Orchestral Manoeuvres in the Dark (OMD) – ‘History of Modern’ limited edition Greek CD/DVD boxed set (Undo / Blue Noise / EMI CDUN25B, 2010)

VersionCrazy has previously covered the full limited edition LP/2xCD/DVD boxed set edition of ‘History of Modern’ in some detail (well, visually anyway) – but did you know that there was a smaller scale boxed edition of the album released in Greece as well?

I don’t know the full story of why this particular edition came to be, but nevertheless it has its unique qualities, right enough. Firstly, the packaging really goes for it – a unique variation the ‘black’ version of the artwork design is used for the outer box, first seen in the vinyl LP edition in the full super-deluxe edition box set – though with altered colour way here – purple and yellow the predominant highlight colours. As if that weren’t enough, it comes wrapped in ribbon and with a plastic wax seal for good measure as well. Secondly, it has a CD of remixes for good measure too.

Inside the box there is the ‘deluxe’ CD + DVD edition of the album with the predominantly orange colour way cover design – same version as released in the UK and elsewhere, though without the card slipcase – plus an exclusive CD devoted to various remixes of the first single release from the album, ‘If You Want It’.

As for the main album content- well, disc one is the standard album, while the second disc is actually a DVD with various video and multimedia elements;

• Video: In The Studio Interview (6:42).
• Video: The Making Of The History Of Modern (13:16).
• Lyrics with Album track playback for each.
• Hidden Artwork Files.

The videos are interesting enough – some, I assume fairly staged  recording and mixing segments so you get a peek at the 21st century recording set up – far more minimal than back in the heyday of the Gramophone Suite. The artwork files are obviously alternative album variations, most of which ended up being used on single releases at some point.

And what of these remixes of ‘If You Want It’? For starters, a few of them are exclusive to this release as a commercial release. (They did appear as promos elsewhere though and some for digital downloads.) For my money the best ones are the Villa Nah remix and the Marsheaux remix. Neither stray too far from the framework of the original but bring along enough tasty synth textures to the table to conjure up interesting aural treats. A few of the others pump up the dance factor with four to the floor beats nailing things down with steam hammer intensity. The ‘Teeth’ remix probably strays the farthest from the original, but has its charms. What surprises me is that none of the remixes played about at all with the Mellotron choir touches that sneaks in towards the end of the regular mix – I feel that could have been worth exploring more. The absolutely cracking snare sound on the original too seems to have gone unused too.

Ten years on now from the album’s release, I find it stands up well, though with two fairly out of character anomalies in the shape of ‘Sometimes’ and ‘Pulse’. I actually quite like both tracks but they feel out of place with the rest – the latter in particular feels like a band slipping into a horny teens clothing and making some unseemly gyrations. To be fair, the band have acknowledged in interviews the patchwork nature of the album, very much made up of a mixture of leftover strays and newly written material – not helped by the distant recording production mode of both parties at other ends of the country.

Elsewhere, Kraftwerk cast a shadow a little too strongly – ‘RFKW’ is seemingly something based once again on a ‘Europe Endless’ inspired template – the closing ‘The Right Side?’ is built upon a sample of Komputer’s ‘Looking Down On London’ which itself was… guess what… seemingly something of a ‘Europe Endless’ inspired pastiche/tribute… take your pick. Meanwhile, ‘The Future, The Past, And The Forever After’ takes some of the ‘Trans-Europe Express’ train-inspired sonic tricks and reworks then into something really rather funky. Standout track for me remains Part 1 of the album title track.