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Universal (Orchestral Manoeuvres In The Dark Album)
''Universal'' is the tenth studio album by English electronic band Orchestral Manoeuvres in the Dark (OMD), released on 2 September 1996 by Virgin Records. Frontman Andy McCluskey opted for a more organic, acoustic sound on the record, which peaked at number 24 on the UK Albums Chart. It was generally well-received by music critics, although the British media's overall resistance to OMD – who had been rendered unfashionable by the prevalence of grunge and indie rock – prompted McCluskey to dissolve the group. ''Universal'' was their last album until 2010's ''History of Modern''. The album spawned the singles " Walking on the Milky Way" (a number 17 hit in the UK) and "Universal". Background McCluskey opted for a more organic sound on ''Universal'', while looking to capture an "epic" feel. He explained, "I'd abandoned techno/house; it was like an old man dying his hair jet-black: ridiculous. I decided to follow the current trend of getting more acoustic, using real drums and b ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Orchestral Manoeuvres In The Dark
Orchestral Manoeuvres in the Dark (OMD) are an English electronic music, electronic band formed in Wirral Peninsula, Wirral, Merseyside, in 1978. The group consists of co-founders Andy McCluskey (vocals, bass guitar) and Paul Humphreys (keyboards, vocals), along with Martin Cooper (musician), Martin Cooper (keyboards, saxophone) and Stuart Kershaw (drums); McCluskey has been the only constant member. Regarded as pioneers of electronic music, OMD combined an Experimental music, experimental, Minimal music, minimalist ethos with pop sensibilities, becoming key figures in the late-1970s/early-1980s emergence of synth-pop. The band were also one of the original acts involved in the MTV-driven Second British Invasion of the US. McCluskey and Humphreys led precursor group The Id (band), the Id from 1977–1978, and re-recorded their track "Electricity (Orchestral Manoeuvres in the Dark song), Electricity" as OMD's debut single in 1979. Weathering an "uncool" image and a degree of host ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Indie Rock
Indie rock is a Music subgenre, subgenre of rock music that originated in the United States, United Kingdom and New Zealand from the 1970s to the 1980s. Originally used to describe independent record labels, the term became associated with the music they produced and was initially used interchangeably with alternative rock or "Pop rock, guitar pop rock". One of the primary scenes of the movement was Dunedin, where Dunedin sound, a cultural scene based around a convergence of noise pop and jangle became popular among the city's University of Otago, large student population. Independent labels such as Flying Nun Records, Flying Nun began to promote the scene across New Zealand, inspiring key college rock bands in the United States such as Pavement (band), Pavement, Pixies (band), Pixies and R.E.M. Other notable scenes grew in Madchester, Manchester and Hamburger Schule, Hamburg, with many others thriving thereafter. In the 1980s, the use of the term "independent music, indie" (or " ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
AllMusic
AllMusic (previously known as All Music Guide and AMG) is an American online music database. It catalogs more than three million album entries and 30 million tracks, as well as information on musicians and bands. Initiated in 1991, the database was first made available on the Internet in 1994. AllMusic is owned by RhythmOne. History AllMusic was launched as ''All Music Guide'' by Michael Erlewine, a "compulsive archivist, noted astrologer, Buddhist scholar and musician". He became interested in using computers for his astrological work in the mid-1970s and founded a software company, Matrix, in 1977. In the early 1990s, as CDs replaced LPs as the dominant format for recorded music, Erlewine purchased what he thought was a CD of early recordings by Little Richard. After buying it he discovered it was a "flaccid latter-day rehash". Frustrated with the labeling, he researched using metadata to create a music guide. In 1990, in Big Rapids, Michigan, he founded ''All Music Guide' ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Peter Saville (graphic Designer)
Peter Andrew Saville (born 9 October 1955) is an English art director and graphic designer. He came to prominence for the many record sleeves he designed for Factory Records, which he co-founded in 1978 alongside Tony Wilson and Alan Erasmus. Early life Peter Saville was born in Manchester, Lancashire, and attended St Ambrose College. He studied graphic design at Manchester Polytechnic from 1975 to 1978. Saville became involved in the music scene after meeting Tony Wilson, the journalist and broadcaster. The meeting resulted in Wilson commissioning the first Factory poster ( FAC 1). Saville was a partner in Factory Records along with Wilson, Martin Hannett, Rob Gretton and Alan Erasmus. Factory Records Peter Saville designed many record sleeves for Factory artists, most notably for Joy Division and New Order. Influenced by fellow student Malcolm Garrett, who had begun designing for the Manchester punk group, Buzzcocks and by Herbert Spencer's ''Pioneers of Modern Typograp ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Carol Kenyon
Carol Kenyon (sometimes spelt Karol; born 1959) is a British singer. She is best known for her vocals on the Heaven 17 hit song "Temptation", which reached number two in the UK Singles Chart in 1983. When the song was re-released as a remix by Brothers in Rhythm in 1992, again featuring Carol's vocals, it made number 4. She was also featured on the Paul Hardcastle hit " Don't Waste My Time", which got to number 8 in 1986. Early life When Kenyon was a child, she was encouraged to sing and dance. She took lessons and entered arts festival contests. She played piano. She enjoyed listening to the collection of jazz records her father had. She was singing with a school choir at a music festival in Harrow. A young musician also appearing there, Guy Barker, heard her. He encouraged her to work more seriously on singing. Eventually Barker encouraged her to attend an National Youth Jazz Orchestra (NYJO) engagement. There, after hearing her sing, NYJO took her on, as its first regular ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Chuck Sabo
Chuck Sabo is an American drummer, musical director, songwriter, and producer who has performed and recorded with prominent artists including XTC, Natalie Imbruglia, Elton John, Tom Jones, Chaka Khan, Bryan Adams, Cher, Tina Turner, Pet Shop Boys, Billy Preston, Roy Orbison, Terence Trent D'Arby, Seal, Right Said Fred, Shakespear's Sister, Take That, OMD, 808 State, Tashan, Belinda Carlisle, Kiki Dee, Étienne Daho, and Michel Polnareff. Early life Chuck Sabo (Charles Edward Sabo Jr.) was born August 22, 1958, and grew up in Allentown, Pennsylvania, in a family of non-musicians. His parents supported his interest in and aptitude for playing the drums, and he began his career playing in cover bands in the Allentown area. Career 1980s Sabo moved to New York City in 1980 at age 21. While taking drum lessons with Sonny Igoe he worked moving furniture to subsidize his music career. In the early part of the decade he made his first significant industry connections, recording his ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Phil Spalding
Philip Spalding (born 19 November 1957, London, England) is an English bass player. He is best known as a session musician and player of Fender Precision Bass guitars. He has played and appeared with performing artists such as Mick Jagger, Seal, Orchestral Manoeuvres in the Dark, Elton John and Randy Crawford. At an early age he was a successful child model and appeared in a television advertisement for Smiths Crisps. Spalding was a computer operator for a high street bank, before joining rock artist Bernie Tormé in 1976. Later he joined Original Mirrors before beginning a collaboration with Toyah, in December 1980. Whilst with The Toyah band he recorded and co-wrote songs for studio albums and toured with the band, until 1983. Since then he has been a member of GTR and Mike Oldfield's band. More recently he has appeared on albums by Michel Polnareff, Suggs, Robbie Williams and Kylie Minogue. Spalding also recorded all bass tracks on the Lion King soundtrack studio album. ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Art Of Noise
Art of Noise (also The Art of Noise) were an English avant-garde synth-pop group formed in early 1983 by engineer/producer Gary Langan and programmer J. J. Jeczalik, along with keyboardist/arranger Anne Dudley, producer Trevor Horn, and music journalist Paul Morley. The group had international Top 20 hits with its interpretations of "Kiss", featuring Tom Jones, and the instrumental "Peter Gunn", which won a 1986 Grammy Award. The group's mostly instrumental compositions were novel melodic sound collages based on digital sampler technology, which was new at the time. Inspired by turn-of-the-20th-century revolutions in music, the Art of Noise were initially packaged as a faceless anti- or non-group, blurring the distinction between the art and its creators. The band is noted for innovative use of electronics and computers in pop music and particularly for innovative use of sampling. History Beginnings The technological impetus for the Art of Noise was the advent of the Fairl ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Anne Dudley
Anne Jennifer Dudley (née Beckingham; born 7 May 1956) is an English composer, keyboardist, conductor and pop musician. She was the first BBC Concert Orchestra's Composer in Association in 2001. She has worked in the classical and pop genres, as a film composer, and was one of the core members of the Synth-pop band Art of Noise. In 1998, Dudley won an Oscar for Best Original Musical or Comedy Score for ''The Full Monty''. In addition to over twenty other film scores, in 2012 she served as music producer for the film version of ''Les Misérables'', also acting as arranger and composing some new additional music. Career Dudley was born in Beckenham, Kent. She graduated with a master's in music from King's College London in 1978. Trained as a classical performer, she moved into the competitive commercial field as a session musician, where her professional relationship with Trevor Horn began. In 1982, Dudley made significant contributions to the Horn-produced ''The Lexicon of Lo ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Paul Humphreys
Paul David Humphreys (born 27 February 1960) is an English singer, songwriter and musician who is best known for his contributions to Orchestral Manoeuvres in the Dark (OMD), a new wave band which he founded alongside Andy McCluskey in 1978. John Doran in ''The Quietus'' remarked: "If, roughly speaking, McCluskey is the intellect and inquisitive nature in the group, then Humphreys is the heart." Humphreys provided synthesizer/keyboard work and vocals from the band's inception in 1978 until his 1989 departure, seven years before their dissolution, and returned for their 2006 reformation. Despite this period of absence, his songwriting contribution features on all of the group's studio albums, save for 1991's '' Sugar Tax''. Humphreys sang lead vocals on several OMD tracks, including the singles "Electricity", "Souvenir", " Never Turn Away", "Secret", " (Forever) Live and Die" and " What Have We Done". He fronted spin-off band the Listening Pool from 1989 to 1996, and recorded w ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Karl Bartos
Karl Bartos (born 31 May 1952) is a German musician and composer known for his contributions to the electronic band Kraftwerk. Career Karlheinz Bartos was born on 31 May 1952 in Marktschellenberg, Germany, named after his grandfathers Karl and Heinz. He was the drummer in a college band called The Jokers (later The Jolly Jokers in 1975) as Carlos Bartos, around 1965 to 1975. Between 1975 and 1991, he was, along with Wolfgang Flür, a member of the electronic music band Kraftwerk. This lineup of the group remains the most stable and productive yet assembled. He was originally recruited to play on Kraftwerk's US "Autobahn" tour where he changed his name to "Karl", as the band member's names were displayed on stage in neon lighting; "Karlheinz" was deemed too long and thus too expensive by Kraftwerk's front man Ralf Hütter. In addition to his percussion playing, Bartos was credited with songwriting on the ''Man-Machine'', ''Computer World'', and ''Electric Café'' albums and sang ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
