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Dazzle Ships

 
Album Review: Dazzle Ships
 

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 TitleComposersPerformersTime
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)
Dazzle Ships, Pts. 1, 2, & 3 Orchestral Manoeuvres in the Dark Orchestral Manoeuvres in the Dark (2:21)
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)

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)
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Wikipedia: Dazzle Ships (album)
Top
Dazzle Ships
Dazzle Ships cover
Studio album by Orchestral Manoeuvres in the Dark
Released March 4, 1983 (1983-03-04)
Recorded 1982
The Gramophone Suite
Gallery Studio
Mayfair Studio
Genre Electronica
Musique concrete
Experimental music
New wave
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 the fourth 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 half of the material it contained, particularly musique concrete sound collages, utilising shortwave radio recordings to explore cold war and eastern bloc themes (the odd numbered tracks). However the album did also contain six conventional pop songs (the even numbered tracks), 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.

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.

The critical hostility towards the album has cooled in the years after its release. When the album was reissued in 2008, it received positive reviews from Pitchfork Media[1], Popmatters[2] and The A.V. Club[3], among others.

Contents

Track listing

All songs were written by Orchestral Manoeuvres in the Dark, except where noted.

Side 1

  1. "Radio Prague" (arranged by OMD) – 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

Side 2

  1. "Dazzle Ships (Parts II, III & VII)" – 2:21
  2. "The Romance Of The Telescope" – 3:27
  3. "Silent Running" – 3:34
  4. "Radio Waves" (OMD, John Floyd) – 3:45
  5. "Time Zones" (arranged by OMD) – 1:49
  6. "Of All The Things We've Made" – 3:27

On March 3, 2008 (2008-03-03) a remastered compact disc with bonus tracks was released, to coincide with the 25th anniversary of the album. [4] The bonus tracks are:

  1. "Telegraph (The Manor Version 1981)" – 3:25
  2. "4-Neu" – 3:34
  3. "Genetic Engineering (312MM Version)" – 5:12
  4. "66 and Fading" – 6:33
  5. "Telegraph (Extended Version)" – 5:38
  6. "Swiss Radio International" – 1:03

The "Manor Version" of "Telegraph" was recorded at the same time as "Architecture & Morality". "Swiss Radio International" was dropped from the album at the last minute. Like "Radio Prague", it contains the call sign for a radio station and was once referred to as "The Ice Cream Song" by drummer Mal Holmes due to its similarity to the melodies played by ice cream vans.

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!. "312mm" is simply the metric equivalent of twelve inches.

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 LP, cassette and compact disc, all had differing artwork.

The "Radio Prague" track is the actual interval signal of the Czechoslovak Radio foreign service, including the time signal and station ID spoken in Czech. "Time Zones" is a montage of various speaking clocks from around the world. Neither "Radio Prague" nor "Time Zones" carry any writing credit at all, with OMD being credited only for arranging the tracks. The "This Is Helena", "ABC Auto-Industry" and "International" tracks also include parts of some broadcasts recorded off-air (a presenter introducing herself, economic bulletin and news, respectively). [5]

Owen Pallett of the one-man violin-based Canadian indie act Final Fantasy has covered tracks 1-4 seamlessly while performing live shows.

Personnel

Instruments

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 analog synthesizers and the mellotron.

List of used instruments:

References

  • Liner notes

 
 

 

Copyrights:

Album Review. Copyright © 2009 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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