genres find a skilled transducer in McCluskey. All those years spent in the company of keyboards evidently left him fully able to make convincing percolating rhythms and layers of faux violins, and both get good use on what is a pretty stupid but diverting exercise. Liberator is most agreeable if you can forget who's behind it — not that covering the Velvet Underground's "Sunday Morning" as if it were 1981 all over again and dropping in vintage OMD citations elsewhere make that any easier.

[phee]

....I like Yello...... so f**k off

[Guest Game of Chance]

I'm taking my Black Flag "Everything Went Black" CD and going home... :whistling :laughing

[Blackmail]

Funny thing, Game of Chance.....Joy Division toured with OMD....OMD started on the same label (Factory records) and Martin Hannet (who helped shaped the Joy Division sound) produced the early (and brilliant) OMD stuff.

[paradox]

i think this all stems out of his love for superman (in a quite unwholesome way, i might add ). everyone knows that superman has bad tastes in music. its his one weakness. well, besides that whole kryptonite thing....

goes hand in hand with his inability to color co-ordinate.

[Guest Game of Chance]

He also produced "Nazi Punks Fuck Off" by the Dead Kennedys

go buy "Give me Convenience or Give Me Death" and leave me alone :whistling :fear :laughing

[Guest Game of Chance]

i think this all stems out of his love for superman (in a quite unwholesome  way, i might add ).  everyone knows that superman has bad tastes in music.  its his one weakness. well, besides that whole kryptonite thing....

goes hand in hand with his inability to color co-ordinate.

<{POST_SNAPBACK}>

You may be on to something there...

[Blackmail]

i think this all stems out of his love for superman (in a quite unwholesome  way, i might add ).  everyone knows that superman has bad tastes in music.  its his one weakness. well, besides that whole kryptonite thing....

goes hand in hand with his inability to color co-ordinate.

<{POST_SNAPBACK}>

Hey come on! Kal-El has taste. Superman worked those blue tights like none other.

As for music, they play alot of stuff I like at City Club and you all go there.....so HA!

Iris, De/Vision, Depeche Mode, Kraftwerk, Xymox, New order, Wolfsheim....all played at city club.

I never heard OMD there though. I fully admit that OMD are has beens to the rest of the world. I still love their early stuff.

[phee]

I know what you mean BM!!! Because like, ya know, The Beatles worked with Charles Manson, and they are exactly alike.

[paradox]

im with blackmail on the music scene. i listen to lots of stuff. of course im utterly tasteless and have no class, so that might not be saying much. :fear

[paradox]

I know what you mean BM!!!

<{POST_SNAPBACK}>

:laughing :laughing :laughing :laughing

dude...phee called you BM....

:laughing :laughing :laughing

are you just gonna sit there and take that sorta guff? :innocent

[JaneDead]

i thought this was all about the beach boys....

[paradox]

naw, more about goth bois...

[soothsayer]

:laughing

Funny stuff.

[Nerdcore]

actully I thought this was all about New Order