Depeche Mode have always been at the forefront of the remix game, historically lining up a who’s who of dance music producers to rework their electronic pop into lots of interesting shapes and sizes, occasionally to devastatingly brilliant effect. This limited edition, stunningly packaged gatefold double-pack was released to coincide with the band’s latest Best Of, Vol. 1 collection, bearing similar cover art and reworkings of tracks from the collection. While the promo CD version of this release contained eight tracks—including Ricardo Villalobos’ stunning take on “The Sinner In Me”—the actual commercial release only includes four. One can assume that when Best Of, Vol. 2 eventually surfaces, those remaining four mixes will be given a similar release treatment, especially considering that the Villalobos mix is already widely bootlegged on vinyl and changing hands for ludicrous amounts on eBay.

As far as what is on offer here, while nothing is as downright fantastical as Villalobos’ take, there is plenty to excite Mode fans and DJs alike. Boys Noize take on “Personal Jesus” and wisely maintain the pulpit stomping feel of the original while adding an extended noise/loop intro and throbbing analog synth riffs to replace the original’s guitars. Digitalism’s take on “Never Let Me Down Again” is a crunching analog affair that bears more resemblance to Mute labelmates Nitzer Ebb than the cyclical, driving original. Oliver Huntemann and Stephan Bodzin’s dub version of “Everything Counts” is a floor filler in the making, fusing key melodic phrases of the original into an updated tech-house template, while Underground Resistance’s DJ 3000 transforms “People Are People” into a latin-infused monster in the aggressive, relentless UR techno style. With the limited nature and collector-targeted packaging on this release, it may not be aimed at DJs who are just going to beat the hell out of it in their crates, but if you can get over the price tag (and find a copy!), there’s plenty here to spice up a set of any style, presuming of course that vocals don’t bother you.

MUTE / L12 BONG 39
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[Todd Hutlock]