With ‘English Electric’ in 2013, OMD produced their finest album in thirty years with founder members Andy McCluskey and Paul Humphreys successfully playing to their strengths.
Utilising McCluskey’s conceptual overview and cryptic lyricism covered in metaphor, coupled to Humphreys’ musical direction and melodic magic, the end result was a work of art to savour with songs like ‘Metroland’ and ‘Kissing The Machine’ fully exploiting their Synth-Werk seeds. Meanwhile, ‘Dresden’ and ‘Stay With Me’ were fine examples of their respective individual palettes adapted for the greater good of the band.
And this was without the magnificence of ‘Our System’, the pastel synthpop of ‘Night Café’ and the passionate glory of ‘Helen Of Troy’. ‘The Punishment Of Luxury’
The long player begins with the title track and a mighty electro rhythm section enhanced by a bright infectious melody, robot harmonies and incessant chants. Reflecting on the dilemma of first world problems and its incumbent joyless hedonism, it’s a fabulous opener that captures elements of KRAFTWERK, THE ART OF NOISE and THE PRODIGY.
Using more treated vocals and Vox Humana voice generators, ‘Isotype’ is a blip fest that embraces glitch and techno, with wild siren sounds fluctuating to provide a human counterpoint to their synthesised derivation. A commentary on how society has been going backwards in its communication via emojis, the inspiration comes from the international picture language conceived in 1924.
So far so good with the concepts and the tunes, but two tracks which spring a major surprise are ‘Robot Man’ and ‘Art Eats Art’. Both are fine examples of modern robotic pop which will delight fans of OMD’s more directly electronic work, but perhaps will dismay those hoping for sax solos and an update of ‘If You Leave’.
‘Robot Man’ starts as a tone poem before a huge machine rhythm emerges to shape an electro-funk rumble like a slowed down ‘Warm Leatherette’ reimagined by PRINCE… but then, there’s also more than a resemblance to ‘Fembot’ by ROBYN!
Much weirder, ‘Art Eats Art’ bubbles to a metronomic dance tempo with a chorus of vocoders over an aggressive octave shift. Recalling the work of former Kling Klang incumbent Karl Bartos, despite all the strange noises, this is frantic technopop offset by pretty melodies and shopping list lyrics. But it’s not like how OMD have sounded before, yet it is still retains the essence of their roots.
Taking a Synthanorma sequence set to a 6/8 rhythm and a melody inspired by ‘Forbidden Colours’, ‘What Have We Done’ sees a confident vocal from Paul Humphreys on some passionate Modernen Industrielle Volksmusik that could be seen as a passing observation on the current political climate.
A slow pulsing sequence and real bass guitar combine to form the interlude that is ‘Precision & Decay’, which “from luxury to landfill”, reflects on the disposable nature of the modern world and concludes “there is no such thing as labour saving machinery”.
‘As We Open, So We Close’ is an oddball experience to start with, as glitchy buzzes attach themselves to a disjointed rhythm of claps and backward kicks before everything grows into something more melodic, with a superlative vocal ring to “take me to your fragile place”.
Compared to the some of the other tracks on ‘The Punishment Of Luxury’, ‘Kiss Kiss Kiss Bang Bang Bang’ is almost conventional, but as this is OMD, there’s a twist! Like KRAFTWERK meeting Johan Strauss, the beautiful melodic vibes are interrupted by McCluskey’s scathing expletive laden attacks on Uncle Sam, Mao Tse Tung, Dr Spock and the current political climate; it’s a beautiful electronic lullaby that is a thematic successor to ‘International’.
The excellent ‘One More Time’ is a classic bittersweet OMD stomper, where “everything you gave me didn’t last”. Using electronic percussion as opposed to drum machines, the enticing verse and uplifting bridge are set to a plethora of gorgeous textures and distorted synth just to weird things out. While McCluskey announces “you can break my heart just one more time”, the star again is Humphreys with his crystalline synth sounds laced with portamento bounce.
The thought-provoking intermission of ‘La Mitrailleuse’ is a “grapeshot” collage with militaristic gunshots forming the rhythm track. The unsettling mantra of “bend your body to the will of the machine!” is inversed by a falsettoed cry from McCluskey. A mid-19th Century volley gun, the fact that a Mitrailleuse was difficult to manage, as well as being highly inaccurate, makes this a fine slice of clever social-political commentary.
On the final straight, ‘Ghost Star’ with its wildlife ambience and dramatic VANGELIS-like intro is a sub-six minute number that could be ‘Stanlow’ for the 24th Century. Lovely emotive synthphonic sweeps provide a pretty electronic cascade that is epically European with no pandering to the Yankee Dollar. Meanwhile, the almost nursery rhyme feel of ‘The View From Here’ is elegiac, with orchestrations and even some guitar sounds.
Mature and reflective with a spirited vocal from McCluskey, this is a classic OMD sad ballad in the vein of ‘All That Glittters’. However, these two closing numbers do not sit as easily with the frenetic statements on the majority of ‘The Punishment of Luxury’. So for that reason, although the album IS strides ahead of ‘History Of Modern’
But swathed in detuned synths and attached to a rigid percussive lattice, ‘The Punishment Of Luxury’ is an excellent OMD record with Germany still calling. The solos of Paul Humphreys are certainly something to savour while Andy McCluskey possibly delivers some of his best vocals, as the pair continue to push boundaries with their experimental but tuneful approach.
Compare that to the last three frankly dire DEPECHE MODE albums and OMD now take a two goal lead. Unlike the Basildon mob’s feeble fourteenth album, ‘The Punishment of Luxury’ actually HAS spirit and a sense of adventure, as well as a clever metaphoric narrative reflecting on issues that affect the human condition.
Nearly forty years on, OMD’s breadth of musicality, technological curiosity and lyrical wordplay is still something to be admired and lauded.
‘The Punishment Of Luxury’
OMD’s ‘The Punishment Of Luxury’ 2017 tour, Ireland + UK dates with special guests TINY MAGNETIC PETS include:
Dublin Vicar Street (23rd October), Belfast Mandela Hall (24th October), Liverpool Empire (29th October), Bristol Colston Hall (30th October) , Southend Cliffs Pavillion (1st November), Ipswich Regent (2nd November), Cambridge Corn Exchange (3rd November), Leicester De Montfort Hall (5th November), Nottingham Royal Concert Hall (6th November), Sheffield City Hall (7th November), Reading Hexagon (9th November), Southampton Guild Hall (10th November), Guildford G Live (11th November), London Roundhouse (13th November), Bexhill Del La Warr Pavillion (15th November), Manchester Academy (17th November), York Barbican (18th November), Glasgow Royal Concert Hall (19th November), Birmingham Symphony Hall (21st November), Gateshead Sage (22nd November)
European dates with special guests HOLYGRAM include:
Erfut Traum Hits Festival (25th November), Hamburg Grosse Freiheit (26th November), Berlin Huxleys (28th November), Leipzig Haus Auenesse (29th November), Munich Tonhalle (30th November), Offenbach Stadthalle (2nd December), Düsseldorf Mitsubishi Electric Hall (3rd December), Tilburg 013 (5th December), Antwerp De Roma (6th December), Lausanne Les Docks (8th December)
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Text by Chi Ming Lai
30th August 2017, updated 29th August 2018
was not included on the debut FAD GADGET long player ‘Fireside Favourites’ that came out a few months later, but it helped establish Mute Records’ credentials as an early champion of independent electronic music.
via Mute Records
was a worthy transitional recording although where Foxx headed next was the more romantic and band oriented textures of ‘The Garden’.
via Metamatic Records
was not a hit on its original release, but the world belatedly caught up when a remixed reissue reached No11 in 1982.
via Virgin Records
was the posthumous hit single that documented the relationship turmoil which JOY DIVISION’s lead singer Ian Curtis was facing prior to his suicide. The initial attempt at recording had been much faster and tighter, but producer Martin Hannett slowed the band down and suggested Curtis take on a more Sinatra based drawl. The looser end result added further poignancy.
via Rhino
via Beggars Banquet
was the first release from THE BLUE NILE and the esoteric template that later emerged on ‘A Walk Across The Rooftops’ was already omnipresent. Rawer and more aggressive than songs like ‘Stay’ and ‘Tinseltown In The Rain’, this was a fine opening gambit from the enigmatic Glaswegian trio. Originally self-released, the single was picked up by RSO who promptly folded after its re-release.
via Virgin Records
co-produced by Mike Hedges was an interim 45 prior to the doomfest of ‘Pornography’. The band’s potential for success now looked like a real threat as The Raincoat Brigade seeked out a successor to JOY DIVISION. But in late 1982, THE CURE lightened up for the first of their fantasy singles, ‘Let’s Go to Bed’.
via Fiction Records
. The multi-lingual phrases highlighted an expanding world market while Glenn Gregory provided commentary on how personal relationships were like business transactions.
via Virgin Records
, a song that had not been originally included on their second album ‘The Friends Of Mr Cairo’. Jon Anderson’s lyrics were almost spiritual while the widescreen sonic backing from his Greek chum complimented the mood. Vangelis himself was about to enter his most high profile period with ‘Chariots Of Fire’ and ‘Blade Runner’.
via Polydor Records / Universal Music
via Music Club Deluxe
being appended to the album.
via EMI Music
effectively bookended Marc Almond and Dave Ball’s imperial pop period which had started with ‘Tainted Love’. Another song that came via the Northern Soul scene, it was originally recorded by Judy Street and had more than a passing resemblance to ‘Always Something There To Remind Me’. The recording was quickly disowned and was to be SOFT CELL’s last Top10 single before the duo entered much darker musical territory and on the path to ‘Mr Self Destruct’.
via Phonogram / Universal Music
allowed Clarke to put his new Fairlight CMI through its paces, while a gospel flavour came from SYLVIA & THE SAPPHIRES.
via Music Club Deluxe
was a cynical attempt to ensure DURAN DURAN got a UK No1. Nick Rhodes made it clear the song was not going to be on the next album while completely different versions featured on the 7 and 12 inch formats. This synth laden single featured that dreadfully unforgettable line “You’re about as easy as a nuclear war”!
via EMI Music
featured a charming four way call-and-response vocal while the huge use of portamento on the lead synth line fooled buyers into returning their singles to the shops thinking it was warped!
via Virgin Records
via EMI Music
was considerably less harsh than his band’s pioneering electronic body music. Although not featured on Görl’s first solo album ‘Night Full Of Tension’, ‘Mit Dir’ did much to help lighten his mood considerably that he was attempting synthpop with EURYTHMICS’ Annie Lennox on songs like ‘Darling Don’t Leave Me’.
via Mute Records
was a brilliantly glorious statement with Billy Currie’s OSCar interventions being its undoubted musical highlight.
via EMI Records
was the bridge between the industrial flavoured synthpop of ‘Some Great Reward’ and the darker aesthetics of ‘Black Celebration’. Much more accomplished than the more throwaway standalones like ‘It’s Called A Heart’ and ‘But Not Tonight’ which followed, ‘Shake The Disease’ continues to be performed live at DM shows in a less interesting stripped down form with Martin Gore on lead vocals.
via Mute Records
became an unexpected American No1 on the back of the movie’s success and took Jim Kerr and Co into the stadiums of the world.
via Virgin Records
, a one-off for London Records. Engineered by Dan Lacksman of TELEX, it featured a sonic passage that would have made Trevor Horn proud. Lines such as “I’ve been thinking we’ll get back together again someday – your hair will be some weird color by then…” reminded European audiences of how quirky SPARKS could be.
via Lil Beethoven Records
actually follows a chord progression very similar to ‘Enola Gay’. Interestingly, the song failed to enter the Top40 on its release in the UK.
via Virgin Records
is one of the Mancunian’s combo’s more underrated singles. With a synth riff borrowed from Shannon’s ‘Let The Music Play’, it successfully combined some gritty rock energy to a solid Italo disco backbone featuring a great sequenced bassline.
via Rhino
was a throbbing Moroder-inspired disco tune that borrowed counter-melodies from Donna Summer’s ‘Love’s Unkind’. Independent labels such as Mute and Factory were more likely to indulge in releases that weren’t specifically tied in to albums, and it proved to be a perfect move to maintain ERASURE’s profile while they were preparing their next plan of action.
via Mute Records
. It all seemed so camp and ridiculous in the video when Neil Tennant was singing it wearing a Stetson, but then in 1992, out popped Bono doing something similar on their ‘Zoo TV’ tour!
via EMI Music
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appeared on ‘Partysnäks’, the soundtrack to ‘Die Tanzbeinsammler’.
(V/A) via Grönland Records
via Union Square
was recorded for the film ‘Insignificance’ and produced by Midge Ure under the pseudonym of Otto Flake Junior.
(V/A) via Union Square
via Union Square
via London Records
was very much dominated by Gabriel’s dancefloor instincts. But all was not well within. “The MD from Island suddenly left and all the people who worked on my album left as well” she remembered, “A new guy came in and already I could sense what would happen, so Pascal and I decided to get really experimental”.
via Cherry Red Records
with CHROME SEDUCTION was a frantic club number that also saw a reunion with former partner-in-crime Susanne Freytag. The project of Magnus Fiennes, brother of actors Joseph and Ralph, it was independently released by Mother Alpha Delta.
via Union Square
via BMG
via Land Speed Records
featuring a duet with FRANKIE GOES TO HOLLYWOOD’s Paul Rutherford A beautifully crafted synthesized tribute to David Bowie & Pat Metheny, it had been intended for a film soundtrack but shelved.
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via WEA
, a co-write with Martin Gore which also featured the guitar of DEPECHE MODE’s main songwriter. It was the stand-out song on ONETWO’s debut EP ‘Item’.
via 
via Sanctuary Records
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via 
via Soundcolours
was the alluring highlight of three songs recorded.
(V/A) via Rockstar Games
was the first song to emerge from Brücken’s reinterpretations project with producer 
via There (there)
from scratch for OMD. “Paul had the idea of asking Claudia to do the vocal in the middle eight” remembered McCluskey before thinking “y’know, could you ask Claudia to do it in German as well?”... the result was electronic magic.
via BMG
very much reflected her personal mindset following the end of her relationship with Paul Humphreys.
via Cherry Red Records
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