Since my earlier post that documented the recent CD re-issue of Orchestral Manoeuvres in the Dark’s first album raised the idea of doing an unboxing of their latest opus, it seemed only fair to oblige now that I have received my copy. Being something of a Peter Saville fan as well, it is good to see OMD heading back in the direction of earlier artwork styles. It does rather feel as if the whole box set thing is a bit over the top though, I have to confess. As for the album itself, I would describe it as rather schizophrenic, with a jumble of styles – some obviously aiming to re-mint the classic ‘Architecture & Morality’ sound via the Mellotron-saturated sounds, some coming on all ‘Sugar Tax’ era pop/dance style, while the shadow of Kraftwerk continues to hang over pieces such as ‘History of Modern’ (Part II), ‘RFWK’ and ‘The Right Side’.
I wasn’t quick enough off the mark to get the limited edition free t-shirt as well, otherwise this is the contents of the UK edition of the boxed set.
So, I’ll let the pictures tell the story on this post… You can click on each image to see a 640×480 enlargement.
^ The front of the boxed set, unopened
^ The sticker detailing the contents (peeled off of the shrink wrap)
^ Box opened, the 2 CDs and the DVD, art print behind
^ The DVD, front cover design (art print in background)
^ The DVD, opened up
^ DVD case, opened up to show the lyric pages
^ The CD of the album itself
^ The CD of the album (rear)
^ The Demos CD
^ The art print
^ The vinyl LP front cover design
^ The vinyl LP back cover design (note – it is not a gatefold cover!)
^ The records from the vinyl album
^ The 12 inch gatefold picture book – front cover design
^ The 12“ gatefold picture book – back cover design
^ The 12“ gatefold picture book – inner gatefold
^ Box set back cover record labels detail
Greetings, I think you have the most elaborate and attentive unboxing of this OMD item and I appreciate it … forgive me if I borrow a pic or two. Reason being, I snagged one from a seller on Discogs for a ‘mint but opened’ price of 67 eur via royal air on 2/14. All looked well from the seller but after 4 weeks of waiting I felt like it was lost in the mail. So on 3/18 I ordered a second one from Discogs that is mint and still un-opened in the plastic for eur 89 (and they shipped it to me with a tracking number) . Then last week a package arrived at my UPS mail address on 3/30 and I got a shock — guess which one? — you win — the first Box Set from Werner in Berlin 6 weeks from Berlin to San Francisco! … I was stuppified …. then on 4/04 the second OMD primo arrived from the second buyer … so now suddenly I have two Limited Box sets! It It was easy to open the first one and it is home with me … but as a note the second one is now available and from my research it is truly a desired Limited Box collection by OMD and if a blog reader still have a turntable and a desire to hear and record the vinyl then we have a match. The price is negotiable and I always prefer to match my effort in looking to see just how many of these babys where issued… I will email Andy to get the total number they released but given Andys and Pauls limited funds, I will bet it was a maximum of 250 sets based on the stict requirements of the european printing company to do the box’s solid structure, artwork, CDs and VCD and add to that the ‘heavy weight’ vinyl record pressings (the shocking impovement may have been for the vinyls to be made from vigin vinyl in the translucent shades of orange, red, yellow, blue, green or totally clear — but very cost prohibitive if under 1000 copies) I reference Razormaid Records early vinyl releases and those sound holy christ amazing on a good turntable)
However, I know have a 2nd box set now and hope via here to make it available to a OMD fan of your site who wants it , as it appears from my searching there are very few fans who seem to want to let it go …. and the only singular one on ebay in the UK is selling at ‘buy it now’ at eur 169 … yikes. It seems to be gaining value, my friend, as there are very few left available … I got it on monday and keep it safe but makes no sense — however, I have a plan … there are 6 people on Discogs that want it … thank you for everything you did to photographically un-box it in the best graphic terms I have ever seen of it ever. My hat is off to you. I wish I can send you something else to spotlight and promote photographically in the form of the amazing razormaid CD releases … trust me it is worth the effort but they are here and doing nothing so much for me but it would be strictly a promo effort for razormaid and a qualification of what you love and that is Design and then theproduct of the design …. by the by, do a little research on the History of Razormaid (razormaid.com) and you will find that Joseph Watt was the first adopter of using the dots and dashes die cut on a vinyl Album cover and it would reveal the letter of the release: R,A,Z,O,R,M,A,I,D of the issue via the dots & dashes of the color dots and dashes through the outer sleeve via the color of the issue jacket that was opposite to the sleeve and they were pressed on virgin vinyl and now they are hard to find but there is a way you can see what I am refering to ( and I will give you first option to find a fellow who contacted you about your Design Crazy sight and we possibly get them the last OMD Art of Modern that is still screaming in its plastic to breath and is waiting for them to open it up, okay. This is serious History of Modern for a fan of yours, my friend …. DLJ
Good luck with finding a new home for your spare copy of the box set edition. I do have one of the Razormaid vinyl albums with the die-cut sleeve design, but no CDs… Thanks for the kind words about the un-boxing, was something of a special case this one!
Mr. Jasper should post his HOM box in the OMD forum in the “for sale” area. It’s the perfect place to unload it to the right OMD fan.
http://www.omd.uk.com/forum/viewforum.php?f=5&sid=84eb6c4ec846ccc6a4e04d2463b67dc8
Of course, I had mine on release!