OMD – Architecture + Morality – Dazzle Ships | 2016 – 3.5

[continued from last post]

Disc two opened with the title track to “Architecture + Morality” but that sounded like a playback. The next song, “Sealand” was far from sounding like that with the two noticeable keyboard fluffs in the long, mournful intro. This was one of those “instant bootleg” albums where the performance was captured as is and issued immediately after the show. I really appreciate when bands I like leave in the mistakes in their performances [see: Billy Currie’s solo in the live “Astradyne” from this album], though in this case, the band had no chance of a ex-post-facto fixup. The notion of a bloodless, flawless performance isn’t what music is about, I think. Beyond the synth errors, the drums under the sticks of Stuart Kershaw, sound decidedly different from those of Malcolm Holmes. It seems like the difference to me from Mike Ogletree and Mel Gaynor on Simple Minds “New Gold Dream [81, 82, 83, 84].” Holmes had a lighter, jazzier touch where Kershaw sounded more forceful and loud.

I am still appreciating the revised arrangement of “New Stone Age.” When OMD regrouped in the last decade, it seemed that Paul Humphreys was driven to buy old synths so that he could exactly replicate the patches and voices he had used decades earlier in making the albums. Maybe some wish for that sort of rigidity, but I enjoy live music for its differences from the tried and true that I have listened to for 30+ years. I think that’s why I enjoy live recordings of my favorite bands so much. I thrive of the changes that happen live. When OMD have a sampled Korg micropreset issuing from their Roland Fantoms, I find that a bit lifeless. That they can change the arrangement, as they did here, does a long way towards giving me something back from the live arena.

The instant live album aspects also lent “Souvenir” a distinction as Paul Humphreys vocals weren’t getting a very prominent place in the mix. Since there are only two verses and no chorus, there’s not too much of him to miss! I did love the rototom solo from Kershaw on the middle eight, though. That to me was the crux of the song. The hook that can never let me go. I did find myself missing Malcolm’s drumming on the iconic “Joan Of Arc [Maid Of Orleans].” Kershaw hit straight tattoos of drumstrikes that seemed to have very little air in between them as compared to the more daring percussion that Holmes offered on this song. Here, Kershaw, in spite of having a heavier sounding hand elsewhere, didn’t manage to convey the massive drum sound that was Holmes metier on this track in particular.

On the other hand, Kershaw stepped out from the drum kit to play lead guitar on “The Beginning + The End,” and his delicate  touch added considerably to the sweet, emotional impact of the song. After that closer, they played a couple of OMD classics in “Electricity,” and “Enola Gay.” The former was particularly robust and I was excited to hear Kershaw add an actual electronic drum fill [complete with white noise pad fillips] in the last instrumental “chorus” to give this stone cold classic a little new swing.

“We haven’t played anything from after 1983. How weird is that?” – Andy McCluskey

Then they ended the set with a still powerful “Enola Gay” before leaving the stage briefly before the encore; the rhythm box still chugging away for several minutes as the band said their piece before leaving the stage. Since this was an “instant bootleg” the entire set break with applause [about 80 seconds] was left intact. Then the band returned and informed the audience that the post-1983 embargo was about to end since they had spent the last five years writing new material before ripping into the modern classic “History Of Modern [part I].”

Then came the logical coda for the evening. “The Romance Of The Telescope” was the one song that was missing from the “Dazzle Ships” set on disc one, but the band placed it with the “Architecture + Morality” set instead since it was a B-side to that album. Here, Kershaw played with the verve that had been missing earlier as he attacked the tattoos of military drumming on this track that marked this song as a percussive relative to “Joan Of Arc [Maid Of Orleans].”

As fine as the last OMD live album from just a year prior had been, this was the one to have if your were only having one. While having “Metroland” was a pleasure from the earlier album, getting all of “Dazzle Ships” has to be worth a lot as you hear songs like “Silent Running” and “International” that just don’t get the airing that perhaps they deserve. And since “Sailing On the Seven Seas” is missing form this set list, it stands as the purer OMD experience with all of the wheat and none of the chaff that could plague this band. With the absolutely live nature of this disc added to the plate, it comes out as the quintessential OMD live album in my view. Here we were served the absolute cream of OMD with none of the material that served to diminish their legacy. That the one new ringer here was more than adequate company for their first four albums of material that formed the bulk of these sets, was icing on the cake.

Some interesting statistics crop up in all four of OMD’s live albums, issued in just an eight year period. There are some songs that appeared on all four and a few that were only on one.

BLUE

GRAY

ORANGE

GREEN

1. ABC Auto Industry ♦♦
2. Almost ♦
3. Architecture + Morality ♦♦
4. The Beginning + The End ♦♦
5. Bunker Soldiers ♦
6. Dazzle Ships [parts II, III, VII] ♦♦
7. Electricity ♦♦♦♦
8. Enola Gay ♦♦♦♦
9. [Forever] Live + Die ♦♦
10. Georgia ♦♦
11. Genetic Engineering ♦♦
12. Green ♦
13. History Of Modern [part I] ♦♦♦
14. History Of Modern [Parts III, IV] ♦
15. If You Leave ♦
16. If You Want It ♦
17. International ♦♦
18. Joan Of Arc ♦♦♦
19. Joan Of Arc [Maid Of Orleans] ♦♦♦♦
20. Julia’s Song ♦♦
21. Locomotion ♦♦
22. Messages ♦♦♦
23. Metroland ♦
24. New Babies, New Toys ♦
25. New Holy Ground ♦
26. 4-Neu ♦♦
27. The New Stone Age ♦♦
28. Of All the Things We’ve Made ♦
29. Pandora’s Box ♦♦
30. Radio Prague ♦
31. Radio Waves ♦♦
32. The Romance Of The Telescope ♦♦♦
33. Sailing On The Seven Seas ♦♦♦
34. Sealand ♦♦♦
35. Silent Running ♦
36. She’s Leaving ♦♦♦♦
37. Sister Marie Says ♦♦
38. Souvenir ♦♦♦♦
39. Telegraph ♦
40. Tesla Girls ♦
41. This Is Helena ♦
42. Time Zones ♦

Next: …The Final Phase Begins