![]() ![]() We were so utterly sure we wouldn’t sell any records we thought it was practical to spend the money on the studio. “But essentially, we were budgeting for failure. “In retrospect, it seems incredible a major record label would give two 19-year-olds 30 grand and say, ‘Yeah, build your own studio and make your own record, without any A&R involvement or anything,’” McCluskey laughs. Wasting no time at all, Humphreys and McCluskey proceeded to record Orchestral Manoeuvres In The Dark, delivering it to Dindisc by Christmas 1979. Respecting OMD’s vision – and aware they had more in the tank of the caliber of “Electricity” – Dindisc made a radical decision: they offered Humphreys and McCluskey the chance to not only self-produce their debut album, but also agreed to finance building a studio to record it.Ĭonsequently, after they finished their first UK tour supporting Gary Numan, OMD rapidly assembled their facility – dubbed the Gramophone Suite – on the first floor of an old warehouse in Liverpool’s city center. That gear formed the bedrock of both Orchestral Manoeuvres In The Dark and Organisation.” “It was all really basic stuff, but while it wasn’t sophisticated, it still opened up a whole new palette of sounds for us. “All we had at that stage was a Korg Micro-Preset synth – which we’d bought cheaply from a Kay’s shopping catalogue – along with a Korg MS-20 and a Roland FH-1 synth,” Humphreys reveals. However, as “Electricity” and “Almost” had already shown, the Merseyside duo were learning to craft something truly sublime from the primitive resources at their disposal. When they pieced together their debut album, OMD were still a duo featuring McCluskey and keyboardist/co-songwriter Paul Humphreys, though their minimal synth-pop was fleshed out by the pre-recorded sounds they’d saved on Winston, their reel-to-reel tape recorder. Listen to Orchestral Manoeuvres In The Dark’s debut album on Apple Music and Spotify. But ultimately, Martin wanted to impose his vision of our music on us whether we liked it or not – and we already had a clear idea of how we wanted Orchestral Manoeuvres In The Dark to sound.” With hindsight, what he did was beautiful and I did eventually come to love it. “We ended up using our self-produced version of ‘Electricity’ for the Factory single, because Martin’s version was too lush, and he also washed ‘Almost’ in reverb, making it far more ambient than we’d envisaged. “We were a bit intimidated by him,” bassist/vocalist Andy McCluskey explains. However, while OMD were impressed by Hannett’s maverick approach, they knew he wouldn’t be manning the console for the album. The recording of the captivating, Kraftwerk-esque “Electricity” was overseen by Factory’s in-house producer, Martin Hannett, whose revolutionary methodology on Joy Division’s highly-acclaimed debut album, Unknown Pleasures, ensured his was a hip name to drop – both then and now. Aside from attracting widespread critical acclaim, Orchestral Manoeuvres In The Dark’s debut single, “ Electricity,” led to the band signing a major record deal with Virgin Records subsidiary Dindisc in the autumn of 1979, which led to the release of their self-titled debut album early the following year. ![]()
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