Liverpool Sound and Vision Rating * * * * *
To keep any art form locked inside its comfortable shell is to consign its soul to eventual oblivion. The masters of the painted value, its subject matter slowly fading under the pressure of light and Time, has to be eventually restored less it becomes invisible and a memory to others who would out on the flavour of the day, the poet seeks a fresher audience, a new way of delivery, the modern theatre audience wishes for nothing more than the view of the modern day in the classic; so too should music be constantly allowed to evolve, to hear a song of the listener’s youth be usurped in resolute re-evaluation keeps the songs fresh and beautiful.
It is a re-evaluation, a stirring revolution, when one of the most innovative bands of their generation can look to the approach of the addition of a full orchestra to enhance what was already considered by many to be pioneering, inventive; but then, Orchestral Manoeuvres In The Dark have never been afraid of embracing another genre’s culture if it helps inspire, create a new way of thinking.
It isn’t the first time that this approach to their work has been tried, but as part of a two date weekend in which the autumn winds bowed gently in the favour and the relaxed nature of the audience always felt as it was going to spring readily into action like a tiger hunting down its playful meal, Andy McCluskey, Paul Humphreys, Conductor Richard Balcombe, leader Sarah Brandwood-Spencer and the Royal Liverpool Philharmonic Orchestra took the idea of revolution and made it spectacular, charming, a gift of interpretation which was so steeped in visual and aural beauty that it purred as gently as the same tiger, sated in the chase, leaving others to marvel at the scene that had unfolded before them.
Against the back drop of devastatingly inventive graphics and pictures, O.M.D. and the Royal Liverpool Philharmonic Orchestra, songs flowed like amber into a chalice of polished cut glass, diamonds all, two sets of wonder, one delving into the honourable and high respect, the other looser, bouncier, full of angst and fury but with the timeless cool that O.M.D. have always strode for.
In songs and musical pieces such as Stanlow/Statues, Ghost Star, Sealand, the brutal quality of The Daughter of the Minatour, Messages, Joan of Arc, Joan of Arc (Maid of Orleans), Le Femme Accident, Dream of Me, The Native Daughters of the Golden West and the stunning Enola Gay, which in itself felt destined to be imagined in such a setting, the combination of the two extremes pop and high orchestra, were married off perfectly; a revolutionary tale carried off with new followers to the cause of reimagining classics.
A superb evening of music, of the novel for many, of the intricate for all, O.M.D. proving that art is a constant flow of ideas made real.
Ian D. Hall