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7" (1981) ***½/T½ Joan of Arc The Romance of the Telescope (unfinished) |
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Architecture & Morality (1981, 38.47/61.24) ***½/TT½ (TTT) |
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| The New Stone Age She's Leaving Souvenir Sealand Joan of Arc Joan of Arc (Maid of Orleans) Architecture and Morality Georgia The Beginning and the End |
[CD adds: Extended Souvenir Motion and Heart (Amazon Version) Sacred Heart The Romance of the Telescope Navigation Of All the Things We've Made Gravity Never Failed] |
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12" (1982) ****½/TTT½ Maid of Orleans (the Waltz of Joan of Arc) Of All the Things We've Made Navigation |
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Dazzle Ships (1983, 34.43/60.23) ***½/TT | |
| Radio Prague Genetic Engineering ABC Auto-Industry Telegraph This is Helena International Dazzle Ships (Parts II, III & VII) The Romance of the Telescope |
Silent Running Radio Waves Time Zones Of All the Things We've Made [CD adds: Telegraph (Manor version 1981) 4-Neu Genetic Engineering (312MM version) |
66 and Fading Telegraph (extended version) Swiss Radio International] |
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12" (1984) **½/T Locomotion Her Body in My Soul The Avenue |
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7" (1984) ****/TTTT (The Angels Keep Turning) the Wheels of the Universe |
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Navigation: The OMD B-Sides (2001, recorded 1979-91, 73.01) ***½/T½ |
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| Almost I Betray My Friends Waiting for the Man Annex Sacred Heart The Romance of the Telescope Navigation 4-Neu |
66 & Fading (edit) Her Body in My Soul The Avenue Garden City Concrete Hands Firegun This Town Gravity Never Failed |
Burning Sugar Tax (The Angels Keep Turning) the Wheels of the Universe |
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Current availability:
Mellotrons used:
Orchestral Manoeuvres in the Dark. A ludicrously pretentious name for a band, thankfully usually shortened to 'OMD'; even the band later dropped the 'in the Dark' bit, although the damage had been done by then. I remember liking their synth-pop classic Enola Gay at the time, though I never really heard anything much more by them until recently. What had passed me by was their rather major Mellotron/Novatron use on their third and fourth albums from the early '80s. Paul Humphreys and Andy McCluskey both played 'Tron, along with just about everything else, which sort of makes them a synth-pop duo, I suppose, though they broke out of that particular mould pretty early on. Incidentally, I'm amused to see that they were managed by 'Gordian' Troeller, Peter Hammill associate extraordinaire.
Architecture & Morality's the album that laid bare the duo's Joan of Arc fixation, with two songs named after her (thank God for subtitles, eh?!), both of which, startlingly, were UK hit singles. Its drum machine/synth sound is sadly dated these days, though there's all sorts of interesting keyboards in there to spice things up a bit; Farfisa, anyone? (Or is it a Vox?). The most memorable tracks tend to be the singles, with Souvenir featuring a nagging/irritating (delete according to taste) synth hook, making it their biggest UK hit. I can only definitely hear Mellotron on three tracks, which isn't to say it isn't hidden away elsewhere, too. The lengthy Sealand has 'Tron cellos, while the excellent Joan Of Arc (Maid Of Orleans) (the single was titled Maid Of Orleans (The Waltz Joan Of Arc), presumably to distinguish it from the other track, released three months earlier) has not only female voices (?), but a highly distinctive high string melody, making it one of the most 'Tron-heavy singles ever, I reckon. To finish things off, the title track opens with mixed choir chords which reiterate throughout the song. It's possible there are other bits that I'm missing; I don't know what produces the high female voice in The Beginning And The End (a high female voice, perhaps?), but it may well be the MkI Emulator they were using at the time.
Both Joan of Arc singles features Mellotron on their flips, Joan Of Arc having an early version of Romance Of The Telescope, complete with choirs, while Maid Of Orleans is backed with Navigation (which has also lent its title to a recent-ish compilation of b-sides), with some very upfront strings. In 2003, Virgin finally released an expanded version of the album, containing various b-sides and the like, both tracks included, also available on the aforementioned Navigation.
Dazzle Ships is far more experimental than its predecessors and, for that matter, its successors (the title, by the way, refers to a British experiment at camouflaging naval vessels). They used various non-standard equipment, including a Speak-and-Spell toy, a shortwave radio and a typewriter, although the results (ABC Auto-Industry, Dazzle Ships itself) sometimes sit awkwardly alongside the more mainstream tracks (Genetic Engineering and Telegraph were both hits). On the Novatron front, again, I can only hear three tracks, as I believe some of the murkier choir sounds are Emulator, with both being used on The Romance Of The Telescope. As for the others, International has some 'stabbed' string chords running through it, while Silent Running (title inspired by, but nothing to do with the film) has layered string chords alongside various contemporary synths. Incidentally, none of the six bonus tracks on the expanded CD feature any Mellotron.
Although the pair retired their Novatron from future albums, it turns up on a couple of tracks from '84. The Avenue, from the 12" version of Locomotion, features a powerful choir part, while the truly excellent (The Angels Keep Turning) The Wheels Of The Universe (originally available on a one-sided single with early copies of '84's Junk Culture) also features full-on choirs. Incidentally, this reminds me, more than anything of a Pallas b-side from the same year, bizarrely, although I consider it fairly unlikely that either band member might've heard said track. As previously mentioned, 2001's Navigation: The OMD B-Sides mops up all of their Mellotron rarities. Unsurprisingly, it's a bit of a ragbag of tracks, the duo's 1980 cover of Waiting For The Man (on the flip of Messages) and the dullsville Sugar Tax (from '91) are fairly unnecessary, while many of its tracks are now available on expanded CD versions of the band's catalogue, although it provides a fascinating alternative look at their career.
Anyway, Architecture & Morality is more straightforward and Dazzle Ships is more experimental, although the band's synth-pop beginnings lie at the core of both albums, so whether or not you'll like them is largely down to how you feel about this. They do provide an unusual opportunity to hear the Mellotron alongside various early-'80s machines, with the results being surprisingly good, as the 'Tron mixes pretty badly with later, digital synths. Anyway, cautiously recommended. Incidentally, despite covering their brief Mellotronic period, 2000's Peel Sessions 1979-1983 appears to be 'Tron-free, although, in fairness, it contains none of their studio 'Tron tracks, or, for that matter, anything from the original Architecture LP at all. Also incidentally, I met Andy Richards (ex-Strawbs) recently, who co-produced 1991's McCluskey-only Sugar Tax, who said that they'd "Hired a Mellotron in, but couldn't get it to work".
Just to add confusion to confusion, here they are playing 88 Seconds In Greensboro, from 1985's Crush, although there's no obvious Mellotron on the studio version.
By the way, I found this Andy McCluskey (I think) posting on an OMD online message board:
We used a Mellotron Mk1 [note: he presumably means an M400] on Architecture & Morality but were advised that if we were going on the road to get a Novatron. The Mk1 had a very bad whine created by the power supply. Streetly told us it was a design fault.
I still own the Novatron and OMD tapes for it.
Romance is actually a Prophet Five factory preset for the out of tune brass sound but the choir is Mellotron.
Streetly made us some special tape sets for live so that we could use only the sounds that we needed without changing tape sets during the gig. As you probably know it takes about 5 mins to change the tapes... also we had other things sat on the Mellotron on stage, so opening the top was not an option [note: I've only ever heard of ONE band who did!].
Our only real problem that we ever had on stage with the Novatron was in Italy at a gig in a large tent. All the power was from a small generator and every time the lights got really bright on stage the power supply to equipment reduced making the Novatron flywheel slow down so the notes went very flat. Once our lighting guy realised the problem we did the rest of the show with reduced lights to keep the Novatron in tune.
We had many more problems later on with the instruments that replaced the Novatron... The bloody Emulator Mk2...
