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Review: It's 1990 and Depeche Mode couldn't really be riding much higher in the global music stakes. Having just released Violator, the band had finally debuted an album inside the Billboard Top 10 for the first time in their almost-decade-long history, and pretty much anyone who came into contact with the record was very quickly captivated by its sound. While definitely not a curveball, it marked an expansion of the group's existing style. Some have described it as synth-pop, others alternative rock. In many ways, it's a dance floor album, one that embraces goth and coldwave at its very core. Captured during their tour at that time, Set In Stone features landmark singles from the LP - 'Personal Jesus', of course, and 'World In My Eyes' - it also proves beyond any doubt that a Depeche Mode show is about more than simply playing the hits.

Review: Much loved doom monger emo kids Depeche Mode have always been ripe for remixing by new generations of electronic music artists and so it is that there 'My Favourite Stranger' gets a series of re-rubs here on Columbia. Tech house mainstay Boris Brejcha remixes first and elongates the grooves with mournful pads up top. The Ela Minus remix of the same tune brings some extra textured and darker moods and the best is saved till the last if you ask us. The Lond Island Sound remix is high speed and tinged with electro synth work as the moody vocals echo about the mix to trippy effect.

Review: Depeche Mode's 'Wagging Tongue' was first released in 2023 as the star number from the indelible synthpop band's comeback album and swansong, Memento Mori. Something of downtempo musical elegy, the original track is a crisp exercise in melancholy uplift, colliding the band's usual synthetic arpeggiations with grass-is-greener lyrical themes. Now, however, comes a new ten-track remix bundle, of which select remixes have been chosen for a set of limited releases on wax. Most of the artists enlisted for the job have done a stellar job, amping up the tempo to a neatly electrified 130-ish-bpm, while indulging the zeitgeist's penchant for well-rounded but beefy sonics. On this one, none other than Daniel Avery sticks out with a futureological cosmic electro take, while Hawtin Gaiser opts for knocking big-room techno, and Henning Baer cools things down with a cityscape-soaring 808 remix.

Review: Depeche Mode's Radio Transmission 2001 encapsulates the band's evolution and enduring influence on the electronic landscape. The album showcases their mastery of blending dark, brooding atmospheres with pulsating rhythms and haunting melodies. Depeche Mode's signature sound, characterised by introspective lyrics and innovative synth textures, is fully realised here in an album that, here pressed up on pink wax, contains the 'Hits Walking In My Shoes,' 'Enjoy The Silence' and many more that have more than stood the test of time.

Review: Modern day Amsterdam is a bit of an oxymoron. On the one hand, the city proudly brandishes its reputation for alternative and sub cultures, pushing back against lawmakers and their incoherent policies to adopt approaches that are more realistic and levelheaded. On the other, its a place of such rampant commercial development the local government actively discourages visitors and new hotel developments. Look closely, though, and you can still feel the spirit of what, during the latter half of the 20th Century, made this place so special. Paradiso is one of those spots. A waterside cultural venue with a history first as a church, then an illegal squat, before becoming what it is today, the walls themselves seem to pervade a sense of brave, adventurous heritage. An ideal place to catch one of the most defining bands of the 1980s in their heyday, then, here Depeche Mode deliver an astounding set in a space with the atmosphere to match.

Review: When Les Baines Douches was recorded it was a pivotal point in the history of Depeche Mode. The band were coming to the end of a hugely successful European mini tour, and arrived into a Paris alive with counter cultural energy for the final show. After the gig, Vince Clarke would reveal his intention to leave the outfit, bookending an era in their careers to date.So in many ways, what you have here is a bonafide slice of pop music history, the last hurrah of a band as they were, a show performed with a lineup that few could have imagined it would be possible to change. And what a show it was, running through early classics like 'Any Second Now', 'Tora! Tora! Tora!' and 'Just Can't Get Enough'. Heard here with all the raw and almost naive energy they were originally intended to be played with, this is certainly one for the collectors.

Review: You can always count on Depeche Mode to do things differently. Never content to play it safe despite their position as a global superstars, as the 80s turned into the 90s they collaborated with celebrated filmmaker Anton Corbijn on the music videos from their albums Music For The Masses and Violator. The first set were gathered together at Strange in 1988, with the follow-up released as Strange Too in 1990. In between the music videos for megahits like ‘Personal Jesus’ and ‘Enjoy The Silence’ were additional vignettes and incidentals, all filmed by Corbijn on his trusty Super 8, and the end results have become synonymous with the Mode’s visual aesthetic. Now both films have been gathered together in one handy Blu Ray package, digitally remastered without losing that all-important grainy finish.

Review: When Depeche Mode teamed up with Anton Corbijn to make some music videos, few could have predicted the end results. If you ever thought there’s an artful consistency to the Mode’s music videos from the late 80s and early 90s, it’s because Corbijn filmed them all on a shoestring budget on his trusty Super 8 camera. The resulting pieces were strung together as vignettes forming a larger cinematic experience which was released in two instalments - Strange and Strange Too. Originally released on VHS and Laserdisc, the films have finally been bundled together, digitally restored and presented in this DVD box set with bonus material.

Notes: The most experimental and progressive group to emerge from the British New Romantic era, Depeche Mode has enjoyed a quite astonishing career while creating some of the most remarkable music of the past 40+ years. And this is why Depeche can still fill an 80,000-capacity stadium while their so many of their early contemporaries can barely fill a nightclub at an 80's revival night. This DVD documentary celebrates the astonishing achievements of this unique band, and features a stunning collection of interviews with all the band members past and present, plus with those who have known them best, rare group footage, seldom seen photographs, news reports, location shoots and a host of other features. 'Extras' include Interactive Depeche Mode Challenge, Digital Discography and Beyond DVD section.