Next month Depeche Mode will release Violator: The 12″ Singles, the seventh box set in the ongoing series which will showcases the remixes and B-sides across the four UK singles pulled from their 1990 album.
Pioneering English band Depeche Mode took the underground electronic club sounds of the early '80s and expanded them to stadium-sized levels within a decade, becoming one of the best-selling international groups in the process. One of the first acts to establish a musical identity based completely around the use of synthesizers, they debuted with a bouncy electro-pop spirit which gradually developed into a darker, more dramatic synth-rock style that ultimately positioned them as one of the most quintessential alternative bands of their era. Earning a modest European following with early releases like 1981's Speak & Spell and 1983's Construction Time Again, they made their U.S. breakthrough in 1984 with their platinum-certified fourth LP, Some Great Reward…
There was a time when you could walk into your average record store and find the singles section by spotting the big block of black rows. These rows signaled the whereabouts of the Ds and tended to eat up a disproportionate space of the singles section. In 2004, the Mute label condensed all of these releases into Remixes 81-04, which itself was ironically (or fittingly) presented in multiple versions. This particular version is a triple-disc set that attempts to function as a representative sampling of Depeche Mode's innumerable remixes. It does an admirable job, making a point to highlight glorified extended versions and radical reworkings alike.
Depeche Mode are an English electronic music band formed in Basildon in 1980. The group consists of a trio of Dave Gahan (lead vocals and co-songwriting), Martin Gore (keyboards, guitar, co-lead vocals and main songwriting) and Andy Fletcher (keyboards)…
Collecting nearly four decades of material in one stylish package, Depeche Mode delivers their most comprehensive studio collection to date with the MODE box set. A whopping 18 discs' worth of music, MODE charts the band's evolution from their debut studio recording (the pulsing synth-pop "Photographic" from the 1981 Some Bizzare Album compilation) all the way to an electronic-washed cover of David Bowie's "Heroes" recorded live during their Spirit era…