Recoil, "Grain"
After years of both largely avoiding them and reducing them to a one-trick pony, I dove headfirst into the Depeche Mode chasm last week, and to the surprise of no one, least of all me, I found myself captivated. I won't expand upon that point further as it's a somewhat embarrassing one to make in the first place and I want to keep this post brief.
When I got to the end of the Mode road, I found myself itching for more and immediately pulled up each of the members' side projects, arbitrarily starting with Alan Wilder, the longest-serving non-founder, whom I think I was drawn to because "People Are People," which he seems to have had a significant hand in writing, is fantastic, as is its B-side, "In Your Memory." Sparky and perky yet nuancedly unbalanced industrial pop.
Before he joined Gahan, Gore, and Fletcher (attorneys at law), he was in bubblegummy AOR band called the Dragons, a glammy new wave outfit called Daphne & the Tenderspots, which was sort of like the Vapors blending with Sparks, and a surf-meets-reggae unit called Real to Real. A colored early career!
It's Recoil I'm allegedly highlighting today, however. Recoil is a solo project of his that began in the mid-80s and the first couple of releases, 1 + 2 and Hydrology, both of which Mute put out, are very strong. Instrumental and expansive, they're a little bit of kosmische stretches, a little bit of modern classical doodles, a little bit of tight-as-a-drum fidgety electronica. Franky, I lost interest after the first few efforts, but maybe the latter section of the catalog contains some gems I'm sleeping on.
Before he joined Gahan, Gore, and Fletcher (attorneys at law), he was in bubblegummy AOR band called the Dragons, a glammy new wave outfit called Daphne & the Tenderspots, which was sort of like the Vapors blending with Sparks, and a surf-meets-reggae unit called Real to Real. A colored early career!
It's Recoil I'm allegedly highlighting today, however. Recoil is a solo project of his that began in the mid-80s and the first couple of releases, 1 + 2 and Hydrology, both of which Mute put out, are very strong. Instrumental and expansive, they're a little bit of kosmische stretches, a little bit of modern classical doodles, a little bit of tight-as-a-drum fidgety electronica. Franky, I lost interest after the first few efforts, but maybe the latter section of the catalog contains some gems I'm sleeping on.
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