Orchestral Manoeuvres In The Dark - Talking Loud And Clear

What this video is

Released on 4 June 1984 as the second single from OMD's fifth studio album Junk Culture, 'Talking Loud and Clear' arrived at the height of British synth-pop's commercial and artistic peak. The song was built around a Fairlight CMI — a cutting-edge digital sampling instrument — loaded with unconventional sound sources including backwards sleigh bells and acoustic bass samples, exemplifying the era's tension between…

Why it matters

A key document of British synth-pop at its most melodically refined and commercially successful. The video encapsulates the 1984 New Pop moment: Fairlight-era electronic production given a human, theatrical face via low-budget but high-concept promo filmmaking. The song's chart success across…

The director

Simon Milne is a British music video director active in the early-to-mid 1980s, credited on IMDB and Wikipedia for directing the official promo for OMD's 'Talking Loud and Clear' (1984). He worked within the flourishing UK music video industry of the period,…