What Do you think of Depeche Mode?

arctic ranger · Post by **arctic ranger** » Sat Jun 14, 2008 5:04 am

Music for the Masses was the best combination of innovation and good pop writing skills imo. The DM tour shirts sure got me alot of girls back then.

DJ VAKIS · Post by **DJ VAKIS** » Sat Jun 14, 2008 6:18 am

knotkranky wrote:Violator is epic. If you don't like this record, you don't like music.

+1
Also Black celebration-Music for the masses.

serge_a_storms · Post by **serge_a_storms** » Sat Jun 14, 2008 6:32 am

I think they one of the best pop bands to come from the 80s. I have a very happy memory of Alison Platt playing Black Celebration to me in her bedroom whilst bunking off school one afternoon. That was a good day!

I still love Black Celebration and think between that album and Ultra they were still on a really high level of songs and production.

As with many others on here, I agree that Violator is the peak. It's hard to believe that album is 18 years old now! However I'd be interested what someone hearing it for the first time now thinks of it.

Machinesworking · Post by **Machinesworking** » Sat Jun 14, 2008 7:23 am

knotkranky wrote:
Machinesworking wrote:
knotkranky wrote:Violator is epic. If you don't like this record, you don't like music.
Couldn't stand them when they came out, but Music for the masses changed that. I think Vince Clark wasn't so great for them, and after he left they really bloomed. Plus how can you seriously think Just Can't Get Enough! is music when Yello, Dead Kennedys, Cabarete Voltaire and others are re-inventing music?
Oh no, "just can't get enough" sucks ass, lol. I'm not a fan boy but I've got one record by DM and that's Violator. That record is ear candy for me. I generally don't like pure synth records but holy fuck that one still floors me. Now, to like something doesn't exclude something else, dead kennedy's rule, saw them around 84' at a club in LA thats long been gone. Saw the Minute men too. I like brave innovation but i gotta be in the mood to be challenged. Violator is incredibly tightly crafted and the song writing is fucking brilliant and the sounds! Btw, I was in a band that covered Ultravox's "sleep walk" > http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Der1KWF3mFk

DM World in my eyes > http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=EIYrXxxRekE I think Flood did Violator.

Nice. I think you're right, why it's so nicely thick.
My personal favorite DM songs:
Behind the Wheel
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=SuDWCwzY ... re=related

It Doesn't Matter 2
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=-BV64Ofi ... re=related

Ultravox are extremely underrated over here, but some of that's due to the fact that nobody over here heard their first three records with John Foxx. So it seems like they were just another blitz/new romantic band, but they predated that shit. I saw the DKs three times. Great live band.

kraze · Post by **kraze** » Sat Jun 14, 2008 12:20 pm

Good songwriters, not so good technologywise. Compare them to the other in the bunch they're coupled with and they're definently not in the same leauge. Devo, Kraftwerk, Numan etc, all were much more revolutionary technologywise and I blame depeche mode for the "preset era".

sowhoso · Post by **sowhoso** » Sat Jun 14, 2008 4:01 pm

serge_a_storms wrote:As with many others on here, I agree that Violator is the peak. It's hard to believe that album is 18 years old now! However I'd be interested what someone hearing it for the first time now thinks of it.

I listened to those songs for the first time about 2-3 years ago. I was blown away. I recently bought the devotional dvd, awesome!

I just can't get enuf. (<pun> actually, I don't like that song of theirs.)

I like their later stuff. the 80's hits are yuk to me

swett · Post by **swett** » Sat Jun 14, 2008 6:03 pm

Anyone heard the acoustic version of Here is the house? I saw it live and fuck everything else.
Love DM

Tone Deft · Post by **Tone Deft** » Sat Jun 14, 2008 7:29 pm

mdk wrote:
Warminstrel wrote:Didn't they all turn into raging skag heads?

Not the best drug for creativity methinks.
what do you think 'Never let me down again' is about?

I never knew that, thank you two times!!

"we're flying high
we're watching the world pass us by
never want to come down
never want to put my feet back on the ground."

when it came out Violator was the first CD I put on in the car that I HAD TO play loud. it made enough of a difference that the windows had to be open for it to sound good. compare those dynamics to daft punk. agreed, amazing production on that one, a real standout.

cool that Personal Jesus is a guitar based song as well.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=pLx--DlR3Ys <--- acoustic Personal Jesus

"I Just Can't Get It Up" is a great tune.

karmaofdove · Post by **karmaofdove** » Sat Jun 14, 2008 8:08 pm

I was fortunate enough to catch them in Rome Nov 1990 and feel that Violator represents their best work. I was a big fan of theirs when Music for the Masses came out. Many great songs have come off of their albums in the 90s and in the early part of this decade.

I like the remixes that others make of their tracks. "Lie to Me" remixed by LFO is one that stands out.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=U7juB2fQvpk

filterstein · Post by **filterstein** » Sat Jun 14, 2008 9:13 pm

My favourite track, "Shout", an early b-side.

Daniel Miller and Vince created that killer ARP 2600 random S&H-LFO'd square wave percussion track.

Damn, thought i was the only one who liked that!

and let's not forget the bassdrum with the giant reverb on it.

echo871 · Post by **echo871** » Sat Jun 14, 2008 11:22 pm

They were never the same after Alan Wilder left.

thracks · Post by **thracks** » Sat Jun 14, 2008 11:42 pm

kraze wrote:Good songwriters, not so good technologywise. Compare them to the other in the bunch they're coupled with and they're definently not in the same leauge. Devo, Kraftwerk, Numan etc, all were much more revolutionary technologywise and I blame depeche mode for the "preset era".

If any electronic band was ever anti preset it would be Depeche. Maybe you're referring to the fact that most synths hardware or software these days have a "DM-Pad" or such. It's as common as the "Lucky Man" patch that for some reason must be included in every freakin' synth made today. They (Depeche) are relentless in creating their own sounds, and rarely do they give out details on their process. Alan Wilder is probably one of the greatest programmers to ever touch a synth.... Too bad he quit a while back.

landrvr1 · Post by **landrvr1** » Sat Jun 14, 2008 11:58 pm

Their influence is almost immeasurable. It's fashionable to rag on Speak & Spell (almost as fashionable and cool as ragging on U2), but that release alone probably spawned more imitators than just about any other. It's a classic electroPop album.

Black Celebration is just a dark horse masterpiece, plain and simple.

karmaofdove · Post by **karmaofdove** » Sun Jun 15, 2008 2:38 am

echo871 wrote:They were never the same after Alan Wilder left.

Alan did an interesting interview with DM's website:

http://www.depeche-mode.com/home/2008/03/02/404/

Check out the comments after the article.

I agree, they were never the same after he left.

Also, I tried to find an interview Alan did for a musician's magazine (forgot the name) and in it, he discusses the process he employs in studio, as well as the gear he uses. I wish I could find a link to that.

spkey · Post by **spkey** » Mon Jun 16, 2008 8:15 am

thracks wrote:
kraze wrote:Good songwriters, not so good technologywise. Compare them to the other in the bunch they're coupled with and they're definently not in the same leauge. Devo, Kraftwerk, Numan etc, all were much more revolutionary technologywise and I blame depeche mode for the "preset era".
If any electronic band was ever anti preset it would be Depeche. Maybe you're referring to the fact that most synths hardware or software these days have a "DM-Pad" or such. It's as common as the "Lucky Man" patch that for some reason must be included in every freakin' synth made today. They (Depeche) are relentless in creating their own sounds, and rarely do they give out details on their process. Alan Wilder is probably one of the greatest programmers to ever touch a synth.... Too bad he quit a while back.

Agree. I watched a ''The making of" a Depeche Mode album once. I was very impressed by the tons of sounds they went through and the amount of tweaking they did just for that album. At the end they just deleted all sounds, never to be used again.