Between the two of them, Depeche Mode founding members Martin Gore and Vince Clarke have pretty much defined several decades of crossover electro-pop. Now the pair have reunited to work on a “techno” album.
Gore recently told Billboard Magazine, “Out of the blue I got an e-mail from [Vince Clarke] just saying, ‘I’m interested in making a techno album. Are you interested in collaborating?’ This was maybe nine months, a year ago. He said, ‘No pressure, no deadlines,’ so I said, ‘OK,’ and that’s what we’ve been doing the last six months.”
Clarke was the original songwriter from DM, who produced the bands early hit, like “Just Can’t Get Enough.” He left the group to form Yazoo with singer Alison Moyet and record proto-house classics “Don’t Go” and “Situation” before partnering up with Andy Bell in Erasure. The duo dominated much of the late-’80s pop charts with hit’s like “Oh L’amour”, “Sometimes”, “Chains of Love” and “A Little Respect,” all of which hold up surprisingly well in the history of electronic music canon.
Gore in the meanwhile, picked up where Clarke left off in Depeche Mode, turning the group into an ’80s-’90s juggernaut, with more darkwave hits than we can list here.
The duo also worked with former Depeche Mode member Alan Wilder on some tracks for the new record, which Gore went on to describe as, “Something different, and we didn’t have conversations about it. It was more just like e-mails and file-sharing. It was something completely different – no vocals, all instrumental stuff.”
No title or release date for the record has been annouced. Clarke recently offered up a remix of the Gore-penned Depeche Mode classic “Behind The Wheel” which maybe offers up a look at where the two may be going musically, minus Dave Gahan’s baritone vox.
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