Depeche Mode
Remixes 81... 04

Covered by almost everyone (M. Manson, S. Pumpkins, The Cure, Rammstein), celebrated with DVD reissues of their best concerts (also because they sell well), Depeche Mode have filled the shop shelves, disorienting newcomers. Finally, the collection of remixes by Depeche has arrived, offering a wealth of choices even in the packaging! Here I am ready to review the Box set with three CDs. Also available: Single disc edition (for Hypermarkets), Two disc version, and Six disc vinyl limited box (for collectors). Let's say right away that Depeche fans and electomusic enthusiasts absolutely must have this collection. It represents twenty years of experimentation with the DNA of the band that made electronics popular more than anyone else, and the resulting mutations into various genres (Industrial, Techno, Ambient, etc.) will satisfy everyone. But let's proceed in order, listing the works that have most impressed me (for better or worse):

Disc 001:
The opening track is "Never Let Me Down Again" (DM+Dave Bascombe), definitely an extended version, but compared to the original, the surprises are few. Francois Kevorkian revamps "Policy Of Truth" (from the Violator album) with his remix dated '90, featuring a complete restyling of the rhythms following the dance trends of the time (repetitive bass lines, snare drums with tails, vocal inserts stolen here and there, etc.). Predictably "Air" is the remix by the French duo of the already syrupy "Home." Daniel Miller (the Boss of Mute) never misses a beat, the Blind Mix of the famous Strangelove (my favorite track from the Music for the Masses album) here manipulated with Rico Conning, travels fantastically!
Underworld is boring and predictable in "their" Barrel of a Gun, while Route66 (Beatmasters Mix) already anticipated in 1987 the drum fills that we would find ten years later in drum&bass!

Disc 002:
We start with a beautiful "Personal Jesus (Pump Mix)" by Francois Kevorkian, followed closely by Jon Marsh's "Old School" house ("World in my eyes"). "Get the balance right" is the previously unreleased dance assault (year '83) of Depeche, with straight bass drum and beautiful analog sounds! "Breathing in fumes" is nothing more than "Stripped" (from the Black Celebration album) remixed by Depeche themselves with producers Gareth Jones (!) and Daniel Miller. Painkiller (B-side of the single "Barrel of a Gun") is here represented by the great DJ Shadow, who gifts us with evocative downtempo atmospheres tainted with funky samples and breakbeats. Kruder & Dorfmeister add the Rhodes piano and filtered voices to "Useless," and Johnny Dollar + Portishead's work on "In your room" is also beautiful. The second disc ends with a refined Timo Maas extended Mix of the hit "Enjoy the Silence," also featuring Mike Shinoda's (Linkin Park) version promoted in TV rotation with the beautiful video clip that we all know by now.

Disc 003:
Rarities and exclusive mixes abound in the last compact. It opens with the multi-decorated sound engineer Flood with "A Question of Lust," followed by William Orbit, who reassembles a chilling "Walking In My Shoes" with a broken half-time. Also included in this collection is the famous tech-house version of "I Feel Loved" by Danny Tenaglia; staying on the same theme, we mention Club 69, who revives "It's no good" in a dance key and the techno version of "Photographic" (from the first Depeche album "Speak and Spell") mixed by Rex the Dog. Ulrich Schnauss slows down the BPM and brings us to a decidedly dreamy-apocalyptic realm with industrial echoes here and there (do we perhaps have a winner?), the track in question being the splendid ballad "Little 15." Excellent work also done by LFO (producer of Bjork), whose version of Lie To Me has a minimalist ambient feel but advances like a tribal march, with Dave Gahan's naked voice over primal and sick percussive sounds.

It is also worth noting the possibility of accessing Depeche's Secret Site by using this CD as the key, a site where you can download unreleased band Mp3s (otherwise downloadable for a fee) and other media. This collection is an example of how the remix has over time become an act of sonic experimentation, and the artists gathered here, though with different styles, certainly share in common (among themselves and with Depeche) a great attention to the musical universe (increasingly global?) that surrounds us.