A thread for the Depeche Mode reissues

And why not "Construction Time Again" and "Black Celebration" - their best albums?

That isn't clear -- probably not.

Tentative release schedule:

February 20th:
Suffer Well (CDS, CDM, DVD Single)

March 2nd:
Speak & Spell (SACD)
Music For The Masses (SACD)
Violator (SACD)

April 13th:
A Broken Frame (SACD)
Construction Time Again (SACD)
Some Great Reward (SACD)

April/May:
John The Revelator (CDS, CDM, DVD single)

June 15th
Black Celebration (SACD)
Songs Of Faith & Devotion (SACD)
Songs Of Faith & Devotion Live (SACD)

August 10th:
Ultra (SACD)
Exciter (SACD)

September 29th:
Playing The Angel Live (DVD - title not finalized)

November 2nd:
Best Of Depeche Mode (CD, DVD - title not finalized)

http://remasters.depechemode.com/

The albums of Depeche Mode will be reissued over the next year. Not only will the albums be fully remastered, but they will also contain 5.1 surround mixes, along with other bonuses. The first batch of CD's will be "Speak & Spell" (with Daniel Miller as the executive producer), "Music For The Masses" (with Dave Bascombe, Alan Wilder and Daniel Miller as executive producers) and "Violator" (with Flood, Alan Wilder and Daniel Miller as executive producers).

I'm not too sure what this means, but are they implying that Alan's come back to do a bit of remixing himself on all this, maybe?

This isn't unusual is it? I mean, people getting together with their past band to do remaster jobs.

Alan, like Vince, has of course spoken to the people behind the documentaries too.
(Btw. Just got "Speak & Spell" today. A big record store chain here just ordered the two other titles as special editions, so I had to order "Speak & Spell" on import)

Also, I've never heard a 5.1 mix of anything outside of the movie theater... would such a thing devistate me (positively) listening to DM or would I be all "that's nice" and shit?

Still these excite me.

And, yes, they are all copy-protected. Luckily doesn't matter for me with any of the players I use (and if I need a copy of one of the songs for a compilation, there is always Audiograbber to take care of that anyway)

And of course the album sounds freakin' brilliant. Again. As always.

The documentary itself is a Depeche/Mute deal, so the credit to them!

are the Rhino versions copy-protected like the UK releases?

That I don't know, not having tried to rip it yet.

That's it i'm buying it.

Nope, DVD lasers are a lot more precise than a CD player since there's so much more data crammed on there. DualDisc is pretty much a cop-out in that department since it actually has two metallic media encased in plastic.

And I was excited to get the reissues too. Then again, it's not as if the originals sounded bad.

Anyway, Black Celebration is coming out sometime next year, along with Construction Time Again, Ultra and Exciter.

(Still wondering what is the point with a remastered "Exciter" btw)

Hopefully they will not wait too long before they release the last batch, including three of their best ever albums.

I am a bit more in doubt about "Songs Of Faith And Devotion" though (yes I bought it now - the documentary is sure interesting), and I certainly cannot see the point in the "Exciter" remaster due next year, apart from the special edition with the DVD documentary.

And, no, this is not about the singles box sets although they are the ones you need if you want the b-sides in a format that doesn´t only play on DVD.

Yeah, I am familiar with the reissues that are coming out at the moment. I'm more interested in the singles box sets, though, and I just thought I'd get the info here if possible.

The rarer remixes were then collected on the Remixes 81-94 3-CD set from 2004, and some recent Enjoy The Silence mixes mostly on that US CD-single minus one mix on an non-US single that apparently isn't super essential.

Actually there is some word about that -- apparently you're only supposed to be able to buy the whole set and not individual songs or sets, which is annoying. (Even more annoying is that this is Mute's policy, not Apple's.) This is however apparently still being talked about behind the scenes.

I want to hear this.

Ultra and Exciter finally out and got 'em the other day. And with that final step, I was able to do something which I had hoped would be the case -- get all the reissues for free thanks to dumping promo discs at Amoeba. A more than fair exchange.

STILL WORKING MY WAY THROUGH THE DIGITAL BOX SET!!!

Nothing wrong with that.

Oh, doubtless. It's just a LOT of music to chew through.

I have yet to invest in "Exciter". Completely pointless as a remaster (after all, what exactly is there to be done with a 2002 recording?), but I guess I will buy it for the documentary and the new surround mixes.

these dvds that come with the reissues are just fantastic aren't they? the early days studio stuff is adorable! i like how they give Daniel Miller and the other key label/production/tour crew bigwigs their due as opposed to the usual round of celebs banging on about what the record means to them and suchlike. some day all reissues would be made this way. a minor gripe is the lack of demos and stuff like you get with The Cure but you can't have everything.

this is as good a place as any to talk about the new remix box set

M83 are terribad remixers here btw

ha so no one besides me got this I guess

Even I didn't. At least, not yet.

tbh it was worth it just to get "Happiest Girl (The Pulsating Orbital Vocal Mix)" on CD (the version on "World In My Eyes" was an instrumental)

it's all on Spotify by the way.

that would be helpful to me if Spotify was available in the US

also trying to figure out why I never heard the Trentemoller Club Remix of "Wrong" before picking this up

Huh. I got it but apparently I haven't listened to it yet. In the queue!

you know what is an underrated album, is Exciter

slowly but surely i am getting the basic single cd remastered editions.
today i found remastered edition of 'violater' for a coin in a charity shop.
not so sure i need 'ultra' to be replaced as i think the original sounds perfectly fine, but should the chance arise then of course i will succumb.
the only other remastered edition i really need of the cds i already have is 'black celebration', however, the edition i have has extra tracks on it (breathing in fumes, but not tonight(ext), black day).
such a shame they did not add extras to the remasters.
that said, i kind of like the fact they stuck to the original albums.
i mean my first exposure to MFTM was on cassette, which had a ton of extras, and what i would give to have that edition available on remastered cd now.

black celebration dvd is a thing of beauty and a joy forever; the docu is *an hour* long and features among other treats; The Cure and the the Mode hiding in a van during a riot.

ultra came out during a period when CDs sounded pretty good, i think. pre-loudness wars, post-"oops got rid of the hi hat". like those great sounding byrds reissues that came around 97/98, i kind of remember those being the first 60s rock reissues that sounded really great and were inexpensive + easy to get. maybe i'm wrong/too young, tho

The original CD issue of Music for the Masses had bonus tracks too, if I recall ('Agent Orange', 'To Have and To Hold (Spanish Taster)', 'Never Let Me Down (Aggro Mix)', a remix of 'Pleasure, Little Treasure' etc.) - I think it was a bit of a ploy by Mute to get people to buy the CD version... same with Erasure's The Innocents which had a couple of bonus tracks on both the cassette and CD versions ('When I Needed You (Melancholy Mix)' and their version of 'River Deep, Mountain High') ...

ultra came out during a period when CDs sounded pretty good, i think. pre-loudness wars, post-"oops got rid of the hi hat"

yeah otm. I mean, I figure it's partially based on what age I was at the time (imagine it sounds dated to a lot of people younger than me), but I love a lot of the way late 90's stuff was produced, before all the squashing. really crisp and clear. Ultra is one of the best-produced albums ever imo

https://m.youtube.com/watch?v=pSozvePvdek

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=h2G7YY8Zr88

Start the tape!

Love the modernized trailer.

I've been watching the various documentaries that came out with the 2006 reissues and occasionally Fletch comes across as the most colossal POS, I don't know much about the inner dynamics of the band, does he have that reputation?

I remember hearing that what eventually drove Alan Wilder out of the band was his indignation that Fletch took the same share of the band's profits, while making no musical contribution whatsoever

Definitely part of it. Fletch seems to mostly function as their internal BS detector when it comes to whether the songs work, as I recall right. Combine that with the fact that he was the de facto manager for almost two decades until Kessler finally took the reins and he's part of the story of the band as unit if not necessarily as creative force.

Yeah, I think he's kind of an important neutral component of the band dynamic.

My Depeche Mode fan friend used as shorthand for Wilder and Fletcher "the one who does everything" and "the one who does nothing".

internal BS detector

That's what Billy Corgan said about D'Arcy.

Lol, clearly even when she was in the band she was only modestly effective. At least Fletch has kept DM from ever embarrassing themselves, imo, but that could be as simple as Gore and Gahan lacking the sheer relentless ego of Corgan.

They had a very unusual band dynamic until Wilder left. Very rare that the lead singer did not really contribute to songwriting, while the songwriter wrote the songs and then left the arrangements up to other people! They really needed each other, I guess even Fletch

That's what Billy Corgan said about D'Arcy.

Bez’s role in the Happy Mondays and Black Grape was described as being “Shaun’s ears.”

Belatedly caught their HOF acceptance speech - highly charming stuff, especially when they pay tribute to their influences, hah:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=x7teQR3B-z8

"...the Eagles."

But yeah, while it's hard to say one should have COVID-era highlights, this was actually one of them.

https://www.rhino.com/article/depeche-mode-detail-strangestrange-too-dvdblu-ray-collection

Previously available as individual titles in VHS and Laserdisc formats (now out-of-print and highly collectible), Strange (1988) and Strange Too (1990) are compilations of the provocative and visionary short films lensed by master photographer/director Anton Corbijn, in collaboration with Depeche Mode, to create a new visual iconography for the band and their music.

Available for the first time in DVD and Blu-ray configurations and as a single collection, Strange/Strange Too presents 11 Anton Corbijn/Depeche Mode music films, newly restored from original Super 8mm sources, alongside six previously unseen outtake "vignettes" from the DM archives.