DEPECHE MODE have unveiled the video for ‘Soothe My Soul’, the second single to be taken from ‘Delta Machine’.
One of the standout tracks from the album, ‘Soothe My Soul’. The song bears the hallmarks of vintage DM, featuring a strong vocal performance from Messrs Gahan and Gore, set to a catchy blues riff not dissimilar to that of world conquering 1989 hit ‘Personal Jesus’. Indeed, the similarity between the tracks has already led to a spate of mash-ups appearing online.
Lyrically the song deals with one of Martin Gore’s favourite subjects; “there’s only one way to soothe my soul” he asserts, and the video should leave little doubt as to what he is referring to! Be warned if you are viewing at work, there is some risqué content featuring a naked model and a snake. Directed by Warren Fu, whose previous video credits include THE KILLERS and DAFT PUNK, it is an undeniably stylish affair, shot entirely in monochrome with a distinctive square frame.
Meanwhile, new album ‘Delta Machine’ has been generally welcomed by critics. Whilst all agree that it is an improvement on 2009’s lacklustre outing ‘Sounds Of The Universe’, some are hailing the album as a complete return to form for the trio.
Certainly this new single will delight fans who like their Mode dark, sexy and a little subversive. With ‘Soothe My Soul’, DEPECHE MODE might just have rediscovered their mojo!
‘Soothe My Soul’ is from the album ‘Delta Machine’ released by Columbia/Sony Records in an assortment of formats including CD, deluxe 2CD and double vinyl
DEPECHE MODE play London’s O2 Arena on 28th and 29th May 2013
Fact: OMD’s ‘Architecture & Morality’ is a benchmark of electronic pop, not just within the Synth Britannia era but the genre itself.
Founder member Paul Humphreys said back in 2010: “I think ‘Architecture & Morality’ was a complete album, it was just so whole. The sound of it was unique, every song… it wasn’t a ‘bitty’ album. A few of our albums are ‘bitty’ but that was where we finally found a sound that was OMD. I think the first two albums were leading to ‘Architecture & Morality’. We were refining our sound and then we found it.”
The classic OMD line-up of Andy McCluskey, Paul Humphreys, Malcolm Holmes and Martin Cooper split in 1989 but when it was announced in 2007 that they would be reuniting to play ‘Architecture & Morality’ and more at a series of shows in Europe, they sold out within a few hours. Fans from around the globe gathered in anticipation and OMD knew they had to do their legacy justice.
But there was the technical issue of capturing the distinct textures of their meisterwerk: “It was a real challenge on that tour because we really wanted to do that album justice but we didn’t have any of the synths or anything we used to make those records. But we wanted to be true to the album. So we had to buy synths off eBay to get those sounds back, and we then just re-sampled them. We even went back to the multi-track tapes. Anything that was a monophonic sound, I could slice up into notes, loop them and put them on each key so I could play the sound exactly how it was. It was great, great fun; I loved doing that and it was a really lovely moment.”
One of these concerts was captured for posterity as both a live album and DVD. Titled ‘OMD Live: Architecture & Morality & More’, it was recorded at Hammersmith Apollo on Saturday 19th May 2007.
ELECTRICITYCLUB.CO.UK were present so more than qualified to pass judgement on this pair of artefacts which are now reissued as a combined package, although the DVD bonus features from the original Eagle Rock release are now omitted. First things first, the concert itself was a glorious celebration of a great band and their inventive catalogue of work.
Andy McCluskey’s voice was better than it was back in 1981 when the ‘Live At The Theatre Royal – Drury Lane’ concert was recorded, save a few really high notes. His geography teacher at the sixth form disco dancing was still intact too after 14 years away from the stage, if slightly more restrained and assisted with the odd strobe effect.
Likewise, Paul Humphreys had become a more accomplished musician and on his two vocal party pieces ‘Souvenir’ and ‘(Forever) Live & Die’, his voice had particularly strengthened. On the drum stool, Mal Holmes lost none of his energy or power despite a heart attack a few years previously although keyboardist Martin Cooper was now seated behind his Roland Fantom X8 for health reasons. As the band’s trained instrumentalist, he picked up like he had never been away, and handled the solos of tunes he wasn’t actually involved in like ‘Sailing On The Seven Seas’ with vigour.
The band certainly enjoyed the experience as Paul Humphreys recalled: “The tour where we played ‘Architecture & Morality’ in full was particularly great for us. We just loved playing those songs and we played a few songs that we’d never played live before so it was really fantastic”.
Visually, the show was stunning with bespoke projections by Hambi Haralambous while the crisp sound was top notch too.
However, despite the presentation of ‘Architecture & Morality’ alongside iconic singles such as ‘Messages’, ‘Enola Gay’ and ‘Electricity’, the inclusion of ‘So In Love’, ‘Talking Loud & Clear’ and ‘If You Leave’ in the set slightly numbed the artistic momentum established by the first part of the show, while ‘Pandora’s Box’ lacked drive in its live rendition.
Now considering how good the concert actually was, the DVD is comparatively disappointing. The editing in particular is poor with McCluskey’s windmill moves on ‘Maid Of Orleans’ slow-moed to the point of making no sense with the emotional tension in the music. The widescreen visuals lose their impact too… it really was a show you had to have been at to fully appreciate. Also, with so many enthusiastic fans in the audience who could have been captured for prosperity, the cameras choose to focus on three rather bored looking, ungrateful individuals in the front row who stand motionless with their arms folded through most of the performance!
But while this DVD is not up there with the best live music films such as DURAN DURAN’s ‘Live From London’, RAMMSTEIN’s ‘Völkerball’ or ERASURE’s ‘The Tank, The Swan & The Balloon’, it is still a worthy memento that documents the return of one of the UK’s most under appreciated bands. Don’t forget ‘Maid Of Orleans was actually the biggest selling single of 1982 in Germany at a time when Der Bundesrepublik was the biggest music market after the USA and Japan… maybe they should have filmed this tour in Cologne?
ELECTRICITYCLUB.CO.UK were there too and that gig was even better than this one! The crowd chant of “ZU-GA-BE, ZU-GA-BE” to the closing Compurhythm beats of ‘Enola Gay’ remains unforgettable…
OMD’s 2013 UK tour with special guests JOHN FOXX & THE MATHS includes: Margate Winter Gardens (28th April), Birmingham Symphony Hall (29th April), Nottingham Royal Centre (1st May), Ipswich Regent Theatre (2nd May), London Roundhouse (3rd May), Bristol Colston Hall (5th May), Oxford New Theatre (6th May), Sheffield City Hall (8th May), Leeds Academy (9th May), Manchester Academy (10th May), Glasgow Royal Concert Hall (12th May), Gateshead Sage (13th May), Liverpool Empire (14th May)
The Benelux shows featuring special guests METROLAND include: Utrecht Tivoli (17th May) and Brussels Ancienne Belgique (20th May)
The German tour with special guests VILE ELECTRODES includes: Hamburg Docks (21st May), Bielefeld Ringlokschuppen (22nd May), Berlin Tempodrom (24th May), Leipzig Haus Auensee (25th May), Köln E-Werk (27th May)
The new OMD album ‘English Electric’ is released on 8th April 2013 by BMG
In 1996, SNEAKER PIMPS released the highly acclaimed ‘Becoming X’ featuring its original line-up of Kelli Ali, Liam Howe and Chris Corner.
Tensions led to the departure of Kelli Ali as Chris Corner took on vocal duties for the following albums ‘Splinter’ and ‘Bloodsport’. The title of that debut turned out to be prophetic as following the end of SNEAKER PIMPS, Corner relocated to Berlin where he found “the spirit to care less about the music industry and take an independent route” as IAMX and delivered the impressive debut ‘Kiss + Swallow’.
Now IAMX returns with ‘The Unified Field’, an album which sees Corner attain even greater independence through crowd funding forum Pledge Music while almost paradoxically, involving others in the actual musical realisation. Corner told fans to expect “a new kind of IAMX sound, full of acoustic warmth, electronic sex and an emotional strength that can only come from collaboration”.
Following the intense experimentation and loneliness of its predecessor ‘Volatile Times’, there is no doubt that light has been let into proceedings with the recording being overseen by Grammy Award winner Jim Abbiss who co-produced ‘Becoming X’ and whose other credits have included LADYTRON and KASABIAN. Meanwhile, Liam Howe also appears on several tracks along with long standing IAMX live band members Alberto Alvarez and Janine Gezang.
Indeed it is Gezang’s dulcet Germanic tones that start off ‘The Unified Field’with the blistering ‘I Come With Knives’. Like a thunderstorm, tension can be released but dark clouds often remain. Here Corner delivers an embittered but accessible diatribe dressed with chilling dulcimer and frantic motorik percussion. He then goes back to working alone on the wonderfully chromatic ‘Sorrow’ with sombre synth brass tones counterpointing the Slavic sensed melody. Harking back to the best moments of previous albums ‘Kingdom Of Welcome Addiction’ and ‘The Alternative’, IAMX is again penetrating the sensitivities of the European psyche.
After the organic rhythm construction of the opening two numbers, ‘The Unified Field’ title track takes on a more mechanical stance but is kept emotively human by tinkling piano and Corner’s distinctive voice although that then takes on some unsettling Mezzo-soprano overtones. ‘The Adrenalin Room’ is more experimental, dub bass set to stuttering drums and fuzzy synths like a gothic PUBLIC IMAGE LIMITED with even more schizo high pitched voicing.
‘Quiet The Mind’ takes the pace down with some gentle guitar in a richly beautiful ballad that blends acoustic and electronic instrumentation. “Hold back the melancholy – hold back the fear…” Corner almost cries. ‘Under Atomic Skies’ and ‘Screams’ are worthy second cousins and mention must be made here of producer Jim Abbiss. As well creating a suitably powerful sound palette for the grittier tracks on ‘The Unified Field’, Abbiss’ treatment of the more pastoral compositions is both sympathetic and complimentary.
Some marvellous strings by Florentin Chiran give ‘Come Home’ an eerie nomadic atmosphere but the inclusion of a lone drum machine and an ancient valve oscillator for the solo are key indicators that this has been recorded post-20th Century rather than an era prior to it. ‘Animal Impulses’ and its detuned synth effects get an unusual lift via a digital drum machine while a brass section and shrilly recorder also get in on the act; this is a quite unorthodox number which switches time signature on several occasions during its four minute duration.
It all rocks out again on ‘Walk With The Noise’ which is could be considered classic IAMX but then comes one of the highlights in the rousingly bohemian ‘Land Of Broken Promises’. A great blend of acoustic guitar and treated piano is boosted with the bonus of Corner and Gezang duetting. A terrific violin solo from Florentin Chiran then ensues for that authentic sense of vagabond adventure. The almost mournful ‘Trials’ makes a suitable closer, building to the anticipated dramatic climax with bouts of even more dulcimer, droning synth sweeps and some spirited falsetto like BEE GEES gone Emo! At times, it even sounds a bit U2 but far less over blown!
In addition to the IAMX faithful who will love ‘The Unified Field’, followers of MARC ALMOND, NINE INCH NAILS MESH and DEPECHE MODE who have not been previously acquainted with Chris Corner may also find much to appreciate on this album. Despite its darkness and feelings of unsettlement, this is a melodic body of work that invites attachment and eternal love, but with staunchly fierce independence.
After the mediocrity of ‘Sounds Of The Universe’ – arguably saved only by the single ‘Wrong’ – speculation must have abounded that DEPECHE MODE had delivered their swansong.
With Martin Gore’s quasi-spiritist songs of ‘Peace’ and praise, Dave Gahan’s throw-away contributions like ‘Miles Away’ and the other one. ‘Sounds Of The Universe’ was built sonically around Gore’s newfound obsession with synth collecting but felt like a band reaching the end of their creative rope.
Was this the same band who had recorded ‘Violator’ and ‘Songs Of Faith & Devotion’? It certainly wasn’t the band who recorded ‘Black Celebrationn’. It was a synth collector’s summit attended by accountants. The Mode had lost their mojo.
Fans of the band bought the album, attended the tour, moaned about the woeful Dave songs, the limp Martin songs, and waited for the corn wave that signified the real DEPECHE MODE when they were still writing real hooks and having hits. Then, some of us were even hoping that the band would take the hint and quit before it all got so very much worse for them, to stop us going through the motions of gnashing our sorry teeth to more albums, tours and poems of lost faith and devotion. Because DEPECHE MODE fans do that kind of thing; like a henpecked partner in a relationship, they wail, cry, regret, threaten to leave – and always come back for more.
So, when DEPECHE MODE announced ‘Delta Machine’ was in the works, there was that usual mixed optimism and gloom. Information slowly leaking out made the mixture sound at first familiarly depressing with yet another Ben Hillier production but then quite exciting with the addition of Christoffer Berg from THE KNIFE’s production team, and the name Flood on the mixing desk. Short of the holy fingers of Alan Wilder, Flood’s presence is the next best rabbit’s foot for a DEPECHE MODE album. Flood-related albums – ‘Violator’ and ‘Songs Of Faith & Devotion’ – have been at the peak of the band’s success and remain their most popular albums for many. There’s talk of bluesiness and more analogue synthesisers, the band’s best album since ‘Violator’… and we wait. Have Berg and Flood stoked the fire of creativity? Or is it another step down the hill on the way to the retirement home?
Relax, dear fans – your anxious, shame-filled years are over. DEPECHE MODE have found their long missing cojones – arguably lost down the couch in Spain whilst recording ‘SOFAD’ – and have come back with not a perfect record, but a bloody big improvement on the last one. ‘Delta Machine’ clocks in at 13 tracks and a respectable 60 minutes (without the 4 bonus tracks available in the 2CD deluxe edition).
As on ‘Sounds Of The Universe’, there are 3 Gahan compositions, (penned with all round electro-groove guru Kurt Uenala aka KAP10KURT): ‘Secret To The End’, ‘Broken’ and ‘Should Be Higher’ – and Gore shoulders the other ten.
And, like ‘Playing The Angel’ but certainly unlike ‘Sounds Of The Universe’, the album’s strongest tracks fall between the pair of them. The songwriting shows more often than not, a welcome freshness and vitality where ‘Sounds Of The Universe’ was flailing and failing. Shockingly, this time, the weakest three may well sit at the foot of Gore’s writing desk.
Sonically – the band were totally correct when they mentioned the album’s blues influence. But we don’t have SOULSAVERS 2 here: and nor do we have VCMG 2 at the other end of the spectrum. ‘Delta Machine’ is as the name suggests, a crafty mélange of the two styles. In fact, those expecting raw blues have been and will be quite surprised by just how electronic it is: some say perhaps too much so on tracks like ‘My Little Universe’ which has possibly caused the most division of any track on the record amongst listeners; here, the Mode channel the spirit of Thom Yorke, making a sparse, complex, restrained stand-out track which has surprised and confounded many. But it’s a standout and shows some exciting new ground which the band are claiming with conviction.
In contrast, ‘SOFAD’ lost track ‘Slow’ brings the coke-and-sweat back-room sleaze to the party, with loping guitars and a dark ‘Twin Peaks’ vibe. This too, works: and allows Gore to get the guitar out both on album and on stage: although it could be transformed from sleazy stripbar to “time for a comfort break” plodder on stage. Gahan’s time tonsillating for SOULSAVERS seems to have brought his expressiveness back from the barrel of a disused gun, and he seems to have lost some of that nasal screech which made parts of ‘SOTU’ so difficult to bear. Gore only lends his vibrato to one album track – ‘The Child Inside’, one of the album’s weaker tracks and one bonus track ‘Always’ – a stranger, more interesting track which could have been substituted in if it weren’t obligatory for each album to have one slow, untreated Gore ballad.
‘Delta Machine’ contains some unabashed uptempo – even slightly cheesy – pop numbers. ‘Soft Touch/Raw Nerve’ is the most obvious track on the album, closely followed by ‘Soothe My Soul’, but both manage somehow to be enjoyable and seem like ‘Personal Jesus’ replacements in the spirit of ‘John The Revelator’ and even ‘I Feel Loved’. Ridiculously catchy and energetic, these tracks will find their way into your head with their hooks until you’re yearning for an ear sorbet to cleanse your brain out. And just in time comes ‘Should Be Higher’: the older, more sophisticated and far more attractive cousin of ‘In Chains’. Astonishingly, this is a Gahan/Kurt composition and could just be a contender for best track on the album. With exciting, unsettling melodies and a touch of nastiness, it’s vintage Mode. It’s the kind of song which forces a spontaneous “at last!” from the mouth of the long suffering faithful.
“At last!” might well summarise ‘Delta Machine’, generally, but it is not a perfect album. It has a couple of very sore Achilles heels. First, is the uncanny sensation one occasionally (actually frequently) experiences when Gore’s choruses are particularly channeling the ghost of Lennon and the live soul of McCartney.
In ‘Heaven’, ‘Welcome To My World’ alone and also a little in closer ‘Goodbye’ there are classic pop choruses which owe everything to The Fab Four. It will make these songs more commercially viable, but some have fed greedily on the minor chords and abstruse structures of the ‘Black Celebration’ era, and to them, this is perhaps one step too far. And there are weak, maudlin moments – like ‘Alone’ and ‘The Child Inside’ – Gore hasn’t completely managed the self-editorship that could have made ‘Delta Machine’ one of DEPECHE MODE’s best albums.
But there’s no doubting that it is their best for at close to a decade, probably more consistent than ‘Playing The Angel’, certainly showing stronger songwriting than most of ‘Exciter’ and let us not even speak of the dark ages of ‘Sounds Of The Universe’ Welcome home boys!
‘Delta Machine’ is released by Columbia/Sony Records on 25th March 2013 in an assortment of formats including CD, 2CD deluxe, download and double vinyl
DEPECHE MODE tour the world throughout 2013. Please visit http://www.depechemode.com for news and information
Belgian electronic duo METROLAND have finally unveiled their remix of OMD’s new single entitled, appropriately enough, ‘Metroland’ and have even produced a promo video too.
Ironically, despite the accusation by some of them being KRAFTWERK copyists, METROLAND have actually stripped away the more obvious Kling Klang Synthanorma elements.
The Blitz Club’s legendary DJ Rusty Egan even enthusiastically commented “now it’s LOST the Kraftwerk, I like it MORE!”
METROLAND told ELECTRICITYCLUB.CO.UK about their remix: “We both hate those darn f*cked up club mixes where you can barely recognize something of the original. We started all from scratch. So, every sequence and bass line, melody was played as-new (we did not have a MIDI file), and we searched for new sounds. In the end, it became a more orchestral mix spiced up with the typical bass sounds from METROLAND, along with our famous layered sequences.”
Passenger A and Passenger S remembered: “It was a tough job as the song itself is a splendid OMD song with a KRAFTWERK spirit, a shivering combination, so we hope our remix will attract OMD fans”.
On receipt of this reworking, Andy McCluskey emailed METROLAND to say he was “loving it!!” The duo were extremely chuffed with the reaction: “Just imagine: making a joyful remix and getting such a reaction from someone you have been looking up to since you were a teenager!!”
We use cookies to ensure that we give you the best experience on our website. If you continue to use this site we will assume that you are happy with it.Ok
CD+DVD is released via Salvo Sound & Vision on 22nd April 2013
, IAMX is again penetrating the sensitivities of the European psyche.
and the 
EP are released as downloads on 25th March 2013 by BMG
Follow Us!