It is hard to overstate how important a band the Pet Shop Boys are. Their contribution to British pop music deserves constant praise, from the perfection of What I Have Done To Deserve This to the sheer brilliance of So Hard, to pick two examples at random. Like most people of my era, growing up I was a huge fan and it was a time when they seemed to be in the Top 10 every week cornering the pop market with Erasure as both bands produced classic single after classic single. Pet Shop Boys have always been more than a singles band with a catalogue of genuinely brilliant albums and for years, Behaviour has been my favourite. Its' mix of nostalgia, pop and melody make it near perfect. This whole series is about electronic inspirations however, and that is what I want to look at Pet Shop Boys' second greatest album, 1988's Introspective.
The album was released on 11 October 1988 and it instantly altered any preconceptions I held about the band. Instead of the tried and tested pop formula of Please and Actually, the band put out a 6 track album with each song lasting over six minutes with every song firmly focused on the dancefloor. Each of the 4 singles released from the album were classic Pet Shop Boys' singles in their own right and each was a pop gem along the lines we had come to expect from the band. That said, one of these singles was Always On My Mind which was released some 11 months before the album came out so it's tricky to suggest that its release was truly part of the Instrospective release campaign. I'm not going to find fault with that however, as the band's version of Always On My Mind remains one of the greatest pieces of music anyone has released ever.
Anyway, back to Introspective. Other than Always On My Mind, the singles released were Domino Dancing, Left To My Own Devices and It's Alright. The first two were the only tracks written for Introspective, the remaining four consisting of two covers (Always On My Mind and It's Alright), an old b-side (I Want A Dog) and a cover of a song that the Pet Shop Boys wrote for Eighth Wonder (I'm Not Scared). They covered their own song - at least I think that's how you'd put it.
The album opens with the stunning Left To My Own Devices, a track that manages to sound like the world's biggest orchestra playing in the middle of a club and which has one of the greatest choruses of all time. From there we're straight into I Want A Dog, a tale of loneliness that is driven along by an almost acid like bass. Chris Lowe has always had one eye on the prevailing club scenes of the time and dances influences inf you want to call them that have always been prevalent in PSB's music. Much more than just a pop band you see. Track 3, or the end of side 1 in old money, is the mindblowing Domino Dancing. What does this track not have? We've got a Latin influence, perfect synth sounds, dance beats, housey piano and yet another classic chorus. In the midst of all that we have a sort of scratchy, basey breakdown that smacks the listener right in the face. Majestic.
The sound of a fairgound heralds the start of Side 2 as we swoop into I'm Not Scared. This version is so far superior to Eighth Wonder's version it's silly. The atmosphere of the track changes entirely from their version and it is a really is a wonderful thing. The penultimate song is a 9 minute version of Always On My Mind called Always On My Mind/In My House which is almost indescribably good. It twists and turns the band's 7" version adding heavy bass, ahead of their time beats, more housey elements and a mid section rap by neil that is actually fantastic. All this carries on and then suddenly builds to a euphoric climax that I defy anyone to listen to and not enjoy. Staggeringly good. Finally, continuing the house theme, we have It's Alright, a cover of a track by Sterling Void. As well as the many elements mentioned above we have a choir thrown in at the start which is no bad thing at all.
An electronic influence then? Certainly. In releasing Introspective, Pet Shop Boys tore up the pop rule book and showed that 12" remixes weren't just something for 12" singles. They made a genuinely brilliant album where innovative takes on the the prevalent club and dances scenes merged effortlessly with their trademark pop brilliance. This strange album sold 4.5 million copies worldwide which is extraordinary and a testament to just how good it is. If you haven't heard it, have a listen - you'll be impressed.
I first heard of Call To Mind when Neil at Scottish Fiction asked me to review their A Family Sketch single last year. I was instantly struck by the sheer beauty of the track which was one of the best things I heard last year and, given that 2013 was a Depeche Mode release year, that says a lot. Happily, their debut album The Winter Is White (Olive Grove Records) builds on the power of A Family Sketch, giving us of the most exciting debut albums of the year.
The album opens with A Family Sketch, meaning that you're instantly hooked. To my ears, the band's Highlands roots give this album its' atmospheric feel, much in the same way Sigur Ros' music puts you in mind of wandering around Iceland even if you haven't been there. January (You Are All I See) follows A Family Sketch and we continue on the almost ambient in parts, almost motorik in others path which is no bad thing at all. Energy//Blast, the fantastic The Wound & The Gift and Passing Drumochter round off Side 1 (yes this is a vinyl review and yes there's that Highlands influence - see?). The Wound & The Gift is a beautiful song with a piano line that sits quite far back in the mix but grabs you before you're hit with some almost My Bloody Valentine like feedback guitar as the song ends. Clever stuff
Side two opens with the almost poppy Breathe which should be a smash hit single if there's any justice. The second half of the album is more conventional perhaps that the first half but that's absolutely fine. The band aren't frightened to mix experimental with more straightforward music and both styles compliment each other perfectly. Over The Machair follows Breathe and it's another song that takes you on a journey that you won't forget. Untitled, Sightlines and the marvellous Chemotherapy round off the album and straightaway you want to get back up, turn it over and start playing it again.
This is s special album and is another example of why the Scottish music scene is in its' most vibrant state for years. More and more bands are releasing great quality work and Call To Mind are right there at the forefront. You must hear this album.
The Scottish Album of The Year (SAY) longlist has been announced. The 20 albums on the list are:
Adam Holmes and The Embers - Heirs and Graces
Adam Stafford - Imaginary Walls Collapse
Biffy Clyro - Opposites
Boards Of Canada - Tomorrow's Harvest
Camera Obscura - Desire Lines
CHVRCHES - The Bones Of What You Believe
Dunedin Consort (Dir. John Butt) - J.S. Bach: Six Brandenburg Concertos
Edwyn Collins - Understated
Frightened Rabbit - Pedestrian Verse
Hector Bizerk - Nobody Seen Nothing
Kid Canaveral - Now That You Are A Dancer
Mogwai - Les Revenants
Rick Redbeard - No Selfish Heart
RM Hubbert - Breaks And Bone
Roddy Hart & The Lonesome Fire - Roddy Heart & The Lonesome Fire
Scottish Chamber Orchestra (R Ticciati) - Berlioz: Les Nuits D'ete
Scottish National Jazz Orchestra - In The Spirit Of Duke
Steve Mason - Monkey Minds In The Devil's Time
The Pastels - Slow Summits
Young Fathers - Tape Two
The longlist will be promoted through the SAY website (click) for four weeks during which time one of the longlisted albums can be streamed each weekday. A public vote begins on 26 May for 72 hours to allow the public to choose one album to go onto the final shortlist of 10, the other nine being chosen by the judging panel.
Get listening and then get voting. It's a hugely impressive list that reflects the quality of music coming out of Scotland at the moment. Like I keep saying, we are in the midst of a great period for Scottish music and that's why it's really important to support awards like this and the music scene in general.
Call To Mind recently released their exceptional debut album The Winter Is White on Olive Grove Records (review to follow) and to celebrate that, the band held a launch party at The Glad Cafe in Shawlands, Glasgow on 12 April. Support came from two bands, the first of which was Prehistoric Friends who were new to me. They play a brand of melodic pop music that is really interesting and I thought their set was great. Highlights were the fantastic Hallucinations and the forthcoming single Bermuda Triangle which comes out on 10 May.
The next support came from one of my favourite local bands, Campfires In Winter. As well as material from the Picture of Health and White Lights ep's (available here) the band played their new single We'll Exist which will be available from 12 May. It sounded great and you must check it out. The highpoint of the set was the brilliant With A Ragged Diamond which is a song everyone must hear.
Great support acts then but the main reason we were there was to see Call To Mind and they didn't disappoint. Their music is beautifully atmospheric with, to my ears, influences ranging from Sigur Ros to Slint to Mogwai through Krautrock and beyond. As well as their at times stunning music the band were backed by films by Mark Lyken and Emma Dove which complimented the music perfectly. Opening with the outstanding A Family Sketch, the band quickly got into gear playing a set culled from the album and the Call To Mind ep. As with listening to their album, Call To Mind's music grabs you straightaway and is mesmerising in places and the gig swept along in no time at all with everyone in the audience immersed in the sound. As well as A Family Sketch, other highlights were Over The Machair, Running With Scissors and A9. If you get the chance, go and see Call To Mind.
Call To Mind, live at the Glad Cafe 12 April 2014
For more information on Call To Mind check out their website and Bandcamp page
I've been a Cure fan for years now but had never seen them live which was a source of constant frustration. I was then rather excited, to put it mildly, to head to the Albert Hall on Saturday for the Teenage Cancer Trust gig. It was a fantastic show, breathtaking in places, and it underlined just how incredible a back catalogue The Cure have. Whilst my wife and I are fans of the band, we're not quite at the level I am with Depeche Mode, so it was great to end up sitting beside Neale who helped guide us through the b-sides played in the show. It was great to chat to a Cure fan who clearly loves the band as much as the many Depeche fans I've met over the years love DM - she had some cool stories about following the band including a marathon 16 hour session standing up front at Glastonbury to see them. Impressive!
Plainsong
Anyway, to the show. I'd read the reviews of the Friday gig and couldn't quite believe that they'd played a 45 song set. Happily they matched that on Saturday and played a set that spanned their whole career. It's hard to pick highlights but if I'm forced to do so I'd have to say Pictures Of You as that was beyond brilliant. Or maybe Plainsong. Or perhaps Just Like Heaven. Or From The Edge Of The Deep Green Sea. It's too hard to pick one.
The full setlist was:
Main set: Plainsong, Prayers For Rain, A Strange Day, A Night Like This, Stop Dead, Push, Inbetween Days, 2 Late, Jupiter Crash, The End Of The World, Lovesong, Mint Car, Friday I'm In Love, Doing The Unstuck, Trust, Pictures Of You, Lullaby, Harold And Joe, The Caterpillar, The Walk, Sleep When I'm Dead, Just Like Heaven, From The Edge Of The Deep Green Sea, Want, The Hungry Ghost, Wrong Number, One Hundred Years, Disintegration
Lovesong
Encore 1: If Only Tonight We Could Sleep, Shake Dog Shake, Fascination Street, Bananafishbones, Play For Today, A Forest
A Forest
Encore 2: Catch, The Lovecats, Hot Hot Hot, Let's Go To Bed, Freakshow, Close To Me, Why Can't I Be You?
Encore 3: Boys Don't Cry, 10.15 Saturday Night, Killing An Arab
Typing that setlist makes me realise how many things I missed out in my highlights above. Pictures Of You followed by Lullaby was incredible, One Hundred Years was so powerful, A Forest was one of the greatest things I have ever seen live and Killing An Arab tore the roof off the RAH.
I had high expectations of my first Cure show but they were so far exceeded it's difficult to fully explain how incredible it was. Please tour again Robert - I will certainly be there.
I must admit that when the Tour Of The Universe ended, I wasn't sure what lay ahead for Depeche Mode. For me, the album had been a bit flat and the last leg of the tour lacked the punch and indeed a bit of the life of the early legs. I remember hearing a rumour that the last show of the tour in Dusseldorf was going to be the band's last ever show (heard that before I guess) and not being that surprised about it. Maybe, after 30 or so years filled with some of the best music and shows any band anywhere has ever produced, it was time for them to stop. As ever, the tour ended without a word of anything and like last time we got a couple of solo outings, both of which were very interesting and the Remixes 2 album which I covered previously here. Of the solo stuff which future blogs will have a peek at, Martin's VCMG project with Vince Clarke was fantastic and Dave's album with Soulsavers finally delivered a Dave solo project that I enjoyed.
Solo projects are never enough though are they? As good as they are they're simply aren't the band and so when word went around of a press conference in Paris on 23 October 2012, things started getting rather exciting. What was it going to be? Album? Tour? A new single written entirely by Fletch? Thankfully it was only two out of three of those things. The conference was broadcast online and so I took and earlier and longer lunch hour than usual in anticipation. It started off fantastically with a new song and montage video playing what we later learned was Angel (video below). Perhaps a little unobjectively I immediately loved the song. This was fast, aggressive and punchy, miles away from the mainly one paced SOTU. Exciting stuff. Obviously, the online fan base was split between proclaiming it either an act of genius or the worst thing since Alan packed in but what do you expect eh? Anyway, the press conference managed to announce nothing at all really but it was exciting to see them back
In terms of other new music we had to wait until January 2013 when the band's new single Heaven was announced and given its' world premiere on KROQ's morning show Kevin and Bean on 30 January. The album tracklist had been released prior to that (details below) and it's really rather amusing to look back at the debate the tracklist alone stirred prior to Heaven even being played. Seriously, people were going half mad trying to work out lyrics, what the songs were about and so on. We really are a rather odd bunch. Anyhow, Heaven was premiered on the 30th along with its marvellous Timothy Saccenti video (below - premiered on VEVO 1st February) and I have to say I loved it from the off. It's a track that has really grown on me over time too and it now seems to me to have an almost classic Depeche Mode feel - doomy, gloomy, atmospheric and really quite beautiful. For some reason I also consider "I stand in golden rays/Radiantly/I burn a fire of love/Over and Over" to be among some of Martin's most powerful lyrics.
So when could you get your hands on this single? Well that firmly depended on where you lived. In some, but not all, places it was available digitally on 31 January and physically on 1 February. In others, specifically Britain where I live and where the band would certainly appear to come from, it was not available until 17 March. What was the point in that? How can a label the size of Sony manage to make an utter arse of one of the world's biggest bands' first new material in four years? Seriously, how was that even permitted? Ok, Britain has long wrongly neglected Depeche but to leave us waiting for the release of the new single until 5 days before the album came out was just stupid. Alright, I could have got it from amazon.de or from the US but being a collection pedant I had to get the UK releases and of course on doing so discovered that they weren't UK releases per se but were instead EU wide ones. Another unhappy consequence of the band's move from Mute to Sony (the release strategy being the worst) was the end of the BONG tag for singles. A small thing I admit, but a really important one. Depeche would no longer have their unique reference point and that was sad.
Moan over. On 17 March (almost two months after the rest of the world. ARRRGGHH!) I was able to get my hands on a new Depeche Mode single which is always a momentous event. It was available on two cd's and very pleasingly and indeed a tick in favour of Sony a 12". CD1 (left) (catalogue number BON....oh wait 8765461572. I'm not doing these from now on) contained two tracks being Heaven and a new one called All That's Mine. The version of Heaven is the album version and All That's Mine is a track that appears on the deluxe version of the album. The song itself is written by Dave and Kurt Uenala his writing partner for Delta Machine and is a pleasant enough electronic track with a real 80's feel to some of the melodies. CD2 (right) contains 4 remixes of Heaven which in all honesty are not too bad at all and the album version which kicks off the cd. After that is the real star here which is the Owlle Remix which is perhaps not surprisingly a remix by French artist Owlle. She remixes the song in a really cool way giving it a bit more life and adding her own oohs and aahs. Track 3 is the Steps To Heaven remix which is pretty bland. It doesn't take much away, doesn't add much and doesn't really do much at all. The Blawan Remix is an interesting one adding a large Arp and what sound like Personal Jesus style drums to the mix and we end on the Matthew Dear vs Audion Vocal Mix which is ok but wasn't as good as I expected given Matthew Dear's track record. The 12" has the Owlle Remix and three alternative versions of the other remixes namely the Blawan Dub, Steps To Heaven Voxdub and Matthew Dear vs Audion Instrumental Mix all of which aren't as good as the versions on the cd. The single itself reached a staggeringly bad but wholly unsurprising number 60 in the UK. Good job Sony.
Hot on the heels of the single came the new album Delta Machine which was released on 25 March 2013. I reviewed the album from an ITunes stream (here) and overall my opinion hasn't changed that much in the intervening 12 months. The album was available on standard cd with 13 tracks, deluxe hardback book style cd with an additional 4 tracks and a rather lovely double vinyl that came with all 17 tracks. The tracklist for the main release is: Welcome To My World (brilliant start to the album), Angel, Heaven, Secret To The End (a Dave written track and a real cracker), My Little Universe (love this - Martin goes VCMG. Sort of VCMGDM), Slow (nice), Broken (Dave track 2 and the best Dave track here. Really should have been a single.), The Child Inside (Martin vocal - odd lyrics), Soft Touch/Raw Nerve (a b-side at best), Should Be
Higher, Alone (a true Depeche Mode classic that was amazingly ignored for the live shows), Soothe My Soul and Goodbye (a great end to the album). It really is an excellent album which whilst not without its flaws is much better than I had hoped it would be. The additional tracks are interesting but none really scream out as being shocking omissions from the album unlike with the SOTU additional tracks. First up is Long Time Lie which is a Dave/Martin co-write with music by Martin and lyrics by Dave. It's good and is a little Kraftwerk in places, has a Pink Floyd like guitar solo and is generally decent. Happens All The Time is next and again is Dave track. It's fine nothing more. Always is the best of the four extra tracks here. It's a Martin sung song and is for me better than The Child Inside and could well have appeared on the main album. Finally, we have All That's Mine. Overall, Delta Machine is a real pleasure and if it does turn out to be the band's last album then they've ended on a high.
The next single from the album was released with the usual and by now inevitable UK release cock up on 6 May 2013 and that single was the fanbase dividing Soothe My Soul. It's a glam rock stomper of a track that seems to echo Personal Jesus in many respects but that probably pays it too high a compliment as it's not in that song's league. It's goodish, worked when I was jumping around listening to it in Munich's Olympic Stadium but overall it's not that memorable. The lyrics are a bit creepy too and there's no need for the use of "junkie" as it's a crap and cheap rhyme. The song crashed into the UK charts at 88 and dropped after that and the video by Warren Fu is a reasonable one especially by recent standards (see below).
The single was available on three formats again. CD1 (right) was a two track affair featuring the radio edit of Soothe My Soul and the very enjoyable Gesaffelstein Remix of Goodbye. How excellent to see an album track remix as a b-side. I always enjoy that as it's a real treat - like when the Metal Mix of Something To Do
appeared on the limited edition 12" of Shake The Disease. CD2 (left) featured 6 remixes of varying degrees of quality: Steve Angello vs Jacques Le Cont remix (ok), Tom Furse The Horrors Remix (ok again), Billy F Gibbons and Joe Hardy Remix (yes THAT Billy Gibbons from ZZ Top - an odd mix but passable), Joris Delacroix Remix (pointless), Black Asteriod Remix (A great remix - hooray for that!) and Gregor Tresher Soothed Remix (I've just finished listening to it and have already forgotten it).
The 12" (same art as CD1) had the Steve Angello vs Jacques Le Cont remix and three other remixes being the Matador Remix (ok), Destructo Remix (again ok) and the Gregor Tresher Remix which seems to bear a strong resemblance to his Soothed Remix from CD2. Not the most essential set of remixes you'll ever find.
The final single from Delta Machine was Should Be Higher one of Dave's three tracks from the album. I like the song but for me it's the weakest of Dave's tracks this time round. It's no stinker like I Want It All but a song like Broken could well have been a hit which you would think would have been something the band and label might have been interested in. The single came out on 11 October 2013 and was much more of a success than Soothe My Soul by reaching number 81 in the UK. There's no sarcasm font so you'll have to imply the sarcasm when you read that sentence. The undoubted highlight of this release was Anton's video (below) which was made from the summer live shows in Berlin, Leipzig and Munich. It shows how impressive the stage set up was generally and how bloody marvellous the film and lights for this song were. More about the live shows in a bit. Watch the video and see how brilliant Depeche Mode are.
Format wise we once again had the 2 CD and 12" collection all of which were stuffed full of remixes that with one exception were shoddy shite. I really do wonder if the band bothered to listen to these remixes at all before approving them. At least they were involved with the likes of It's Called A Heart (Slow Mix) or The Meaning of Love (Fairly Odd Mix) - it's worse in my opinion that they trot out releases full of crap like these when they have no direct input to them at all. I know that I don't HAVE to buy them but the thing is I and many other people DO buy them because we enjoy collecting Depeche Mode releases no matter how much Sony make a balls of actually releasing them. I'd at least like to have the option of considering listening to a release for a second time rather than playing it once and hiding it away so I never have to hear it again. There can be fingers pointed at the Delta Machine project for the shoddy release plan to the lack of a 5.1 version of the album (not a complaint of mine but many feel pissed off about it) and that is a real shame because the album is great and the tour was fantastic. Yeah ok these may be the gripes of hardcore fans as opposed to causal ones and it is the casual fans who fill more seats in stadia than hardcore ones but some consideration of the Black Swarm might not go amiss.
Anwway, CD1 (above right) had the Radio Mix of Should Be Higher and the Little Vampire Remix Single edit of the song. CD2 (below) contains the radio mix, two pointlessly crap remixes, possibly the worst remix ever and one good one. The good one is the MAPS remix which is really enjoyable. The pointlessly crap ones are the Jim Sclavunos From Ginderman Remix and the Little Vampire Remix. Finally the Jim Jones Revue remix is easily
the most dreadful Depeche Mode remix ever. It sounds like a drunk guy took a cd of the song to the pub and played it whilst walking all over a piano and recording the resulting "music" on his phone. Remarkably crap. Hilariously enough the 12" (above) tops this horror show with six mixes that I presume were recorded for a joke. Either that or the 12" was mispressed and instead we were given six songs
gs by a drunk guy trying to make what he mistakenly thought was techno music. The mixes are all uniformly appalling and don't merit individual comment. They are: Truss Remix, MPIA3 Definition, Koen Groenveveld Massive Remix, Pangaea dub Remix, Uberzone Remix and DJMREX Remix. Avoid them all for ever.
So they were the releases. The band embarked on a mammoth 106 date tour and I was lucky enough to go to the shows at the O2, Munich, Belfast, Dublin and Glasgow. The tour's first leg in Europe was probably the highlight for most as the band regularly played 23 song sets which were then trimmed to 19 or so for the remaining US and Europe indoor legs. It was nice to see the band mixing it up a bit with remix versions of A Pain That I'm Used To and Halo (beautiful) and on the first leg at least it was nice to see so many Delta Machine songs get an airing. As ever the latter part of the tour became pretty similar show to show and was livened up only by Martin's solo slots the highlight of which for me at least was his singing But Not Tonight which moved me to Guinness assisted tears in Dublin. Rather than go on about the tour here I'll cheekily refer you to my own tour blog which can be found here
And that was Delta Machine. It's funny finishing this off as that brings me bang up to date with my Depeche Mode album blogs. Let's hope there's another one in the future. Finally a few thank yous:
Thanks to depechemode.com , depeche-mode.com and depmod.com for letting me steal facts and pictures
Thanks to Glen at Breathing In Fumes for bringing Depeche music to the podcast masses
Thanks to everyone over the last 12 months thanks for getting involved on my and the blog's Twitter and Facebook pages ( @davidjmcelroy@almostprdalmost and this blog's Facebook page
and finally thanks to you whoever you are for reading this. Since I started I've been blown away by the reception this blog has had and it makes me feel so happy that you like it. The end of the tour doesn't mean that the Depeche blogging stops so bear with me as there will be a few interesting things coming in the near future.
One of my favourite blogs is Documentary Evidence which is a blog all about Mute Records and will I'm sure be of great interest to you of you're reading my efforts. Mat Smith who runs the blog must be the biggest Mute fan out there other than Daniel Miller and you really must have a look at his work.
Rather brilliantly Mat has managed to put together a 22 track double compilation download called Mute Response which showcases a whole host of artists all of who have been influenced by Mute's roster over the years. It's far from a selection of bands influenced only by say Depeche Mode or Erasure; instead and pleasingly the compilation displays influences from almost any Mute band you can think of. What makes the project more interesting is that all the tracks bar one (MO75's instrumental cover of Depeche's See You) are original works. There are some heavyweight names involved too including Gareth Jones (which is a real coup for Mat), Vic Twenty and Motor's Oly Grasset in his D-R-U-N-K guise. Blog pals Analog Angel pop up too with their track The Temple.
A full press release with artist biographies can be found here and the download is available on the Nominal Musics bandcamp page: Part 1 and Part 2 . Both will set you back £3 so there is no excuse to miss out
For all your Mute needs follow Documentary Evidence on Twitter @DocEvidence and on Facebook
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