vince clarke Archives - Vinyl From The Vault

Johnny Marr “Spirit Power & Soul (Vince Clarke Remix)”

sfilzen — Tue, 26 Apr 2022 20:05:29 +0000

Johnny Marr “Spirit Power & Soul (Vince Clarke Remix)” Record Store Day 2022 limited edition release, 12″ single, pink vinyl. A perfect pairing: the ex-Smiths guitar master and the ex-Depeche Mode/Yazoo synthpop powerhouse together at last. “Spirit Power & Soul,” released at the end of August 2021, was the lead single from Marr’s latest LP Fever Dreams Pts 1-4 (2022). The track was already dance-floor ready but Clarke’s remix has brought it to another level, adding in his best 80’s dark synthpop sound and a heavier industrial-dance beat. The flipside has the lovely guitar-forward “Human,” with whispers of Marr’s signature jangle and Smiths-melancholia. “Human” is the last track on Fever Dreams Pts 1-4.

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Depeche Mode “Speak & Spell”

sfilzen — Fri, 03 Jul 2020 21:29:13 +0000

Depeche Mode “Speak & Spell” 1981. Today, July 3rd, is original DM member Vince Clarke’s 60th birthday (b. Vincent Martin, 1960). Clarke was the primary songwriter for Depeche Mode’s debut album; he left the band after its release to form Yazoo. Speak & Spell is one of my favorite DM albums, mainly for Clarke’s lighter songwriting touch (though I also really really love Depeche Mode’s later, darker material mostly penned by Martin Gore): it is the perfect snapshot of early 80′s synthpop. Pretty much one of my top DM songs leads off the album: “New Life” which went to #11 in the UK; the version that appears on Speak & Spell appears on the 7″ though I am partial to the 12″ version. “Dreaming of Me,” the lead single from the album, went to #57 in the UK though did not appear on the UK album variants (this copy is an 80′s era US release). The third and final single from the LP was “Just Can’t Get Enough” which is a total Depeche Mode classic, probably one of their best known and loved early tunes. It went to #8 and scored a chart placement in the US at #26 on the Dance Charts. I also really love “Boys Say Go!,” the slightly sinister “Nodisco” and “Photographic” (well, the rest of the album, too). Speak & Spell went to #10 in the UK and #192 in the US.

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Depeche Mode “Synth-Pop Explosion”

sfilzen — Thu, 28 Mar 2019 16:51:37 +0000

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).

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Depeche Mode “Just Can’t Get Enough”

sfilzen — Tue, 23 Oct 2018 16:19:04 +0000

Depeche Mode “Just Can’t Get Enough” b/w “Any Second Now” 1981. Written by Vince Clarke, the optimistically bright synth pop second single from Depeche Mode’s debut Speak and Spell “Just Can’t Get Enough” went to #8 in the UK and to #26 on the US dance chart. I love the song but lately was loathe to discover its use by Walmart in a commercial touting their reorder and pickup service. (I fucking hate Walmart) The B-side, “Any Second Now” is a short, swirling atmospheric synth instrumental; it appears on Speak and Spell with vocals sung by Martin Gore as “Any Second Now (Voices).”

One of my cats is doing a fairly great imitation of the 45″ cover today (he’s on my office chair so we’re sharing workspace). The other cat was shockingly not asleep and pretty irritated that I wanted to take a photo of him, too.

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Yaz (Yazoo) “Don’t Go”

sfilzen — Tue, 03 Jul 2018 19:54:47 +0000

Yaz (Yazoo) “Don’t Go” 1982. Sire Records/Mute Records. Today, July 3rd, is Vince Clarke’s birthday (b. 1960). Prolific and the master of synthpop, Clarke collaborated with Alison Moyet to form Yazoo after he left Depeche Mode after the release of DM’s debut album Speak & Spell, briefly teamed up with Eric Radcliffe in ‘83 to form The Assembly before founding Erasure in 1985.

“Don’t Go” appeared on Yazoo’s 1982 LP Upstairs at Eric’s and the single hit #3 in the UK and #1 on the US dance chart. This 12″ single features two remixes, inspirationally titled “Re-Mix” and “Re-Re-Mix.” Not a lot of difference between them (though the intros have different vibes) other than the length (4:08 and 4:20 respectively, however the label is misprinted, giving the lengths as 5:08 and 3:20). The flipside is “Winter Kills (album version),” an atmospheric, piano twinkled, blues-club sultry track sung gorgeously by Alison Moyet. It also appears on Upstairs at Eric’s.

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Depeche Mode “Just Can’t Get Enough (schizomix)”

sfilzen — Wed, 13 Jun 2018 15:34:54 +0000

Depeche Mode “Just Can’t Get Enough (schizomix)” 1981. 12″ single b/w “Any Second Now (altered),” UK version, Mute Records. The shorter single of “Just Can’t Get Enough” was the second released from UK version of Depeche Mode’s debut LP Speak and Spell; the longer schizomix on the 12″ appeared on the US album. Written by Vince Clarke and released just 2 months before he left the band, “Just Can’t Get Enough” hit #8 in the UK, #4 in Australia and #26 on the US dance chart. The B-side, “Any Second Now” is a rather dreamy synth pop instrumental which only appeared on the UK pressing of Speak and Spell and this UK 12″ release; the US single’s flipside was the track “Tora! Tora! Tora!”

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Depeche Mode promo sampler

sfilzen — Thu, 22 Feb 2018 19:06:08 +0000

Depeche Mode promo sampler of tracks from their 1981 debut Speak & Spell, 80′s synth pop at its finest. Martin Gore takes the writing lead on the instrumental, “Big Muff,” so there is a whisper of gothy industrial elements, a harbinger of Depeche Mode’s musical future. The remaining tracks are all by Vince Clarke: one of my favorites from Speak & Spell, the moodily dark “Photographic” (I use the chorus as my tagline for my photo Tumblr – “I take pictures. Photographic pictures. Bright lights. Dark room.”); “Nodisco,” its tempo belying the title’s claim; and the exhuberant “Boys Say Go!”

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Depeche Mode “New Life (Remix)”

sfilzen — Tue, 02 Jan 2018 23:34:38 +0000

Depeche Mode “New Life (Remix)” b/w “Shout! (Rio Mix)” 1981. 12″ single on Mute Records. I’m spinning exuberant Vince Clarke-era Depeche Mode for the new year: “New Life” was Depeche Mode’s second single. It hit #11 in the UK and DM performed it for their debut on Top of the Pops. The remix version on this 12″ appeared on the US release of their first full-length LP Speak & Spell while the 7″ variation was included on the UK album release. Both “New Life” and “Shout!” are brightly optimistic synth pop with plenty of vocal harmonies, a sound that Depeche Mode would evolve away from in later recordings when they turned toward a darker, more industrial vibe with Martin Gore as the primary songwriter.

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