| Orchestral Manoeuvres In The Dark - The Old Waldorf, San Francisco, CA, USA (RG Master via JEMS) |
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| Orchestral Manoeuvres In The Dark Old Waldorf San Francisco, CA September 26, 1981 RG Master via JEMS New Wave LA Series Vol. Ten Recording equipment: unknown mics and recorder JEMS 2020 Transfer: RG Master Cassette > Nakamichi RX-505 (azimuth adjustment) > Sound Devices USBPre 2 > Audacity 2.0 capture > iZotope RX6 > iZotope Ozone 6 > CD Wave > ffmpeg > FLAC 01 Stanlow 02 Pretending to See the Future 03 Messages 04 Almost 05 Mystereality 06 Motion and Heart 07 The More I See You 08 Promise 09 Statues 10 The Misunderstanding 11 Dancing 12 India (cuts out) 13 Electricity 14 She's Leaving 15 Bunker Soldiers 16 Enola Gay 17 Julia's Song JEMS is pleased to continue a series of historic recordings made by our longtime friend and diehard music collector RG. He was on the scene in LA as a teenager, began recording shows in 1977 and continued on well into the 2000s. Our series will focus on tapes he made between 1977 and 1987. What sort of music was he into? Well, one simple way to put it is KROQ music, meaning the bands that LA’s “world famous” new wave radio station was playing were the bands he saw and recorded. First wave if you will, with forays into indie and punk(ish) artists. The early years are dominated by UK artists breaking in the US. Over time his work expands to US bands in the second wave. Some of the artists RG taped include: Siouxsie & the Banshees Madness The Specials OMD The Fall The Damned Public Image Limited John Cale Magazine The Buzzcocks Orange Juice U2 Wreckless Eric The Cramps Johnny Thunders Talking Heads Iggy Pop XTC The Jam The Only Ones The Undertones Boomtown Rats The Birthday Party The Penetrators The Bluebells Athletico Spizz ’80 Later on he caught The Smiths, R.E.M., Hüsker Dü, The Replacements and many more. RG used good, not Millard-level recording gear, which means his tapes are mostly solid and listenable, with the occasional very good one and also sorta crappy one. What makes his tapes compelling is that RG was recording in a particularly vital window of time. In many instances these were the first or second times these acts played Los Angeles. Some never did proper US tours, only playing select dates in key markets like LA or NYC. Also, for many of these gigs, RG was the only taper. He grabbed a few local radio broadcasts along the way, too. Because these shows were almost exclusively at clubs like The Whisky and The Roxy, the sets are generally short, 45 to 60 minutes because that's what you did at The Whisky. On occasion, RG would copy his own masters to save tape and we have done our best to distinguish what’s a true master and what’s a first generation copy. If there’s a doubt, we will note it. Regardless, the series will offer the lowest generation copies available of his recordings, digitized directly for the first time from RG’s tapes which had been stored in boxes for the last 15+ years. The tenth volume in our series temporarily resets our location to San Francisco for the lush synthesizer-pop sound of Orchestra Manoeuvres in the Dark, touring the U.S. ahead of the release of their auspiciously named third album, Architecture & Morality. The setlist doesn’t preview much from the forthcoming record, save for “She’s Leaving,” and instead dives deep into the band’s self-titled first US LP released in 1981, a compilation which culls tracks from their first two UK albums into a single disc tailored at American audiences. The performance features key early tracks “Electricity,” “Messages” and “Enola Gay.” Early ‘80s synth bands in live performance could be hit and miss, as even the best of them often had technical issues. OMD plays a strong 17-song set which RG captures well considering the distortion-causing nature of low synth notes. The shifting mood and tone of the show makes for a compelling listen. Samples provided. There aren’t a lot of early OMD live recordings out there and fewer still from the U.S. which makes this a rare document. We’re so grateful to RG for letting JEMS dig into his tape boxes and pull out the assets for this series. He witnessed some amazing LA music history. Shout out as well to cpscps who volunteered to handle post-production on our series which is a huge help to us and makes it possible to get more music in your hands. His work often requires a lot of research and his enthusiasm for the work is much appreciated. Stay tuned for more New Wave in LA. BK for JEMS |