From Mark Kolmar Sent Mon, Feb 22nd 1999, 22:54
On Mon, 22 Feb 1999, Michael Upton wrote: > Early OMD is pretty cool, IMO. You have to like > their 80s synthpop vocals and maudlin lyrics, etc, > but they had quite an adventurous, and warm sound. > Hearing them in more recent interviews, they seem > pretty disparaging of those days as just being a > bunch of funny noises, so it may all have just > been a product of their lack of resources more > than anything more intentional. I love their album _Architecture and Morality_, although this seemed to be one of the more difficult ones to find in the USA. Well-written, with an extremely warm sound...their use of Mellotron on the record contributes to that in a major way. Don't let some of the later pop-fodder deter you. In a similar direction, look into China Crisis. They, too, became slick and irrelevant with time. But their first album _Difficult Shapes and Passive Rhythms, Some People Think It's Fun to Entertain_ is a wonderful, mellow, and rather melancholy synth-pop record. It's of the same vintage as early Depeche Mode, yet significantly different. _Flaunt the Imperfection_, produced with Walter Becker (Steely Dan) is slicker but to good effect. The quality dropped after that. --Mark __ Burning Rome : SENSELESS CD on Mindfield Records MindCD03 Cathartium 14 > Distributed by Dutch East India Trading, Com Four, and Carrot Top < < http://www.xnet.com/~mkolmar/BurningRome > < MP3 & RealAudio tracks >