To mark the fortieth anniversary of Orchestral Manoeuvres In The Dark, Jonteknik (Jon Russell) has recorded a tribute in the form of a cover version of the band’s first single, ‘Electricity’, which was originally released by Factory in May 1979.

Russell is no stranger to the work of OMD, having worked with the band’s Paul Humphreys, remixing their 2013 ‘Metroland’ single and covering ‘Of All The Things We’ve Made’ on last year’s Alternative Arrangements LP. In Jokteknik’s hands, the track’s distinctive melody is slowed down a notch, shimmering its path across a bed of rich and detailed electronics instead of the original’s post-punk framework.

Andy McCluskey from OMD has often recounted a story that OMD nabbed the idea (and melody) for ‘Electricity’ from Kraftwerk’s ‘Radioactivity’, and in Russell’s new arrangement at its more languid pace you can hear that umbilical link between the two tracks, deploying vocodered vocals and the vocal chord loops that both bands used to different degrees as hallmarks of their sound. That Russell has also worked with Kraftwerk’s Wolfgang Flür in the past is no surprise.

‘Electricity’ by Jonteknik will be released on March 26 2019 by The People’s Electric. The track will be exclusively available here.

Words: Mat Smith

(c) 2019 Further.