Review Music Grooves: OMD | Andy McCluskey | Paul Humphreys | Kraftwerk

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The Review - MUSIC - grooves with ROISIN GADELRAB
Published: 25 September 2008

OMD

Dark force are back

PREVIEW: OMD
The Roundhouse

YES, they are from the 1980s, but, like many of their contemporaries who created sonic backdrops for possible alien landings, OMD will always be from the future.
A year on from their comeback tour the Wirral synth-poppers are setting out on an ambitious run of gigs that includes the Roundhouse.
Founder members and Pet Shop Boys prototypes Paul Humphreys and Andy McCluskey showed they can handle the big stage during their London shows last year. The 07 dates felt more reinvention than reunion, such is the experimentalist nature of Orchestral Manoeuvres in the Dark.
Back in the late 1970s, inspired by the mechanical sounds of German acts such as Kraftwerk, they built their own instruments, threw in Gothic gloom and choral samples and became top 40 regulars.
Their cerebral lyrics, covering military, maritime and French social history, stamped their own mark on the uber-pretentious electronica movement alongside the likes of Gary Numan and Ultravox.
While the more hardcore Manoeuvrists favour their more obscure work, they can call on anthemic mainstream tracks such as Maid of Orleans and Enola Gay for upbeat crowd-pleasers.
Keyboard geeks to the core, OMD are highly unlikely pop stars, but could still bully Hot Chip out of their dinner money.
Frontman McCluskey’s overzealous on-stage moves and audience interaction add an effervescent fizz, while last year’s Architecture and Morality album revival was played out to the backdrop of potentially Turner Prize-winning Cold War imagery.
Their comeback honeymoon may be over, but, when they get it right, an OMD gig is an other-worldly experience.
ALLAN LEDWARD

• OMD play the Roundhouse on October 7, 7pm. £30. 0844 482 8008

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