His melodies for Depeche Mode bounced like brightly painted rubber balls, and the sultry longing of Yazoo’s “Only You” was impossible to escape in the early ’80s; Erasure were more of a matter of taste. The disco pop attitude and Andy Bell’s exalted singing were aimed strongly at the gay community, but hits like “Always” also convinced the rest. Now 63-year-old Vince Clarke is releasing his first solo album.
Lots of cosmic otherworldliness, dark drones, strict sequencer rhythms and an existential melancholy
It’s a modular synthesizer record that fits in very well with the beginnings of his label Mute. There’s a lot of cosmic otherworldliness, dark drones, strict sequencer rhythms and an existential melancholy. The central “The Lamentations Of Jeremiah” revolves around an old miners’ song from the 19th century, from which Clarke seeks a connection to the present. In “Blackleg”, vocal fragments from an old folk song also harmonize perfectly with dark clouds of sound from the Eurorack modular system. “Songs Of Silence” is ambient, but with a very special twist.
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