#the mode project

[stjaerna]

Thanks to everyone...

who's followed this blog within the past week. Somehow there are suddenly 40 of you! :o

If you continue to like the content, please spread the word, if you'd like. <3

Hoping to get another review of sorts up tonight with any luck.

[stjaerna]

Composition of Sound/Depeche Mode - 'Iceman (Original Demo, Spring/Summer 1980)'

I’ve spent the last half day racking my brain about what would be an appropriate starting point for this project. Obviously, the masochist in me wants to dig deep down to the dirty beginnings, when Dépêche mode was still a magazine in a shop window, before Vince Clarke demanded the shift to synth, and Martin Gore and Andy Fletcher were alternating respective bands outwith college life at St Nicholas School in Southend Basildon, Essex. Dave Gahan, well, he was still a fashion-forward lad rumoured to be frequenting the Blitz and glam. Barely on the radar. The initial problem with trying to review the Depeche Mode catalogue in chronological order (down in the dregs and bottoms up) is deciphering the band’s actual incarnation. What actually constitutes the first ever Depeche Mode song? Is it the array of covers they began playing after their formation as Composition of Sound in early May of 1980? How about the few originals Clarke would inevitably pen for COS? ‘Reason Man’. ‘Addiction (Ghost of Modern Time)’. ‘Tomorrow’s Dance’. 'Ice Machine', or Gore's instrumental ‘Big Muff’. Or even the elusive but oddly popular ‘Television Set’? A bug of a synth riff that Martin would transform from the lyrics of an acoustic song written by his hippie bandmates during his Norman & the Worms years (1978-79). We haven’t even considered the exact moment Dave Gahan stepped onto the scene. Composition of Sound had played two official gigs in Basildon before he’d ever pick up a mic. (June 14, 1980, if you were wondering.) And Depeche Mode wouldn’t play a show as Depeche Mode until October 29, 1980. So what IS the first ever legitimate Depeche Mode tune? …ARGH, HOW AM I SUPPOSED TO CHOOSE?! After a few good cross-references and an overview of what I’ve found, I think we’ve got a candidate. We’ll stick to the earliest days of COS: ‘Ice Machine (Original Demo, Spring/Summer 1980)’. I pick this one because it’s a pure example of very early COS/DM collaborative effort, a distinct developing style, and a homemade attempt at music production. For one, in this demo, Fletcher can still be heard playing a driving bass line. That means the band hadn’t completely made the switch to the ‘synth train’ just yet. Additionally, it’s a Clarke track… with a touch of Mart’s musicianship and only a sliver of Gahan vocals. ‘Ice Machine’ would be released as a b-side to the band’s first ever Speak & Spell album single release ‘Dreaming of Me’ on February 20, 1981. (The single itself was recorded in December of 1980.) Ice Machine. A Mode track under the COS name, penned before Gahan, but spruced by his vocals as a treasured b-side to Speak & Spell. The tape hisses into a single vibrating note, the click of the drum machine. Its rolling melody kicks in within moments to reveal a synonymy of vocals that, in their single-channel beauty, almost sound harmonic. It’s catchy, electric, surprising, somber at its bridge, but soaring and promising. This is the earliest Depeche Mode we’ll ever know. Live bootlegs exist of the song from a Canning Bridgehouse gig as early as October 30, 1980. And none sooner. (In fact, the Bridgehouse gig is the earliest live DM bootleg you’ll probably be able to find online to date. Remarkably, uploaders of these early gigs have only started sharing parts of them on YouTube within these last few months to two years.) Anywho... don't forget to check out the accompanying video still-image that marks the tape as property of a certain ‘Mr. V J Martin’...

So begins our chronological journey into the past! I hope you enjoy it. But most of all, enjoy this tune.

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Sources:

Jonathan Miller. Stripped: The True Story of Depeche Mode. Google EBooks, 2004.

John Doran for The Quietus. 'Depeche Mode Interviewed: Universal Truths and Sounds'. 20 April 2009.

Svenner's DM Timeline

Discogs Entry: Composition of Sound / Depeche Mode - Live 80-81 (CD)

Depeche Mode Documentary. Venusnote Limited, 2006.

[stjaerna]

So I've decided that I'd like to embark on a massive Mode project. It's been a long time brewing in my brain.

Those of you that have been following this blog for a few months know that it's been a bit dead until recently. I had (and continue to have) high hopes for the kind of content I want to make/post on here. And that is, strictly: review, interview/viewing-based style commentary blurbs.

When I turned from casual fan to accidental Devotee in March of this year, I had no idea how sonically and aesthetically this band would define and influence my tastes in the months that followed. So, I'd like to continue to document that journey.

What I propose is this. A project in which I go through DM's entire back catalogue and review the thing from start to finish, from behind twenty-first century eyes. (Yes, because I am insane, just finished my masters dissertation, and am only partially employed... why do you ask?) I hope to make even more new discoveries along the way, pulling from accurate sources and citing where appropriate. It's something that will also keep my writing skills fresh.

If at any point, my readers would like to contribute to the discussion, please feel free. Stjaerna is an open forum for musical love... to be interspersed with the random awesome bout of photos, of course.

It may be a daily project. And sometimes, it may be a weekly project. In any case, a great thanks in advance for those who wish to hop along on the ride.

Let's do this.