Archive for the dave gahan tag

Cph Jet: Just Can’t Get Enough

I hate "Just Can't Get Enough".*

There, I said it. It feels good to get that out there. It's not just that it's the one of the most overplayed cheesy chunks of pop I've ever had to push the play button on, it's that it's an overplayed cheesy chunk of pop from a band that has literally hundreds of other more interesting songs in their repertoire. For crying out loud, this is Depeche Mode we're talking about here, not some one-hit wonder outfit whose entire career rests on having one memorable single released in 1985 or something. We have so many other options, let's use them.

That said, when I heard this Cph Jet cover, suddenly it changed my whole opinion. Just as even the most bland food becomes delicious when battered and deep fried, I will swallow a chiptune version of practically anything. Anders Remmer replaces Dave Gahan's adolescent-sounding vocals with adolescent-sounding robots and Vince Clarke's cheesy '80s synths with cheesy '80s 8-bit video game synths. Is this awesome? Yes, yes it is.

From the exceptionally good but difficult to find Danish Depeche Mode tribute album DMDK, also containing a terrific cover of "Strangelove" by Tiger Baby; available via import on iMusik Denmark.
Anders Remmer's Wikipedia page

*Disclaimer: Opinions expressed in this post do not represent the opinions of the rest of the Atomic bloggers, probably most of the Neo staff, and definitely not Kamar, who LOVES this song, no matter how many times he's heard it.

Depeche Mode Tribute this Thursday!

Every year, we do a tribute to Depeche Mode, one of the most popular and influential electronic bands that ever was [I'd place them just under Kraftwerk]. There's hardly anything I can say about them that hasn't been said, but certainly this week we'll be playing some DM tracks that don't normally get a lot of attention, right next to plenty that do. The frustrating bit about doing these is that there's always about 5 songs that, at the end of the night, I'm kicking myself for not playing. Six hours isn't even enough time for a band who has been putting out consistently good work for 30 years.
The particularly amazing thing is how while their early stuff still holds up pretty well after all this time, they've progressed so far as to sound almost nothing like those first albums--and yet still sound like the same band. To illustrate this, I've chosen to post "Monument", from the 1982 release A Broken Frame, a new wave track so minimal it can barely be danced to, whispering of techno and covered in fantastic '80s bleepy synths. In contrast, their recent single "Wrong" is loud and in-your-face, and the synths, now joined by guitars, are darker and harsher. This version is a remix by dubstep master Caspa [who coincidentally is playing at Smartbar on the same night]. The genre-overlay is really well done, and I think it says as much about the versatility of Depeche Mode's songwriting as Caspa's production skills.
Download and dig in, we'll see you on Thursday with a whole lot more!

official website
Depeche Mode on Amazon.com