Depeche Mode

I used to have an enormous black poster of Depeche Mode - the sort of huge billboard type thing that you end up with if you work in a record shop. It showed three or four girls from neck to waist with pictures of the 'peche emblazoned right across their chests. I think that image kind of sums up my thoughts on the band:- OK if you threw in some girls and a bit of a sense of humour, but otherwise..........hmmmm........

They were poppy, they were rocky, they were gothy......but never at the same time as I was, so I pretty much spent twenty years ignoring them.

Except for one glorious remix I bought in '89. It was Tim Simenon's take on 'Everything Counts'. It had enormously fat beats. It had submarine noises. It sounded nothing like the original except for a short sample of Dave Gahan whistling. It was brilliant.

Now, years later, I am part of that thirtysomething generation that is being resold its' own youth in newer, shinier formats. It's extended, it's remastered, it's digitalised, it's sexier, it's post-modern and ironic, it's the cut the director wanted us to see.....but it's seldom quite what we wanted to see.

Anyway, I figure as Depeche Mode weren't really part of my youth, in buying the Depeche Mode remix album, I'm not even buying part of my own youth, I'm buying part of someone else's - a positively Dickensian notion (and by that I mean Philip K, not the big C).

It fits the demographic perfectly....I can just see the marketing pitch now.....It's the bands we danced to in the 80's remixed by those we had dinner parties to in the '90's. The usual suspects all line up for the remixes- straight out of my blogger profile - Air, Kruder & Dorfmeister, Portishead (I hate it when they do that - Beth Gibbon was pretty low down in the mix was she? - like subliminal).

So what does it all add up to? - Well, have you seen that episode of 'Friends' where Ross finds his old synthesiser in the loft ?..........

Go and have a listen for yourself - there are mp3 samples of all the tracks here, but if, on the other hand, you do prefer the Mode with some girls and a bit of humour:

Kylie vs. DM - "Everything Counts"