Radio Prague is a radio recording of the call sign from the Czechoslovakian radio station of the same name.
Genetic Engineering was the first single released from the album.
ABC Auto-Industry features a recording from Czechoslovakian radio (actually by a presenter called Vladimir) who presented a weekly economic talk on Radio Prague. The theme was the use of robots in Czechoslovakian industry. The 'ABC' and '123' are by Paul Humphreys.
Telegraph was the second single released from the album but had originally been considered as the first release.
This Is Helena uses a recorded broadcast by a presenter from Radio Prague.
International was originally to have featured a lot more radio samples. The theme was to have reflected Andy's distaste at the time for the stupid things done by different countries due to differing political attitudes. The opening radio intro is the only remnant of that original idea. "I think that countries are a very inefficient way of organising the world" Andy once commented.
Dazzle Ships (Parts II, III and VII) was a sound collage designed to give the impression of ships in war. Most of the sound effects of ships and submarines were taken from a company that specialises in film soundtracks. The break in the middle, punctuated by a lone bass sound is actually Andy saying "Blue" but the sound has been fed into an Emulator.
The Romance Of The Telescope had originally been the B-side to the 1981 single Joan Of Arc and was also remixed for inclusion on this album. The band considered this song - and also Of All The Things We've Made - as too good to leave as B-sides.
Of All The Things We've Made was originally a B-Side on the 12" release of the 1982 single Maid Of Orleans.
Silent Running was originally called Walking On Air. It takes its title from the science fiction film Silent Running (1971) which starred Bruce Dern. The film dealt with a fleet of spaceships preserving the last remaining forests of Earth and deals with Bruce Dern's actions when the order comes through to destroy them. The song itself has nothing to do with the theme of the film but the band simply liked the title.
Radio Waves is a reworked version of an early song by The Id, hence the credit for former Id member John Floyd who wrote some of the lyrics. The opening intro is actually a short wave radio digitally scanning radio frequencies. Radio Waves was considered as a possible single.
Time Zones uses a collection of telephone 'speaking clocks' from around the world.
Another track titled Swiss Radio International was recorded for the album. Like Radio Prague it featured the call sign of the radio station and was once referred to as "the ice cream song" by Mal Holmes due to its similarity to the melodies played by ice cream vans.
Another track that was under consideration was titled Square Dance. Not much is known about this track although it appears to be more of a musical sketch or backing track rather than a completed song. It was previously unheard of until quite recently when Andy McCluskey was clearing out some material at his house and came across a tape dating to the Dazzle Ships period with the track on it.