Depeche Mode “Synth-Pop Explosion” 2018. Bootleg release on red vinyl from Yugoslavian label Diskoton (whose releases, including this one, are banned from resale on Discogs). Live concert recordings from 1981 (Liverpool University) and a 1982 Swedish TV show “Måndagbörsen.”

Side A’s tracks plus the first track on Side B come from the Liverpool University concert on November 6th, 1981. Super-early Depeche Mode – I don’t think many people were in the audience as the applause is polite but it sounds like there are only about 50 people there. The Liverpool recordings include tracks from Depeche Mode’s first album Speak and Spell: “Photographic,” “Puppets,” “No Disco,” “Tora! Tora! Tora!” and two of my favorite DM songs ever, “New Life” and “Just Can’t Get Enough.” The first track on Side A, “Television Set,” does not appear on any official Depeche Mode release. According to the website DMLive, “Television Set” was written by a friend of Vince Clarke’s, Jason Knott who was in the band The Neatelllls, and for this reason Depeche Mode never recorded it in the studio. However the song appeared frequently in their concert set lists between 1980 and 1982; in 1981 it was their go-to opening number. (The entire Liverpool concert can be found here, it’s pretty shitty audio and visual though)

Side B’s tracks, with the exception of the first song “No Disco” which was part of the Liverpool set, come from a Swedish TV show which was aired live from the Grand Hotel in Stockholm on March 22nd, 1982. It includes renditions of “New Life” and “Just Can’t Get Enough” (yay!), plus “See You” from Depeche Mode’s second album, A Broken Frame. There’s also an interview of the band that discusses their evolution into a synth pop band, their youth and hometown of  Basildon, and their confusion over what the lyrics of “New Life” mean – Vince Clarke was no longer in DM at the time of this performance (the host of the show interviews the band in English and then promptly translates their responses into Swedish). You can see the interview and “See You” here.

The album sleeve has a couple of adorable photos of the band, and man do they look SO YOUNG, especially Dave Gahan (whose hair in the first photo is simply shellac-amazing).