Depeche Mode
Black Celebration Remixes 2004

THE REVIEW

Now, I'm trying this experiment by sending you a review of the remix version of the album "Black Celebration". Guess which band it's by? It's easy... Just a little effort... yes... well done, I knew you'd get there once again!

This Remixed Edition of the historic album by the dark epitomes from Basildon offers various points, some very pleasant, others that really make you angry, since they distort historic tracks like "A question of lust" and "Stripped", in Electric Dub version. It almost makes me want to vomit. "A question of time" is presented in a Saturday Night Fever version that's just revolting! On the other hand, the remix of "Fly on the windscreen" is very beautiful, even more electronic than the version on the album.
Other songs, like "World full of nothing", "Here is the house", "New dress", are more rhythmic than in the original version and perhaps more pleasant to the ear, as well as updated in sound. "Breathing in fumes" doesn't change much in the Tube Edit version, it's always the usual mix of "Stripped" enhanced with some electronic-dark artifice. "But not tonight" starts right away with the vocal part, and maybe that's better, especially because it already is a song that I never thought fit with the context of "Black Celebration", it seems like a dance piece.

"Black day" in the Piano Edit is the usual dark grotesqueness with Gore who seems to be singing at a funeral accompanied by the accordion and I don't know which other wind instrument, here at times together with the piano, and anyway this remains an extraordinary piece, thus quite appreciable. The piano then introduces the mix of the instrumental "Christmas Island" which, if I'm not mistaken, is a track written by Alan Wilder, originally a B-side of "A question of lust". I didn't quite understand what's the connection with the remixes of "Shake the disease" in the Painkiller version, which doesn't differ from the original except for a slightly more techno touch, and "It’s called a heart", also a B-side from '85, in a disco version (poor us!).

The original tracklist is therefore enriched by these special mixes at the end. The year of publication is 2004. Not bad for a record that, however, still remains much better in the '86 version, raw and unfiltered, with terrifying lyrics that showcase all the soul and compositional genius of Mr. Gore and the ever-inspired voice of Gahan. Then, if at 'Rock am Ring' (June 4, 2006), they mix chocolate with dung, it's not my fault. Do you think it's fair that at the same event where Depeche Mode (the chocolate) play, the guests are Candle of Filth (...)? Vomit vomit vomit! Salut to everyone.