Depeche Mode C or D/S& D

So classic. So perfectly classic.

search:
Some Great Reward
Violator

The new Junior Boys actually reminds me a little of "A Broken Frame", one of my fav DM albums.

I've got that, it's great. Actually, Devotional was filmed in Frankfurt and Barcelona...

I threw on Exciter a month ago, though, and couldn't get through it, which was sad, as I'd quite enjoyed it upon release. The 84-90 period seems to have aged the best, for my taste.

Ultra is definitely underrated.

I recently discovered the Thomas Brinkmann mix of "I Feel Loved" - wow. The original underwhelmed me though.

saw the devotional tour twice in 3 nights at birmingham and manchester. took my little sister to the latter (front row!)
and she's honestly never been the same since. that tour had the greatest opening to a gig i've ever seen or heard of.

it was only later that people realised what had actually been going on backstage each night, and the likes of Q mag would start calling it 'the most debauched tour of all time'.

the singles 86-98 dvd box has the best extras ever (EPK stuff)
by the way y'all.

Definitely agreed there. I do love Exciter quite a bit but it would be really interesting to see another Simenon-produced album.

"Depeche Mode is one of the most influential groups of our time", says Mike Shinoda on one of his favourite bands, "Their music is an inspiration to me, and I am excited for our fans to hear my take on one of my favourite Depeche Mode songs."

I'm a bit dissapointed that the unreleased Markus Schulz remix of "I Feel Loved" is not on that 3CD. It's a hell of a lot better than that Danny Tenaglia version. So everybody, off to soulseek!!

Even if it's just that, I'll be intrigued to hear the end results. Now about this Schulz remix on slsk which say if you were signed on to anytime soon we might be able to find somewhere in a folder that might be yours... ;-)

However, the LFO mix on the re-released single will go a long way toward earning my forgiveness. That, and because it's one of the greatest songs ever written.

Ewan Pearson
Richard X
Black Strobe
Rex the Dog
Goldfrapp
Colder

This is going to be fucking ace!

I don't know why I didn't answer this thread before... ? Anyway, classic all the way, from the beginning to the most recent of recordings. I love SOFAD to DEATH and think Exciter was a pretty damn good album, though my favorite DM album of all time will have to be Music for the Masses, featuring that creepy Halloweenish instrumental, "Pimpf".

A friend of mine passed along some pics of Dave doing some radio station promo. Since my bedroom is in a temporary state of utter chaos, I can't access my scanner to share the pictures, but they're pretty glorious ones and I'm ecstatic she's shared them with me.

Oops, I thought everyone noticed from the link I posted on the other thread! Yeah, that single is definitely high on my 'must hear' list. And now I have all six of the singles box sets and the Devotional DVD is out soon and...

Commercial release:

12 BONG 34
A: Enjoy The Silence - Timo Maas Extended Remix (8:41)
B: Enjoy The Silence - Ewan Pearson Extended Remix (8:39)
 
CD BONG 34
1: Enjoy The Silence - Reinterpreted by Mike Shinoda (3:32)
2: Halo - Goldfrapp Remix (4:22)
 
LCD BONG 34
1: Enjoy The Silence - Timo Maas Extended Remix (8:41)
2: Enjoy The Silence - Ewan Pearson Remix (Radio Edit) (3:33)
3: Something To Do - Black Strobe Remix (7:11)

Promo release:

P12 BONG 34
A: Enjoy The Silence - Timo Maas Extended Remix (8:41)
B: Enjoy The Silence - Ewan Pearson Extended Remix (8:39)
C: Enjoy The Silence - Richard X Extended Mix (8:22)
D: Enjoy The Silence - Ewan Pearson Extended Instrumental (8:35)
 
PL12 BONG 34
A: Something To Do - Black Strobe Remix (7:11)
B1: World In My Eyes - Cicada Remix (6:18)
B2: Photographic - Rex The Dog Dubb Mix (6:20)
 
PXL12 BONG 34
A: Halo - Goldfrapp Remix (4:22)
B1: Clean - Colder Version (7:09)
B2: Little 15 - Ulrich Schnauss Remix (4:52)
 
RCD BONG 34
1: Enjoy The Silence - Reinterpreted by Mike Shinoda (3:32)
2: Enjoy The Silence - Richard X Mix (3:30)
3: Enjoy The Silence - Ewan Pearson Remix (Radio Edit) (3:33)

halo - GF remix. gorgeous stuff - with extra GF vocals all over it taking it somewhere else. v.special.

in fact hearing several of these mixes on the triple set makes me think that DM were indeed one of the best bands ever with the whole remix culture.

their ON-U remixes, included here, literally changed my life in 84 (20 years ago !!!) and i suspect many remixes since then have probably done the same for other folks ..

a superb collection.

though this made me chuckle somewhat ..

"DM is one of the most influential groups of our time. their music is an insiration to me, and i am excited for our fans to hear my take on one of my favourite DM songs" - Mike Shinoda on his version of Enjoy the Silence - which is actualyl pretty damn fine.

shinoda mix makes me cringe

Black Celebration always stands out for me as their best album, but I really love their early electro-pop too. Violater was their last great complete album IMO - anything after that I felt was patchy, barring some great singles ('It's no good' is great, and the Hardfloor mix rules). Some highlights:

From their very early era, I have this DJ 12" 'megamix' which is kinda cheesy but has a super-fast version of 'Photographic' and the classic "I Sometimes Wish I Was Dead", which is included in some versions of Speak & Spell (along with Ice Machine and Shout, which should have been on the album). There is also a really long, instrumental version of 'Any Second Now' with beats which gives me chills. Kinda like 'Oberkorn'.

(OMG I'm at work and as I'm typing this post an email came in with the subject "DM show update" which startled me, until I realised it's 'Direct Marketing'. Bleh).

Some Great Reward really struck a chord with me - used to listen to it almost every night at that time.
Black Celebration - pretty much perferct. 'But Not Tonight' may be one of my favourite songs ever.
Music for the Masses is when I remember them becoming HUGE in Canada. It seemed like everyone in our high school (which was a pretty diverse crowd, let me tell you) had the album. (An aside - I was recently in Stockholm and went to a club night named after this album, which to my delight played lots of really old DM stuff. 'See You'! 'Sun & The Rainfall'! Hooray!). It was around this time - 87/88 - that I really got the sense that these guys were going to be legends.

I remember seeing 101 in the theatre in Toronto and it blew my mind - indeed, they PWND Pasadena that night. I loved that scene in Nashville - I remember being really surprised that Martin could actually play the guitar! I've seen them live many times over the years, and loved each show. Even the one where I was outside at the CNE stadium in Toronto, freezing cold in pouring rain (Violater tour - Jesus and Mary Chain opening!). The singles tour gig was a near-religious experience - I feared the vibe just wouldn't be there, since so many of us fans are older now, but I think seeing Dave back in good health inspired everyone to really get into it. What a night.

I mean holy crap I could just go on and on about so much to do with this band - obscure b-sides and remixes, etc. To be honest, the sheer volume of stuff out there kinda put me off them for a while, but now I'm inspired to start listening to them again, since it's been ages. And damn I want that singles set. I'd like to hear that Goldfrapp mix. I personally think her 'Strict Machine' was based on 'Personal Jesus' (it sure makes for a great segue!).

Ned .. is the DJ Shadow mix thats on this set the version that was pulled due to samples - or am i thinking of something different here ?

ta.
m.e

Seek: Most of their output, but particularly the underrated "Construction Time Again"

Destroy: Not much, really, but part of "Songs Of Faith And Devotion" just doesn't hold up. Also, "Pimpf" from "Music For The Masses" should be absolutely mutilated.

I like how they do the first verse and chorus and THEN the bassline kicks in and holy jeez...

Personally, I had kind of lost the interest when "Ultra" was released, because I was so extremely disappointed with "Faith And Devotion". So I played it maybe a few times, put it aside, then a couple of years I listened to "Ultra" again and suddenly discovered what a great album it was.

In addition to the singles, I would say "The Bottom Line" in particular deserves a mention.

I'm thinking the same thing. Even with my very limited awareness of Depeche Mode mixes from recent times I imagine this could have been stretched to a four disc set (eg. where are the Hardfloor mix of "It's No Good" and the Thomas Brinkmann mix of "I Feel Loved"?). Something about the way the group combine pop songs, electronic grooves and dark drama makes them pretty much the *ideal* remix artist.

Likewise Speedy J's techstep take on "It's No Good" .

Did any ILXor's go? :)

Also, there's actually a fourth disc too...

The Mike Shinoda remix is great though, fuck the other remixes, I mean none of them answered the time honored question, "What if Depeche Mode was actually Linkin Park?"

Hahaha. That IS useless. Orgy's "Blue Monday" made more sense (ie, none at all).

"What if Depeche Mode was actually Linkin Park?"

The only difference anyway between the two bands are louder guitars and rapping, of a sort. Even the rhyme structures are similar! (Alternate example of said-mega-obvious style of rhyming: Placebo.)

Commparing EITHER song to Orgy's Blue Monday is pretty much worth a punch in the face, Ned.

behind the wheel/route 66 (megamix)
dream on - morel's pink noise club mix
master and servant (u.s. black & blue version)
nothing - justin strauss mix
people are people - special edition on-usound remix
little 15 (bogus brothers mix)
freelove - josh wink dub
personal jesus (kazan cathedral mix)
but not tonight - extended remix
but not tonight (margouleff dance mix)
freelove - powder productions remix
slowblow (mad professor mix)
rush - black sun mix

(That last one, I should note, is the semi-legendary never-exactly-released-as-such Coil mix -- Coil themselves offered it up on their site a while back very briefly so it's not rare per se, but it's nice to see it resurface again.)

I’m old enough to remember their first UK TOTP appearance, yet despite enjoying the odd single on the radio I always found them pretty lightweight, and am continually surprised how substantial their influence has been on so much electronic music - from the Horrorist to Black Strobe who drop 'World In My Eyes' in their ‘Essential Mix’.

And, for some reason, "Speak & Spell" has never been fully accepted the way, for instance "Dare", "Rio" and "Lexicon Of Love" have, although the former is also another good example of a brilliant lightweight early 80s pop album.

Would it be cruel to say that part of me misses Crazy Heroin Dave? He was such a great showman. The Happy Fun Dave of today is more reserved, is a better singer, and will survive each tour with certainty. Of course, those aren't criticisms.

The key moment, of course, is the instant when the live drums come crashing into "I Feel You". That's the DM equivalent of turning the volume knob from 10 up to the full 11.

my fave song is " nothng"

It's great!

The production's great, it's very much of a piece, also nice to feel some of the brooding goth romantisicm stuff that I like in Superpitcher/Koehncke/Alex Smoke echo back across the decades.

You don't get enough ROCK albums that sound like this.

What I like most about Violator is "Policy of Truth," though I couldn't tell you why..

That's for damn sure.

I used to worry that Alan Wilder's departure would cripple Depeche completely but as brilliant an arranger as he was, switching to a new model of working where each new producer becomes the key collaborator/arranger has resulted in Depeche becoming fresher by default, and based on "Precious" Ben Hillier is going to make it three for three here...

"I used to worry that Alan Wilder's departure would cripple Depeche completely"

I thought they were dead when he left. Their post-Alan output has been surprisingly decent, but they were still a better band with him in it.

Hillier was most well known to me for producing at least some of the Doves stuff, which given their own previous incarnation at Sub Sub is actually kinda promising as a resume item. He's part of the 140db mob, and here's his resume from that site, I think slightly in need of updating. Elbow, Blur, Sophie Ellis-Bextor, various earlier remix and engineering credits -- bit of a dog's breakfast of a career but if he doesn't seem to have a distinct sound as such he might be a useful foil in general.

I'm right that none of them are as good as "Precious" though, yeah?

am intrigued to know how they sound and how these mini-docus look. the photos inside the '...masses' one are gaaargeous.

A pity they haven't included videos in those bonus DVDs. In the Talking Heads remasters, the videos were almost half of the fun.

(Best/worst Depeche rhyme -- 'houses'/'trousers')

Clearly, that is the best. I really have nothing new or constructive to add here, but this band is still fucking great,

Did we ever do a GORE VOCALS c/d/s&d? And if not... er, does anyone have a list of the songs with gore on lead vocals?

Gore songs are always the best Depeche songs

Did we ever do a GORE VOCALS c/d/s&d?

I think we did, actually. I know Dan wrote up a list of same.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Martin_Gore#Depeche_Mode_songs_with_Martin_on_lead_vocals

SEARCH: ALL OF THOSE SONGS
DESTROY: NONE OF THOSE SONGS

Such a plaintive quality to his voice. Although the Counterfeit stuff was fairly underwhelming - I guess gore voice works best coupled with gore melodies.

You'd think searching for "martin gore" would find the thread. And you'd be right.

OPO Tracks sung by Martin Gore

SEARCH: ALL OF THOSE SONGS
DESTROY: NONE OF THOSE SONGS

Destroy: One Caress

Out.

i'm enjoying the spiritual guidance remix of 'rush' right now. really pretty cool

just watched the 'useless' video. becomes really silly when martin walks over to the camera with the guitar.

Classic. I generally hate "Best Of" albums, but I picked up The Best Of, Vol. I today, and it's great, for exactly the reason I read this evening in this Pitchfork review:

I've been a miserable bastard lately, and this collection has indeed transported me back to a time I didn't even go through at the time, when a kid's most pressing problems could be dealt with by drawing the shades for six to eight hours.

This is so perfectly true.

(The quote is true about me, I mean, not just the reviewer.)

Well, my next "Best Of" album by them will be "The Singles" part 3, whenever that one is released. Only 9 more singles so far since the last volume, so it'll still be some time, I expect. :)

So I like their April Fools joke this year:

When the band were recording their "Black Celebration" album, the boys took a break, and recorded a full album of "oldies". Named "Toast Hawaii" (after Fletch's favorite food item at the recording studio cafeteria, and later used as the name of Fletch's record label), the album has not been heard outside of the "inner circle" of Depeche Mode's friends since the 1986 recording...until now.

All copies of the album were thought lost, until Mr Gore found a cassette copy of "Toast Hawaii" in a box of old cassettes. After extensive remastering, the project is ready to be released.

Following recent web releases by bands such as Radiohead and Nine Inch Nails, the "Toast Hawaii" album will be a web release. Starting April 8th, fans will be able to purchase multiple formats of the album:

$10: The full album in your preferred digital format (AAC, MP3, FLAC, WAV)
$20: The full album in digital format, along with a copy of the album on compact disc, autographed by Fletch.
$40: The full album in digital format, along with a copy of the album on compact disc, not autographed by Fletch.

it's better than most UK newspapers managed this year, certainly.

Today is the 20th anniversary of the "Concert for the Masses" at the Rose Bowl in Pasedena. I'm going to listen to "101" in order to commemorate the event.

A review of the new documentary film on Depeche Mode fandom. Sounds fantastic! Official site of the film here:

http://theposterscamefromthewalls.com/

What in the world.

http://www.multinet.no/~jonarne/Hjemmesia/Favorittartister/depeche/martin_gore.jpg
resident expert

haha I have been laughing at that story for a couple of weeks

Let's buy Dan the Speak and Spell one.

oh shi. they are siiiick

Actually Ned, I think you meant to suggest that everyone chip in and buy me the Speak and Spell one. Would wear.

(The Black Celebration one would be OK too. Thank you in advance.)

Noted.

My fav is the Music for the Masses one.

http://shiagahan.ytmnd.com/

holy crap

Hahaha. Bring on the biopic!

http://i50.tinypic.com/11jx2r5.gif

http://i45.tinypic.com/23pcac.jpg

Also, this

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=skYsnlILJXU

Shia would have to learn to dance like Gahan for a film to even begin production. It's bizzare how I NEVER get sick of this band.

Dave wins an award, does songs, Martin helps.

http://www.slicingupeyeballs.com/2011/05/07/dave-gahan-love-will-tear-us-apart-video-musicares-depeche-mode/

When routine bites hard, indeed.

Huh.

It's pretty good?

Had I been at this thing I would have completely lost my shit upon realizing what he was about to sing.

I like how there are two waves of audience reactions -- to the first notes of the music, then the opening lyrics.

Yeah, I noticed that too.

Still find it sort of cool that there were at least three of us at that rainy CNE show. Barry and I figured out years ago that we both count it as our first concert, but didn't know til this thread that Rob Bolton was there too. Any more?

I've been on a real Depeche Mode kick since the 101 documentary was aired on BBC 4 the other night. They're one of those bands that I only dig out every so often these days, but when I do I greet them like an old friend and always think "damn, I need to do this more often!"

SPEAK AND SPELL: ****
A BROKEN FRAME: ***
CONSTRUCTION TIME AGAIN: ***
SOME GREAT REWARD: ****
BLACK CELEBRATION: *****
MUSIC FOR THE MASSES: *****
VIOLATOR: *****
SONGS OF FAITH AND DEVOTION: *****
ULTRA: ***.5
EXCITER: *
PLAYING THE ANGEL: ****
SOUNDS OF THE UNIVERSE: ****

Reasonably good rankings. I am one of two people that happily enjoys Exciter.

And wrote the AMG wreview!

sorry for wsilent w

I'll always have a special place in my heart for Speak & Spell, because it was the first Depeche Mode album I remember consciously hearing from front-to-back. This would have been back when my age was merely in single figures, and it would have been my dad's old tape copy of the album... but I do have some early memories of running around the living room with my younger sister while 'Photographic' was blasting out of the speakers. I also remember the 'sensation' I used to get when 'New Life' used to kick in, one of those early moments in life when I first became aware of how powerful music could be!

I suppose as an album it will always be remembered for being somewhat of an anomaly in Depeche Mode's catalogue, with most of the songs being written by Vince Clarke, and it having the bouncy (and probably the most-cited song from this era of the band) 'Just Can't Get Enough' on it. However, I was listening to it earlier and realised that, even though it's obviously less dark than pretty much every Depeche Mode album that came afterwards, there is still a hint of darkness in there. 'Puppets' for example, written by Vince, is obviously a song about addiction, and seems (to me, anyway) to be much, much less cheery in subject matter than a hell of a lot of what Vince would do later. 'Photographic', too, even though it may not have a dark subject matter, seems to have an atmosphere musically to it that I don't think Vince recaptured until select moments on Erasure's 'Chorus' album, while Depeche eventually built and built upon it until it resonated in stadiums the world over.

It does have its flaws: 'What's Your Name?' is a track I quite liked when I was a 6 year old, but I find it a little bit too sickly-cutesy these days. On the whole though, I think the overall sound of the album has held up well, with its 'clean' analogue sound, and I think it's a very well produced, very sharply-written pop record in its own right, even if it isn't the Depeche Mode that recorded, say, 'Ultra'.

After Vince Clarke left the band, I definitely think it took the band a couple of albums to find their feet again. A Broken Frame, to me, is an interesting record for many different reasons. It's not only the sound of Depeche Mode trying to prove themselves all over again post-Vince, but it also comes across to me as being a logical follow-up to Speak & Spell. The elements it shares with Speak & Spell are definitely not only in its analogue sound, but there also seem to be moments on the album which one could say were more than a touch 'Clarke-aping', for want of a better term, even if the band hadn't consciously set out to do that. So, obviously, what we end up with in A Broken Frame is an album with one foot in one place, and one foot in a slightly different place stylistically. Also, in A Broken Frame we also have a situation where Martin Gore, even though he's no stranger to writing songs at this early stage, is learning how to be the primary songwriter in Depeche Mode. Speak & Spell was a successful album in the UK in the early '80s, and as such, the band had already been 'defined' in the eyes of many and Gore's songwriting style was very (is) different to that of Clarke's - so there's this element of Gore's songs (some of which had actually been written pre-Depeche) being tailored to 'fit' Depeche Mode, while simultaneously giving hints of where his songwriting could take Depeche Mode on subsequent albums. It's a very interesting situation.

Obviously because of all the factors involved, A Broken Frame has many inconsistencies, and is certainly nowhere near as focused as Speak & Spell, but it is STILL quite listenable and has numerous keepers.

'Leave In Silence' and 'The Sun & The Rainfall', the opener and closer of the album, are in my opinion two magnificent songs that have held up very well. 'See You', too, while hardly as hard-hitting as, say, 'Stripped', is a gem of a song when taken on its own terms and has a hell of a lot of charm and a gorgeous melody, and I have a real soft spot for 'Nothing To Fear'.

'The Meaning Of Love' and 'A Photograph Of You' are probably two of the more obviously 'Clarke-aping' tracks, but if you have enough of a musical sweet-tooth they're pretty inoffensive and not the worst things here.

Of the rest of the tracks, there's a few 'experimental' (for this era of the band) moments: 'Monument' would be fine if it wasn't for the excruciating "anything passes when you need glasses" lyric, and 'Shouldn't Have Done That', lovely harmonies aside, doesn't do all that much for me. 'Satellite' seems like a pretty unsuccessful attempt at some kind of synth-reggae, and even on its own terms is, to me, a bit of a dud, and possibly one of Gore's worst songs overall.

It goes without saying that the second of Depeche Mode's 'post-Clarke feet finding' albums, Construction Time Again, is a far more confident record than A Broken Frame, but in my opinion it still shares with A Broken Frame a kind of feeling of 'transition'. While Gore definitely seems to be more confident in his role as Depeche Mode's primary songwriter, he hasn't yet hit upon the sex/love/sin/religion/relationship angle of his songwriting that would become his lyrical trademark and instead is writing here about more world/political-oriented themes. This not only sets the album apart slightly from A Broken Frame, but virtually everything else that Gore has written since.

Construction Time Again is also, of course, the first record that the band made with Alan Wilder, whose contribution to Depeche Mode would increase and increase throughout the years and whom would prove to be the bands 'secret weapon'. Wilder also contributes a couple of songs here (although he would later claim to have been somewhat of a reluctant songwriter for the band), so what we have in Construction Time Again is a band and its new member still learning how to work together, under the supervision of label boss Daniel Miller and studio wizard Gareth Jones, having definitely moved away from Speak & Spell, but still nowhere near being the band that entertained the masses at the Rose Bowl in 101.

Construction Time Again is the first of the 'metal-bashing' Depeche albums; the first where the band made incredible use of sampling and attempted to go for more sophistication and depth in the production and arrangements, and production-wise it is definitely leaps and bounds away from the first two albums and sonically on the 'next level', as it were. This is an album that, for me, definitely works best with a set of headphones - there's plenty of 'ear candy' and 'layers' of sound in there, especially on 'Pipeline', which may not be a great song but as a series of noises is just incredible.

However, I also feel that the production on this record hasn't aged as well as, say, Black Celebration or even Speak & Spell, especially those synth-brass sounds that litter tracks like 'Love, In Itself', 'The Landscape Is Changing' and 'Told You So'.

'Everything Counts' remains a fantastic song, and is definitely my highlight here. 'Two Minute Warning', written by Wilder, is another favourite, and definitely my favourite out of all of the songs he contributed to Depeche Mode, and may have made a great third single from the album in my opinion.

As for the lowlights: I've never really been too taken with 'Shame', and I find the lyrics on Wilder's 'The Landscape Is Changing' a little bit on the preachy side, not to meant cringeworthy and a touch embarrassing. I also have to allow myself a little smile that the same Dave Gahan who had been "looking for a fight for a few days" in 101, and became this long-haired, tattooed rock god Jesus figure around the time Songs Of Faith And Devotion, is singing lyrics like 'keep telling us we're to have fun/then take all the ice cream so we've got none' in 'More Than A Party', which kinda now sounds like a prototype version of the far more successful 'Something To Do' from the next album.

So yes, Construction Time Again is definitely an advancement, but for me the big advancement would come with their next record.

Ah yes, Some Great Reward. Everything that everyone came to know and love about Depeche Mode in their classic incarnation of Gahan, Gore, Wilder and Fletcher pretty much begins here. Gore has mostly moved away from political themes and towards relationships and the links between love, sex and religion, and in doing so has found his trademark lyrical voice. Wilder is now more fully integrated into the group, and has also gelled with a returning Daniel Miller and Gareth Jones to form the main backbone of the production team, so this is indeed a very confident and focused record.

The 'metal-bashing' that made its debut on Construction Time Again is back, but its also more fully integrated into the songs, and what songs they are! No less than FOUR out of NINE tracks here were singles: the beautiful piano ballad 'Somebody', the massive hit 'People Are People', the kinky sex-infused 'Master And Servant' (with added whip samples!), and the god-bothering 'Blasphemous Rumours' (if this wasn't an influence on Trent Reznor, it definitely should have been), and all of them, to me, still stand up very well and are just great, great songs.

Of the rest of the tracks, there's the hard-hitting opener 'Something To Do', which is definitely a favourite of mine, and I've always had a soft spot for 'It Doesn't Matter'. I've always found the lyrics quite touching on that one.

The weakest moments on this record, for me at least, are Wilder's track 'If You Want' ('exercise your basic right/we could build a building site' indeed), which is definitely easier to stomach than 'The Landscape Is Changing', but also definitely nowhere near as good as 'Two Minute Warning', I think. I've also never been a massive fan of 'Lie To Me'. It must be said though, that I would easily take these two tracks over the weakest moments of A Broken Frame and Construction Time Again.

Some Great Reward remains, to me, a very good record, and I feel that this is definitely the record that sets the wheels of the 'Wilder era' in motion. From this moment until Wilder departed after the tour for Songs Of Faith And Devotion, I don't think that Depeche put out a studio album that was anything less than great, even if the odd B-side, or even standalone single (yes, I'm looking at you, 'It's Called A Heart') failed to live up to the high standards that this band had between 1984-1993. A fantastic near-decade of work.

REMEMBER WHEN.. The final moment of KROQ-landia, basically. "DAPASH MOOD!"

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=kt-UyIsWn_Y
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=7moCbSWHacY

I love that footage. I still remember the day it all went down.

Hehe that Wherehouse was my "local" record store for a few years - glad its posterity is insured

today is David Gahan birthday, he is 52 today. happy birthday David!

New video collection in November of just about every one they've done, plus a lot of commentary:

http://www.rollingstone.com/music/news/depeche-mode-detail-massive-video-box-set-w439355

Sadly there is one fatal flaw -- the apparent absence of this:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=MzEQ5jPEQ68

Hahahaha! That video is all-time! It's fun to watch it back-to-back with footage of Depeche Mode circa 1992 to see how much of a difference 10 years made.

By "10 years" I think you mean "drugs"

Hehehehe... yeah, that too!

I get the same feeling when I listen to With Sympathy and Psalm 69 back-to-back.

No *blu-ray*?? Baffling to issue remastered sound on a DVD.

Also no 'Halo'!

No *blu-ray*?? Baffling to issue remastered sound on a DVD.

That did make me wonder. At the same time, they might be figuring more visuals than audio.

New album and tour next year, I'm guessing? It's getting to that time again!

Yeah, definitely!

It'll be 20 years since Ultra came out, too.

This is so good. In 1982 Alyson Marlow sent the band a big list of questions:favorite color, TV show, shoe size? All on it and more. Amazingly they replied in full, really is quite sweet. I can't imagine Coldplay doing the same. https://www.facebook.com/depechemode/posts/10155932580900329:0

https://scontent.flhr4-1.fna.fbcdn.net/v/t1.0-9/17795735_10155932580900329_7553565394514579705_n.jpg?oh=67dbbafeea8ca41928f9190a61db5ddf&oe=599567C8

Split Enz, eh?

Some funny answers in there in hindsight, like Fletch saying 'Leave in Silence' is his favourite video!

DM night on BBC4 tonight!

http://www.bbc.co.uk/bbcfour/programmes/schedules

21:00
Depeche Mode at the BBC

Including New Life, Just Can't Get Enough, Blasphemous Rumours and Personal Jesus.
View Programme information

22:00
The 6 Music Festival 2017, Depeche Mode

Highlights from Depeche Mode's headlining performance at the 6 Music Festival in Glasgow.
View Programme information

23:00
Depeche Mode: 101

Documentary about Depeche Mode's attempts to break America in 1989.

-

appalling description of 101 aside this all looks pretty good!

Christ, has it really been five years since BBC 4 last showed 101?

I always liked Little 15.

I also like this Priku edit of it, its a little shameless but it works

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=YlD7oRqb9DQ

Many xposts:

Fletch and Wilder both confessing to be Daily Mail readers, though... oosh!

Thought this was a nice touch.

Eighties rockers Depeche Mode recoiled when white supremacist Richard Spencer dubbed them the “official band of the alt-right.”

https://www.washingtonpost.com/news/morning-mix/wp/2017/07/10/the-alt-rights-proud-boys-love-fred-perry-polo-shirts-the-feeling-is-not-mutual/?tid=hybrid_collaborative_2_na&utm_term=.de55fb3937fb

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=HNTxn7BcfGQ

Beautiful.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=S-06FSk1pBo

Is there any good bio of the band? I'm pretty familiar with the 90s tale of disintegration and redemption, but not really familiar with the internal dynamics during their imperial phase.

The Steve Malins book is still considered the best iirc.

thanks - that looks perfect

The Mute Records book with all the cover art in is also pretty essential. Not just for Mode stuff but all the artwork proofs etc. gave me nerdy goosebumps. Fascinating to see how much input Dan Miller had.

The Steve Malins book is good, but Stripped is the best book on Depeche Mode so far. The only problem is that it needs a revision, because it only goes up to around the time of Gahan's first solo album, when he started implying that he wasn't interested in Depeche Mode unless he had more of a creative say. Of course, there's been about 15 years and four more albums since. Malins' book only goes up to Ultra, iirc.

Malins has put out some revised editions since.

He has? I'll have to check those out. I wasn't sure if he was still writing or not, because I know he was managing Gary Numan for a while and then John Foxx... I think he's involved with Blancmange now?

He is indeed.

Who wrote ‘Stripped’?

Jonathan Miller. I haven't read it for years, which I guess is a good excuse to re-read it!

Jeremy Deller and Nick Abrahams' doco about eastern European DM fans, Our Hobby Is Depeche Mode (aka The Posters Came From The Walls) is up on Vimeo and apparently free to view this week

Deller's blurb: http://www.jeremydeller.org/OurHobbyIsDepechMode/OurHobbyIsDepecheMode_Video.php

also western Californian, and registered Maryland drivers

Great film, that -- forgot to say so last year when we caught it!

Meantime, a bit secondary to Depeche here, I admit, but last week I interviewed Gareth Jones, ie the guy who engineered the Depeche sessions from Construction Time Again through Black Celebration among a ton of other things to the present day, about his favorite albums. Fun chat!

https://thequietus.com/articles/29883-gareth-jones-interview-favourite-albums

So not directly about DM, but I did write about this...

https://thequietus.com/articles/30108-depeche-mode-anton-corbijn-taschen-book-review

pic.twitter.com/RlB7QM6ckW

— Depeche Mode (@depechemode) May 26, 2022

wtf! awful news. RIP

God damn it. This is so sad.
And then there were two.

ah man, me happily opening this thread thinking there's maybe an announcement of a new album or something.

RIP, truly terrible.

RIP

He was the Paul English to Mart's Willie Nelson and I am not joking about that.

Yeah, this is a day.

RIP :(

everyone likes to joke that he was useless but anyone who's tried to play a synth bassline on a keyboard consistently knows how difficult his work was

Accurate:

What a shock. A very sweet man with a dry sense of humour, Martin's best friend, the least pop starry person ever to be in a global stadium band and a noun - a Fletch - for someone with an indeterminate musical role who is nonetheless essential to the whole. https://t.co/uh4xV0epJ7

— Dorian Lynskey (@Dorianlynskey) May 26, 2022

Wouldn't I love to be a Fletch in a band of Fletches.

fletch reminds me of paul morley from the art of noise anyways they dominated the 80s and lost me after violator!

Can hardly believe it ... I'm in shock. What a tragedy. RIP Fletch.

My friend's doing an all DM video TwitchStream this evening starting at 6:00 CST.

https://m.twitch.tv/VJBigSuit

Such terrible news. I've been pretty lukewarm to what the band's been doing this past decade but I hope they can still continue now, they've made it clear that he was an important part of the band. RIP Fletch

I mean I hate to be blunt but there's a part of me that feels that the band is over. The 'lukewarm water' joke from Spinal Tap has a real place in small group dynamics and he was, as a friend said, the 'peacemaker' between Gahan and Gore over time. If they do continue, well, stranger has happened -- I mean I still can't believe the Who barely skipped a beat after Entwistle died -- but personally I don't think we're seeing Depeche again, and I'm glad I have seen them so many times already.

This is a big one, RIP

RIP Fletch, a true inspiration for all of us normie goths <3

RIP Andy. I don't know much about his creative input in DM but speaking as a fan, his goofy joy up there dancing and playing keys was always an important and welcome counterweight to the earnest brooding of the rest of the band.

Also, his name was the password to my first email account

Fletchboy

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=GYg8OcT_vhc

I grew up near Basildon. It is an absolute shithole. Full of petty, mindless violence. Tories everywhere. Some of the scariest nights of my life were in my younger days when I would (stupidly) meet friends there for drinks. The fact that anything of note came out of there is truly miraculous.

I used to run the websites for the band Client and Fletch's Toast Hawaii label and do lots of other web/graphics odds and ends about 20 years ago (that terrible pineapple logo was mine). He was a such a nice man, and I was absolutely awed how, despite being a massive star, he was so enthusiastic to get a bit DIY with it all, flying economy with the band to do gigs, DJing in little basement clubs (which I occasionally helped with) and indeed having a kid in his late teens run his web operation with a cracked copy of Dreamweaver. He even DJed a student gig I put on at my uni, which blows my mind in retrospect. Absolutely top bloke and, as others have observed, 100% the secret weapon for DM's longevity. I'd hoped to run into him again some day. So sad he's gone.

it would be weird for DM to continue as a duo, but maybe Wilder will come back? That said I don't know what their apptetite aand interest is for even continuing.

if clark came back too that would be kinda interesting as the 3 could battle it out and dave as usual just sings along!

Man, I really don't think any of that will happen.

Nope. I’m pretty sure that’s it for DM. At most one could imagine a Gahan/Gore project à la Songs for Drella but not sure either for them would see any sense in that.

I had some thoughts.

https://www.patreon.com/posts/66972756

I don't know, bands don't break up anymore. Heck, New Order kept going without Peter Hook, and he was absolutely key to their sound. I could see DM doing a farewell tour, though.

alan is magical and they were the best with him and he has the best solo material too as i was not impressed with martins solo material and i never have been a fan of anything of vinces so alan and dave could have something very special together!

the last martin gore solo album is really good

Great piece, Ned. Thank you

You're welcome.

I had to do some further thoughts and processing, and I wrote this:

https://theshfl.com/guide/depeche-mode

Great piece. I am at best a surface level fan (the sonic textures are frequently fantastic, the lyrics and vocals ...less to my taste) but am listening to Ultra this afternoon.

Yeah, thanks for that Ned! It's been years since I listened to a Recoil album and am enjoying digging back in now. Also, somehow VCMG had slipped my radar so I'm very excited to check it out.

It’s a bit of a monster, that VCMG album, definitely not what anyone was expecting. Ultra was the first album I relistened to after last week’s news, when it was late and I had space to think. It’s always been an excellent late night album. Thanks to you both.

VCMG bangs, it's fantastic

Greatly enjoyed that writeup and was surprised to see at least one solo Gore release I don't remember ever hearing about before

A terrific piece, Ned.

never have been a fan of anything of vinces

whaaaat -- not even Yazoo? If you say, "Alison Moyet makes them worthwhile," then sure.

Thanks again. It is a little weird realizing Ultra is 25 years old now.

This VCMG album is great.

Considering how much I like Depeche Mode (I'm pretty sure they were my first "favorite band"), it's weird that I never checked out any of the side projects, I guess this is what I'm doing in the next couple of weeks.

What's interesting about the side projects is that while on the one hand you can tell they're all from Depeche one way or another, even Wilder, on the other even if you added up all the parts it still wouldn't be Depeche -- there's enough individuality down all the paths over time, and there's a different kind of synthesis when they all work together (admittedly long gone in the case of Wilder).

whaaaat -- not even Yazoo?

Just to note, you won't be able to debate that question, as the person you're responding to has been perma-banned.

All I know is that I find the encore performance of "Everything Counts" in "101" oddly moving. There's the bittersweet song itself, there's the exultant celebration of conquering America, there's their youth, the singalong, Dave just listening, all that together I just find so weirdly touching.

Dave and Martin have released a statement. Fletch’s passing was due to an aortic dissection, and was completely sudden and (hopefully) painless.

https://www.stereogum.com/2191550/depeche-mode-andy-fletcher-death-statement/news/

"I used to run the websites for the band Client and Fletch's Toast Hawaii label and do lots of other web/graphics odds and ends about 20 years ago (that terrible pineapple logo was mine)."

This prompted me to look up Toast Hawaii's website from twenty years ago and it's, er, very nostalgic:
https://web.archive.org/web/20030621222322/https://www.toasthawaii.com/

Actually I was expecting a Flash-laden monstrosity, but it's subtler than that (optimised for 1024 pixels wide, centred, seemingly made with vanilla HTML). It would have been technically old-fashioned at the time but it works and I can still click on some of the links.

Judging by the DJ schedule page Andrew Fletcher spent March-July 2004 DJing in Milan, Florence, Istanbul, London, Athens, Tenerife, Olten, Vincenza, Buenos Aires, Barcelona, and Nuremberg. You can't say he wasted his life.

What did I do in 2004? Looking through my emails I see I bought a Daytek P818 Multi-region DVD, with Dolby Digital and the possibility of 5.1 surround output with the appropriate speakers. I think it's fair to say that Andrew Fletcher had the better lifestyle.

Actually I was expecting a Flash-laden monstrosity, but it's subtler than that (optimised for 1024 pixels wide, centred, seemingly made with vanilla HTML). It would have been technically old-fashioned at the time but it works and I can still click on some of the links.

Oh yeah, I was coding everything by hand. Don't think I was even using CSS or anything, just doing everything the long way. Super old-fashioned (their needs were modest!) but it did the job.

The album/tour rumors are bubbling up and then this got posted just now

pic.twitter.com/x78oPTvXBN

— Depeche Mode (@depechemode) September 27, 2022

Misread that as April next year (American). Glad to see them carrying on, but if it's a new album I guess it's been in the works for some time

This is the longest they've ever gone between albums, isn't it?

They broke their album every four years chain last year yes :(

Album and tour in March.

https://www.depechemode.com/

Memento Mori sure says it all.

Could have called it "Inevitabilis."

jesus christ these tickets are expensive, but I bit the bullet anyway.

Yep, same here, but $120 is not that bad versus what I paid last time, if admittedly closer.

mine were $255 but I perhaps went for better seats than yours. TM did say they'd be doing demand pricing, which I hate. Anyway, I've only seen DM once before (on that last tour) and it was so good and I regret missing all their other ones so much, had to do it.

Hey, can't blame ya!

While we wait, new EP featuring Mr. Gahan.

https://kurtuenala.bandcamp.com/album/manuscript

Said EP I posted about above released today.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=f094kd6Y4aA