Classic 80s Band OMD Influenced by Cold War Era SW Radio

[Molvania Poacher]

“We became fascinated with the Cold War. Andy and I used to stay up late at night in our studio and we had a shortwave radio so you could tune into Eastern Europe and put a tape machine in record and see what we could find. That’s why there’s the Time Zones thing and samples of Radio Prague in Dazzle Ships’ title track. International as well starts off with quite a heavy speech we found, it was actually in English but it was from Prague."

https://www.yorkshirepost.co.uk/whats-on/arts-and-entertainment/omd-we-became-fascinated-with-the-cold-war-4081006

[Treehouse SWL]

The "Dazzle Ships" album by OMD is a longtime favorite of mine. When I discovered it as a teen in the 1980s, I couldn't imagine an album more tailor-made for my tastes, as I liked (still do) electronic music and shortwave.

[Molvania Poacher]

Thanks for sharing that reaction, THSWL. I hadn't paid close attention to OMD's work, except for enjoying what little I know from their more popular releases. I'll most certainly check them out more closely now.

I always really enjoyed Donald Fagan's album "The Nightfly", with the namesake song about an overnight jazz station DJ in Baton Rouge, and the entire album reflecting a fascinating and highly entertaining imagined inner life of an adolescent Fagan, growing up in suburban NJ, imagining the world around him and in the future, shaped seemingly from radio and TV in the 60s. Every song is a gem on that album.

[Pigmeat]

Steely Dan made it to Molvania? Did they perform in fez's?

I used to listen Swiss Radio International as they were neutral and had a good English service and the always entertaining Radio Tirana. They hated everyone except for the Chinese who bankrolled the regime and they weren't too fond of them. Enver Hoxha kept a tight hold on his hermit Worker's Paradise. He had his people build family fallout shelters. I've seen pictures of them, they looked like miniature concrete pyramids sticking up out of the ground, dotting the countryside. I would think they're root cellars now?

[Molvania Poacher]

Don't forget Steely Dan's 1976 song "The Fez," Pigmeat. Very popular among the Molvanian masses!