All things Depeche Mode

[Miroir Noir]

Exciter is their least compelling post-Vince Clarke album for me; too formulaic and stale. I loved Universe though.

[JebusLives]

I didn't think much of Universe, but given how good Playing the Angel was, I think Gore still has is somewhere.

[Drinkey McDrinkerstein]

i really liked Exciter. i think I probably like Playing The Angel the least.

[Fourthisto]

Worst Depeche Mode album ever released? Yeah right. SOTU was infinitely better than Exciter.

Ooof - I dunno, Cookieman... that's pretty much a coin flip in my book. If anything, Exciter wins because the singles were better...

[jazzz]

I didn't think much of Universe, but given how good Playing the Angel was, I think Gore still has is somewhere.

Agreed!

[jazzz]

How about Jen starts the new thread with the next official announcement we get?

[AAM!!!]

Time to start saving again! If they do tour next year I hope we get some more SOF&D songs. I wasn't expecting Fly on the Windscreen last tour so anything is possible.

[captncrzy]

Man...Exciter? Their worst by a mile. They were just coming back from a long hiatus after Dave's drug/attempted suicide.

[sbessiso]

!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! !!!!!!!!!!!!!!

Best. News. Ever.

I kinda wanna start a thread but only if I can think of a good title

[amyzzz]

I really liked Exciter when it came out.

[jazzz]

Happy Bday Captn!!

http://thequietus.com/articles/08029...gore-interview

Depeche Mode: Work On New LP Begins

As regular Quietus readers will know, we're massively excited by the new album from Vince Clarke and Martin L Gore's VCMG project - SSSS, which comes out on Mute on March 12th, is a brilliant ten tracks of chest-out techno pop - proper Essex-boy bangers. Last week, we spoke to Martin L Gore for a forthcoming Quietus feature on VCMG, and asked him how recording SSSS might impact the future of Depeche Mode.

"It's was a nice break for me to be able to go and do something completely different that doesn't involve poring over lyrics and having to think about vocal melodies," Gore told us, adding that the VCMG experience has rejuvenated him as he starts writing for Depeche Mode's thirteenth studio album. "I think I went back to actually writing for the band with much more vigour afterwards, because I had taken such a break. It gave me a real creative impetus."

However, he continued, you're unlikely to hear a techno-influenced Depeche Mode album any time soon. "I went straight from finishing the VCMG record into writing for the band," he said. "I think even though I used a lot of the same kind of instrumentation, I immediately went into a completely different headspace. The stuff I've been doing for the band is completely different to VCMG."

This is in part, said Gore, due to his love of instrumentation as well as synthesisers. "Apart from the fact that I came back to the actual songwriting with more energy, you have to remember as well that I'm also a guitar player," he said. "Working on the VCMG record, obviously I didn't look at a guitar for that whole period because it just wasn't right - so the moment I started getting back to writing songs for the band then I'm picking up the guitar, I'm going on the piano, working on chords, just working completely differently."

Gore tells us that Depeche Mode are due to enter the studio at the end of March, and are "hoping to be finished by the end of the year." For now, please meet 'Spock'.

[captncrzy]

Huh. Sounds like it might be more guitar driven, a'la SOFAD.

If they got Alan to produce it, I'd pee my pants.

[captncrzy]

VCMG singles are good.




Album is streaming live here

[paulb]

God damn, thats a great fuckin song. Does the rest of the album sound like that?

[captncrzy]

Yeah, pretty much. It's nice and dark.

[Drinkey McDrinkerstein]

This album is fucking GOOD.

[paulb]

7/10 songs through...wow! At this moment...Album of the year!

[captncrzy]

Yeah, they've put together a great album. Would love a mini DJ tour around it. Probably not happening since Vince is still doing Erasure stuff this summer and Martin is recording with Depeche...but still....

[fatbastard]

VCMG's 'Ssss': Martin Gore, Vince Clarke reunite for techno album
Martin Gore and former Depeche Mode band mate Vince Clarke reunite as VCMG for 'Ssss.' Don't expect it to sound like 'Speak & Spell.'

By Matt Diehl, Special to the Los Angeles Times
March 14, 2012

"It seems natural we'd do something like this, but it was definitely unexpected," explains Martin Gore of "Ssss," the debut album by VCMG, released Tuesday on Mute Records. "Unexpected" is putting it mildly: VCMG provides the acronymous moniker for a duo no one ever expected to reunite, and especially not in this form.
Gore serves as primary songwriter for pioneering electronic-rock superstars Depeche Mode; he replaced fellow founding member Vince Clarke in that role. Clarke departed Depeche Mode after writing the majority of the band's 1981 debut album, "Speak & Spell," and went on to form the equally trendsetting outfits Yaz and Erasure.
Since then, he and Gore have had nearly zero contact, making this union even more surprising. "I got an email from Vince completely out of the blue," Gore elaborates. "He said he was thinking about making a techno album and wanted to know if I was interested in collaborating with him."

"Ssss" is composed entirely of all-instrumental club bangers, each song pumping with a relentless 4/4 thump that would set alight any contemporary dance floor — not what you'd expect from musicians in their 50s.
Then again, both Clarke and Gore have always been ahead of their time. After blazing the trail for '80s New Wave synth-pop, Depeche Mode under Gore's stewardship went on to rewrite the rules for what defines a rock band.

Combining plaintive guitars with futuristic synthesizers, technological grooves and the tortured gothic soul of vocalist Dave Gahan, the band would grow into arena-filling superstars on the heels of edgy yet universal hits like "Personal Jesus" and "People Are People."

"Depeche Mode's stature in pop and electronic music is, without question, formidable," says Jason Bentley, music director of KCRW-FM and also a well-known club DJ. "They've always used the spirit and credibility of electronic music to inform their own. Not everyone can inhabit the alt-rock world while remaining significant in the clubs, but they've been smart enough to push the envelope, all while writing great songs that define the band. Even their name translated from the French means roughly 'the next style.'"
Detroit techno forefathers like Carl Craig and Derrick May have all reflected the influence of Clarke and Gore's sound in their own music. "What [Clarke and Gore] did was so revolutionary," says Richie Hawtin, a titan of the Detroit techno scene and iconic superstar DJ who often records under the pseudonym Plastikman. "They were so great at bookending pop songs with an experimental, underground approach.... Without them, there would be no Plastikman, and they haven't rested on their laurels yet."

And without Plastikman, there would be no VCMG. According to Clarke, the impetus came about in 2010 when Hawtin approached him to remix the Plastikman track "Elektrostatik." "I'd had no exposure to techno whatsoever — and when I first heard Plastikman, I thought it was dull and repetitive!" Clarke says and laughs. "Doing the remix, however, got me exploring that sound: I would go on [dance-music website] Beatport and find all this stuff! It was a completely new world for me — I couldn't believe the incredible sounds people were producing."

He found a willing partner in Gore, who had actually been a techno aficionado and DJ for years: Whenever Depeche Mode tours, the music between sets is actually a mix of Gore's latest techno favorites. "The people that went to make house and techno were quite influenced by the way we made music," adds Gore. "With VCMG, it's just us stripping back the songs and going back to the basics."
The "Ssss" album was actually created in the most contemporary of fashions. Beginning in the fall of 2010, Clarke and Gore communicated entirely via email and file sharing; they worked alone in their respective studios in Maine and Santa Barbara, layering the tracks with an armada of analog synths until finished. The duo didn't speak until the album was complete.

They finally met up face to face in May 2011 at London's Short Circuit festival commemorating the legacy of Erasure and Depeche Mode's longtime label, Mute Records. "It was quite a moving experience, how they got together after all this time," says Mute Records founder Daniel Miller. "At the same time, it was no big deal — it just happened."
In the flesh, Gore appears very much the rock star you've seen on stage and in videos, sporting stylish, body-conscious clothes, tight curls trimmed into a semi-mohawk, and tanned skin glowing from the sun of his adopted California home. Clarke, however, comes off like the rustic New Englander he's become with his shaved head, faded jeans and heavy winter coat; only earrings dangling from both ears hint at his counterculture status. "Martin definitely brought a darker depth to things, whereas I'm more of a chippy guy," Clarke says of the differences between the two. "That's what made the collaboration interesting."

What comes next for the duo is unclear. There are no VCMG live shows planned, as Gore is gearing up to record a new Depeche Mode album; Clarke is in no hurry to add anything new to his plate, having come off of a Yaz reunion tour straight into a new Erasure album and 86-date jaunt last year. The experience of working together has clearly affected them, however. "I've really enjoyed this whole project, which was completely different from anything I'd done before," Gore says. "It made me go back to writing again with a bit more energy." "Through this, I've come to rediscover the joy of using my two hands, rather than just staring at a screen for hours and using a bloody mouse," Clarke says. "It's all part of the process."

[captncrzy]

No tour...booo.

[ivankay]

Happy 22nd Anniversary to the Wherehouse Riot Thing.

[captncrzy]

Progressive techno pop

[Miroir Noir]

New Dave Gahan music, a collaboration with production duo Soulsavers.

[captncrzy]

You really just can't go wrong with Dave's voice.

[Miroir Noir]

"It's time..."

[Alchemy]

I like Soulsavers. It would be awesome if it somehow led to a Dave Gahan and Mark Lanegan collaboration. Those are two crazy voices.

[Drinkey McDrinkerstein]

hahahaha this is awesome

[Miroir Noir]

Dave: "There are already plans in place to be touring next year."

[captncrzy]

Well...yeah. THey always tour their new albums...with the exception of Ultra.

[Drinkey McDrinkerstein]

They skipped that to do the Singles tour the year after, yeah?