FRESH: ‘Bauhaus Staircase’ – Orchestral Manoeuvres In The Dark

OMD are back and climbing their “Bauhaus Staircase”
Synth-Pop

Six years since the release of their critically-acclaimed, No.4 charting album “The Punishment Of Luxury”, synth pioneers Orchestral Manoeuvres In The Dark (OMD) return with their brand new studio album “Bauhaus Staircase”!

The album’s first offering is the title track, and serves as a nod both to Andy McCluskey’s love of the Bauhaus era and the power of protest art.

It arrives as the band’s most explicitly political record and the crowning achievement of their desire to be both Stockhausen and ABBA – born from the impetus to kickstart new explorations during lockdown when, as Andy McCluskey admits: “I rediscovered the creative power of total boredom.”

Predominantly written, recorded, and mixed by both McCluskey and Paul Humphreys (who has recently become a second-time father), “Bauhaus Staircase”’s other main external influence was David Watts, mainly known as a rock producer who helmed Sheffield band The Reytons’ recent No.1 album and mixed two tracks on the new OMD record.

Ranging from the beautiful film noir ballad of “Veruschka”, to “Anthropocene” – a term for the current epoch in Earth’s evolution, to the sinister “Evolution Of Species” and the hectic “Kleptocracy” – OMD’s greatest straight-up protest song – the new album is a broad, electronic, sonic masterpiece that lyrically tackles the topics of the future. The record closes on “Healing” – a moment of reflective calm and a rare OMD co-write, with lyrics by McCluskey’s friend, Liverpool singer-songwriter Caroline England with production from ATOM TM.

It’s 43 years since OMD arrived with their self-titled album and this one is number fourteen. The group, largely led by Andy, Paul and Martin Cooper, made their mark with the hit single “Enola Gay” and pumped out successive hits with “Locomotion”, “Souvenir” and “Sailing On The Seven Seas”. The lead track is their first single since 2019’s “Don’t Go” from their complete singles collection “Souvenir – The Singles 1979–2019”. Welcome back ‘boys’!