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Album Review:

Dazzle Ships

  • Release Date: 1983
  • Genre: Rock
  • Label: Disky Communications
  • Total Time: 34:43

Review

OMD's glistening run of top-flight singles and chart domination came to a temporary but dramatic halt with Dazzle Ships, the point where the band's pushing of boundaries reached their furthest limit. McCluskey, Humphreys, and company couldn't take many listeners with them, though, and it's little surprise why -- a couple of moments aside, Dazzle Ships is pop of the most fragmented kind, a concept album released in an era that had nothing to do with such conceits. On its own merits, though, it is dazzling indeed, a Kid A of its time that never received a comparative level of contemporary attention and appreciation. Indeed, Radiohead's own plunge into abstract electronics and meditations on biological and technological advances seems to be echoing the themes and construction of Dazzle Ships. What else can be said when hearing the album's lead single, the soaring "Genetic Engineering," with its Speak & Spell toy vocals and an opening sequence that also sounds like the inspiration for "Fitter, Happier," for instance? Why it wasn't a hit remains a mystery, but it and the equally enjoyable, energetic "Telegraph" and "Radio Waves" are definitely the poppiest moments on the album. Conceived around visions of cryptic Cold War tension, the rise of computers in everyday life, and European and global reference points -- time zone recordings and snippets of shortwave broadcasts -- Dazzle Ships beats Kraftwerk at their own game, science and the future turned into surprisingly warm, evocative songs or sudden stop-start instrumental fragments. "Dazzle Ships (Parts II, III, and VII)" itself captures the alien feeling of the album best, with its distanced, echoing noises and curious rhythms, sliding into the lovely "The Romance of the Telescope." "This Is Helena" works in everything from what sounds like heavily treated and flanged string arrangements to radio announcer samples, while "Silent Running" becomes another in the line of emotional, breathtaking OMD ballads, McCluskey's voice the gripping centerpiece. ~ Ned Raggett, All Music Guide

Tracks

Track Title iTunes Composers Performers Time
Radio Prague
...
Orchestral Manoeuvres in the Dark Orchestral Manoeuvres in the Dark (1:18)
Genetic Engineering
...
Orchestral Manoeuvres in the Dark Orchestral Manoeuvres in the Dark (3:37)
ABC Auto-Industry
...
Andy McCluskey, Paul Humphreys Orchestral Manoeuvres in the Dark (2:06)
Telegraph
...
Orchestral Manoeuvres in the Dark Orchestral Manoeuvres in the Dark (2:57)
This Is Helena
...
Orchestral Manoeuvres in the Dark Orchestral Manoeuvres in the Dark (1:58)
International
...
Orchestral Manoeuvres in the Dark Orchestral Manoeuvres in the Dark (4:25)
The Romance of the Telescope
...
Orchestral Manoeuvres in the Dark Orchestral Manoeuvres in the Dark (3:27)
Silent Running
...
Orchestral Manoeuvres in the Dark Orchestral Manoeuvres in the Dark (3:34)
Radio Waves
...
Orchestral Manoeuvres in the Dark Orchestral Manoeuvres in the Dark (3:45)
Time Zones
...
Orchestral Manoeuvres in the Dark Orchestral Manoeuvres in the Dark (1:49)
Of All the Things We've Made
...
Orchestral Manoeuvres in the Dark Orchestral Manoeuvres in the Dark (3:27)
Dazzle Ships, Pts. 1-3
...
Orchestral Manoeuvres in the Dark Orchestral Manoeuvres in the Dark (2:21)

Credits

Arun Chakraverty (Mastering), M.H. Cooper, Rhett Davies (Producer), Rhett Davies (Engineer), Malcolm Holmes, Maureen Humphreys (Vocals), Tony Lawrence (Engineer), Ian Little (Engineer), Andy McCluskey (Guitar), Andy McCluskey (Keyboards), Andy McCluskey (Vocals), Orchestral Manoeuvres in the Dark (Arranger), Orchestral Manoeuvres in the Dark (Producer), Orchestral Manoeuvres in the Dark (Engineer), Orchestral Manoeuvres in the Dark (Main Performer), Brian Tench (Engineer), Paul Ward (Engineer), Paul Humphreys (Percussion), Paul Humphreys (Keyboards), Paul Humphreys (Vocals), Paul Humphreys, Dirk Hohmeyer (Engineer), Jean-Michel Reusser (Engineer), Mike Stark (Engineer), Andy Dunkley (Engineer), G.A. McCluskey, Keith Richard Nixon (Engineer), Sue Sawyer (Engineer)
 
 
Wikipedia: Dazzle Ships (album)
Dazzle Ships
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Image:Nocover-upload.png

Studio album by Orchestral Manoeuvres in the Dark
Released 1983
Recorded 1982
Genre Electronica
Length 34:43
Label Telegraph (Virgin)
Producer Orchestral Manoeuvres in the Dark and Rhett Davies
Professional reviews
Orchestral Manoeuvres in the Dark chronology
Architecture & Morality
(1981)
Dazzle Ships
(1983)
Junk Culture
(1984)

Dazzle Ships is an album by Orchestral Manoeuvres in the Dark, released in 1983.

The title and cover art (designed by Peter Saville) alluded to a painting by vorticist artist Edward Wadsworth based on dazzle camouflage.

The album was the follow-up release to the band's hugely successful Architecture and Morality. In contrast with its celebrated predecessor, Dazzle Ships met with a degree of critical and commercial hostility, due to the inaccessible nature of some of the material it contained, particularly musique concrete sound collages, utilising shortwave radio recordings to explore cold war and eastern bloc themes. However the album did also contain conventional pop songs (both up-tempo numbers, and ballads). Two singles were released from it, "Genetic Engineering" and "Telegraph", which achieved moderate chart success.

The album was co-produced with Rhett Davies, who was best known for his work on lusher-sounding albums by the reformed Roxy Music.

In terms of instrumentation, Dazzle Ships saw the band begin to explore digital sampling keyboards (the E-mu Emulator) in addition to their continued use of analogue synthesizers and the mellotron.

The band's former record company, the independent DinDisc label, had recently ceased trading, and so the bands contract was transferred to DinDisc's parent company, Virgin Records. However, in order to maintain the image of being signed to an "indie" label, the record sleeve purported that the album was released by the fictitious "Telegraph" label.

Track listing

  1. "Radio Prague" – 1:18
  2. "Genetic Engineering" – 3:37
  3. "ABC Auto-Industry" – 2:06
  4. "Telegraph" – 2:57
  5. "This Is Helena" – 1:58
  6. "International" – 4:25
  7. "Dazzle Ships (Parts II, III & VII)" – 2:21
  8. "The Romance Of The Telescope" – 3:27
  9. "Silent Running" – 3:34
  10. "Radio Waves" – 3:45
  11. "Time Zones" – 1:49
  12. "Of All The Things We've Made" – 3:27

Singles

Genetic Engineering

  • 7": Telegraph VS 527
  1. "Genetic Engineering" – 3:37
  2. "4-Neu" – 3:33
  • 12": Telegraph VS 527-12
  1. "Genetic Engineering (312mm Version)" – 5:18
  2. "4-Neu" – 3:33

The punning title of "4-Neu" was a dedication to the influential "krautrock" band Neu!.

Telegraph

  • 7": Telegraph VS 580
  1. "Telegraph" – 2:57
  2. "66-And Fading" – 6:40
  • 12": Telegraph VSY 580-12
  1. "Telegraph (Extended Version)" – 5:53
  2. "66-And Fading" – 6:30

Notes

Both the 7"'s of Genetic Engineering and Telegraph were released as 7" Picture Discs.

Dazzle Ships was released on 12", Cassette and Cd, all had differing artwork.


 
 

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Album Review. Copyright © 2008 All Media Guide, LLC. Content provided by All Music Guide ® , a trademark of All Media Guide, LLC. All rights reserved.  Read more
Wikipedia. This article is licensed under the GNU Free Documentation License. It uses material from the Wikipedia article "Dazzle Ships (album)" Read more

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