Depeche Mode: Remixes 81-04 (Ltd Ed. Three-Disc Boxset)

[miftah]

Depeche Mode
Remixes 81-04 (Ltd Ed. Three-Disc Boxset)
***1/2
(Mute/Reprise)

By Michael Bird

Of all artforms, the remix is a unique phenomena of music. No visual artist hands over their latest painting to another artist to reinterperate it and repaint it. Certainly this is rooted in the age of sheet music as the primary media for the publication of music. A piece of sheet music could be arranged for any given orchestra or band, depending only on how an arranger might see fit to express the song for his or her audience. Even into the early age of rock and roll, songs were often rearranged and interpreted by various bands and the charts would sometimes rank two or more competing performances of the same song, with the only differing qualities being the stylistic approach of the band. Chuck Berry in particular frequently saw his work appropriated by artists such as the Rolling Stones and others.

But the practice seemed to die off around the time that rock legends began to be manufactured en mass. The afore-mentioned Stones almost immediately changed their focus from covering blues and rock standards and began exploring the potential in their own song-writing. The definitive version of a song was the one the icon created, and so it followed that covers became less common. Covering other people's work was still occurred, and one could see someone like Jimi Hendrix make a Bob Dylan song one of his signature recordings. Nonetheless it was still less probable that a song was to compete with itself, as most artists were trying desperately to define their own identity. How can you be iconic when you're relying on others to define your voice? Someone like Jimi Hendrix could indulge in a cover because he so obviously had his own voice.

Then, as art-rock and electronic music began to evolve, the uniqueness of an arrangement was seen less as a concession or pander to the market, and more as an art strategy. Through jamming or remixing, the various aspects of a song could be explored conceptually. When played as written, the spooky bridge of a song that set a dramatic tone before the triumphant chorus could be explored in its own potential, when the arrangement shifted the focus away from the chorus, and lived inside the musical space of the bridge alone. A twenty minute jam could be spent with equal time to all parts of a song, allowing a fresh and expansive potential in the song previously unexplored (which also bore the risk of masturbatory, ego-driven solos of some musicians).

Dance music saw that potential above all others, as it was an inherent necessity. Being as the act of dancing in a club required a certain amount of pandering on the part of a DJ. The club DJ's essential requirement is to keep people active. The more energy that is expended translates into more drinks purchased. Since the appeal of music is a subjective one, when a song appeals to a large group, its best for the DJ to keep that song going as long as possible. What DJ knows what effect the next song that is played will have on the population of the dance floor? It is only a developed critical sense of knowing when a song has nearly overstayed its welcome that informs a DJ of when to move on.

The dance musician knows the importance of preparing the music to facilitate this. In the early days of contemporary club culture (circa the rise of disco), most songs were given to a remix in the form of "long versions." This was uniquely the domain of the DJ and 12" singles were pretty much only in the commercial interest of club DJs. It is in the repetition of dance music, the establishment of a groove that allows a certain accessibility to the person on the dance floor. If you can move in a repetitive manner, you don't necessarily need to think quickly of a new move to go with the music. The longer a song holds its groove, the easier a time the dancer has. So as the long version grew in popularity among DJs, the people who really loved a given song appreciated hearing it rearranged. It implied a new or richer relationship with the song, so even the consumer was given to a commercial interest in it.

Extended dance music was now beyond a functional need, and now moving headlong toward creative possibilities, with a new aesthetic potential. But it required the discarding of ego in order to evolve beyond where it was stationed, which is to say, the vanity of epic arrangements of normally concise songs. Kraftwerk in particular, facilitated that evolution. Through their explorations of cold, electronic music as aesthetic choice, they weren't precious about their performances, and thus the horizon broadened and their influence was almost immediate.

Those that followed Kraftwerk began to reformulate their more experimental edge into disposable pop music. It sounded new and fresh. And where pop music excels is in its appeal to the young, disaffected teen looking for a unique identity. Electronic music spoke directly to that sensibility. It was a radical reinvention of the concept as it divorced itself completely from the previous notion of the "album rock god" that had become so obligatory in the late '70s. And in the second wave of electronic music following Kraftwerk, came Depeche Mode.

Though the world of dance music has certainly moved on from Depeche Mode and its synth-friendly ilk, hip hop still incorporates remixes as a standard marketing tool, to the point that some of its remixers have had delusions of grandeur, considering themselves every bit as valid as the artists they tinker with. Who knows. . . maybe they're right.

If you wonder why I take the more anthropological approach to this review, it is because in this compilation, it is the curative approach that has been used in the track selection. Beyond the scope of a greatest hits, or rather a greatest remixes compilation, we are instead given to a compilation of remixes that underlines the evolution of remixes as they span the time Depeche Mode has been making music. Essential remixes, such as the "Highland Mix" of "Stripped" is omitted in place of "Breathing In Fumes" which was a more cut-up and experimental approach as a remix. It is certainly not a collection of essential remixes at all, but from a historical perspective, this compilation makes sense.

In fact, it is perhaps a more revealing portrait painted here of Depeche Mode than their last couple of albums, or even their latest hits compilation. Here we view the legacy of Depeche Mode as it was visited on the culture that first embraced them. Through the span of some 20-odd years, you see styles come and go. You see electronic music grow up before your eyes, with virtually no awkward stage in its adolescence left unrepresented. From synth-pop disco to hip-hop to sprawling house music epics, virtually every sub-genre of dance music has been appropriated to redress the songs of Depeche Mode. All of this would be moot if it weren't for the enduring appeal of their compelling songs. Lots of electronic acts have muddled through 20 years of singles and remixes (Erasure and Pet Shop Boys come springing to mind), but none of them have found the lasting resonance with its audience that Depeche Mode has, and it is ultimately to the credit of the songwriting and principle production which exists at its core that a compilation of this sort can be appreciated at all. This compilation is certainly nothing if not a warts-and-all reflection of the history of the band, and indeed of dance music itself.

Clunky experiments of remixes come mainly from the latter part of the first stage of the band's career (pre '85) in the form of "Master and Servant (An On-USound Science Fiction Dance Hall Classic)" and "Are People People?" show cut and paste samples exploited as novelty, turning the tracks from driving synth pop into abrasive collisions of formless noodling and over-baked gimmickry. They contain all the subtlety of a Howitzer cannon.

The shift away from a less-crafted approach was beginning around the time of their second era (the album Black Celebration). Though the afore-mentioned mix of "Stripped" still showed a slightly graceless hand, the potential for expansion was beginning in earnest. "A Question of Lust," a ballad, was remixed by Flood, with light percussion seeping through, elevating the song past a need to be danceable or appeal to radio. The retouch seems to serve no other purpose than to re-examine the song's possibilities. The success of this would be explored time and time again, with audacious experiments becoming equally less and less precious in scope.

To retool their songs, they began to hand the responsibilities over to others more reliably after 1987's Music for the Masses. Though within the band they either kept perfect note of the trends of dance music, or more likely defined them, they weren't so short-sighted as to believe they were omnipotent on the subject. Each of the days new prodigies of production were given license to retouch the tracks. The list is mind-boggling. Air, Meat Beat Manifesto, Underworld, DJ Muggs from Cypress Hill, DJ Shadow, Club 69, Portishead, Kruder+Dorfmeister, Dave Clarke and Adrian Sherwood have all had a go at Depeche's canon. All of them revered as innovators for their respective eras of dance music, they lent their genius to their versions. Club 69's white label release of "It's No Good (Club 69 Future Mix)" was called the dance track of the year by Mixmag when it was released in '97. Strangely the track wasn't commercially released, but the legend of it grew nonetheless, with bootleg pressings making the rounds at vinyl shops.

One could go on and on charting the progression of dance music here, and it would all hold up. But if there's a down side to all of this, it is merely the fact that Depeche have rather cynically repackaged their past once again. No album has passed since 1987 without some revisiting of their back catalogue. Many of these remixes were released earlier this year in three new volumes of singles box sets, but here they are nonetheless. Of course, the cynical level of crass commodification would be completely irrelevant if it weren't for the eight new remixes included in this set. At least they're trying to give us something new. Of course this album is featured in two distinctly different flavours (a single disc model with an edited selection of songs, and the three-disc model that I am reviewing here), so dedicated fans of the band will feel the financial pinch of collecting all... $$$!

Given that since their last album of new material they've re-released two concert films to DVD and released three box sets of old singles, and perhaps most telling, two solo projects, one has left to wonder if Depeche Mode has a future at all. At least their history is compelling enough to insure their bank managers' continued happiness.

[bio]

Have you posted this thread anywhere else?

Heh... and I misread Kraftwerk as Klymaxx (I'm working graveyard... I'm tired)... that made me turn my head and give your post the RCA dog look until I realized my error.

[miftah]

Nope, just here. I only really did it for myself (hence its length), since its been many years since I did it professionally. I guess I just wanted to see if I could still do it.