On October 24th, 1980, Orchestral Manoeuvres in the Dark released their second studio album, Organisation.
The album was released a mere eight months following the band’s self-titled debut and featured only one single—perhaps the band’s most famous track “Enola Gay”—a song written about the plane used in the deployment of the atomic bomb over Hiroshima.
Watch the video for “Enola Gay” below:
“Enola Gay” was not indicative of the rest of Organisation in sound, mainly due to the track being written initially during the sessions for the band’s debut. The rest of the Organisation, a dark unsettling record which also featured a cover of the Harry Warren composition “The More I See You”, laid the groundwork for the band’s expansion of their sonic palette on the following records Architecture & Morality and Dazzle Ships.
As with all OMD’s early record sleeves, the artwork a was created by Peter Saville Associates, (given the band’s debut release being connected with Factory Records), and features a photograph by Richard Nutt of the cloud-covered peak of Marsco, in the Red Cuillin hills, overlooking Glen Sligachan on the Isle of Skye with Allt Dearg Mòr in the foreground.
The album’s title refers to the band Organisation, a precursor to Kraftwerk, one of OMD’s cited influences.
