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Product details
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Track Listings
| 1. Lowly |
| 2. Zaat |
| 3. Spock |
| 4. Windup Robot |
| 5. Bendy Bass |
| 6. Single Blip |
| 7. Skip This Track |
| 8. Aftermaths |
| 9. Recycle |
| 10. Flux |
Product Description
Review
VCMG is two men with a shared history. With 100-plus hit singles between them over the last 30 years, Vince Clarke and Martin Gore had barely been in contact since the former left Depeche Mode at the end of 1981, giving Martin the opportunity to become chief songwriter for the band (and chuck radiators down stairs while wearing perv-breeks). Vince went on to Yazoo, The Assembly and most notably Erasure, earning an Ivor Novello award for his song collection in 2009. It would be fair to say that Vince has always kept himself to himself – Alison Moyet has suggested that the pair never really got to know each other during the 18 months Yazoo had together in the early 80s – but VCMG has seen him reconnecting with his past. This is a good thing, for all concerned.
Clarke first approached Gore about doing a little something over email, and having piqued Gore’s interest work began at a leisurely pace. This album was assembled entirely via file swapping – the duo only actually properly met up at Mute’s Short Circuit celebrations at The Roundhouse in 2011 – but the results show that there’s an innate thinking and nous between the pair, which happily ties their shared experiences together.
Collecting 10 tracks of minimal yet meaty European techno, SSSS excels with the likes of first-taster Spock, which pounces along in an Orbital-like manner, and the giddy Situation-esque pulse of Windup Robot’s build up. Bendy Bass is another highlight, doing exactly as it says with elastic sounds weaving about, while Single Blip constructs an array of doofs and oomphs around a – yes – single blip. The elements are all here: Vince’s knack for slight but perfectly pop melodies and Martin’s strident anthemic blasts are easily noticeable. There really is no sign of a duff moment at all.
Reuniting a couple of friends on the one hand and exciting the fans on the other, there’s no doubt SSSS is a fine piece of work – and regardless of the back-story, it’s quite amazing in its own right: an instrumental technofest that you could quite easily enjoy down the rave-up or while engaging in some housework. And that makes it mission accomplished so far as anyone with ears should be concerned. Tremendous stuff.
--Ian Wade
Find more music at the BBC This link will take you off Amazon in a new window
Product Description
Reunion of electronic pioneers Vince Clarke (Depeche Mode, Yazoo, Erasure) & Martin L. Gore (Depeche Mode)
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Customer Reviews
Most Helpful Customer Reviews
3 of 3 people found the following review helpful
Format:Audio CD
The novelty of VC and MG combining to produce a techno album was bound to get me to part with my money. The funny thing is, they didn't meet or even talk while making the album - which sounds rather like the recording of the second Yazoo album. Vince has always been a great collaborator - especially for someone who is notoriously prickly - think The Assembly, Yazoo, Erasure, that thing with Martyn Ware. But don't think about those examples too long, because this isn't like them at all. SSSS, named for the sound of hissy electronics favoured by Vince, is exactly what you want to hear at 2am in a club when you are wanting to feel the music as much as hear it. It is all 4/4 bass drums, sequencers set to stun, slow build-ups and heavy duty breaks. Martin doesn't sing. He doesn't wear a black dress (well, he might have, but it isn't on display here). It's as unlikely an album as you will buy this year, and one of the most likeable.
2 of 2 people found the following review helpful
Format:Audio CD|Amazon Verified Purchase
Improbably, this collaboration between half of Depeche Mode's 1981 lineup - the effortless popstrel Vince Clarke whose every release has been, incessant, almost oppressively cheerful and the latter, naunced king of mild bondage miserabilism Martin Gore - take a brief break from their day jobs in respectively Erasure and Depeche Mode, to explore a silent first love.
Both of them have, in their ways, explored the power of technology over the past three decades : Vince drawn always to the brighter, sunshine of analog synths, easily creating delicate structures of jauty, fast paced, and melodic pop where it always April 1984. Gore, on the other hand, gave the world such feelgood tunes as "Shake The Disease", "It's No Good", and "Enjoy The Silence", melding an immaculate production with a fetish for minor keys and chords, and vocals that try to make a disco out of an existential crisis. So... what you might expect with VCMG is an almost of literate, retro-futurist, morbid pop? No such luck.
Immaculately produced, VCMG is a dense hour of electronic exploration : the material - 10 or so pieces of instrumental motifs - created by email and from thousands of miles apart, sounds like a determined single entity. The undulating tones and rhythms could be a particularly fond return to form from a mid-range electronic outfit that makes a small living.
The pounding, slightly threatening "Lowly" begins the album : like all of this, made on old-fashioned, customised synthsets, tweaked and bent, with longstanding, elegant melody lines and immaculate rhythms, it sounds like the unholy, lovely union of two very different minds, with jaunty drums and melancholy strings, and a joy through repetition that only repeated exposure can bring.
"Spock" is utter Depeche Mode. The nearest compartor are the kind of luxuriously rich sounds they were making ten years ago. Over the course of an hour and ten tracks, there's no chance of everything being a standout - "Zaat" and "Flux" aren't the most rewarding listens of all time, but "Windup Robot", and the wonderfully titled "Skip This Track" are entertaining, rewarding diversions from the day jobs of being maudlin popstars.
Both of them have, in their ways, explored the power of technology over the past three decades : Vince drawn always to the brighter, sunshine of analog synths, easily creating delicate structures of jauty, fast paced, and melodic pop where it always April 1984. Gore, on the other hand, gave the world such feelgood tunes as "Shake The Disease", "It's No Good", and "Enjoy The Silence", melding an immaculate production with a fetish for minor keys and chords, and vocals that try to make a disco out of an existential crisis. So... what you might expect with VCMG is an almost of literate, retro-futurist, morbid pop? No such luck.
Immaculately produced, VCMG is a dense hour of electronic exploration : the material - 10 or so pieces of instrumental motifs - created by email and from thousands of miles apart, sounds like a determined single entity. The undulating tones and rhythms could be a particularly fond return to form from a mid-range electronic outfit that makes a small living.
The pounding, slightly threatening "Lowly" begins the album : like all of this, made on old-fashioned, customised synthsets, tweaked and bent, with longstanding, elegant melody lines and immaculate rhythms, it sounds like the unholy, lovely union of two very different minds, with jaunty drums and melancholy strings, and a joy through repetition that only repeated exposure can bring.
"Spock" is utter Depeche Mode. The nearest compartor are the kind of luxuriously rich sounds they were making ten years ago. Over the course of an hour and ten tracks, there's no chance of everything being a standout - "Zaat" and "Flux" aren't the most rewarding listens of all time, but "Windup Robot", and the wonderfully titled "Skip This Track" are entertaining, rewarding diversions from the day jobs of being maudlin popstars.
1 of 1 people found the following review helpful
Format:Audio CD|Amazon Verified Purchase
This album may cause a mixed reaction from fans. I have played this through several times and all of the tracks are decent enough with Spock, Single Blip and Aftermaths being my favourites. The music does lack a bit of variation but all of the tracks are quality. I find splitting the album into two halves works best. This is a polished effort with attractive artwork on the cover.
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Most Recent Customer Reviews
Fantastic! But probably not for Erasure fans
Let me be clear on this for you: I am a dance music fan and like what people refer to as "repetitive techno". Read more
Published 1 month ago by Mr. Mark R. Nolan
Electro-genius !
The collaboration of Martin gore and Vince Clarke is stunning. The evolution of the depth of electronic music makes me wonder what these two would have done together for the last... Read more
Published 1 month ago by Mel
Repetitive...but in a good way
I agree with one of the reviewers who said they yearned for some vocals on first listen (Although, I'm not sure Dave Gahan's voice would go with the music). Read more
Published 2 months ago by T. LEWIS
its good man
well all i can say is,i like it.its not something i would normally listen to.i only purchased it because it was vince clarke and martin together. Read more
Published 2 months ago by budgie
Don't bother!
When I first heard about this collaboration I could'nt wait to buy it being a huge DM and Vince Clarke fan.
I only wish now I had listened to the samples first! Read more
I only wish now I had listened to the samples first! Read more
Published 2 months ago by TP
ssss
Have had this playing in my car for 2 days .......and am totally immersed.
Martin Gore is a genius , and he could probably bang a saucepan on a brick wall for an hour and make... Read more
Martin Gore is a genius , and he could probably bang a saucepan on a brick wall for an hour and make... Read more
Published 2 months ago by Andrew Chamberlain
Two electronic pop heroes go techno
I have just listened through this album the second time and I'm enjoying it a lot! The album has a coherent sound to it, with just little hints of the two members pop groups. Read more
Published 2 months ago by A. Pozsgai
(Much) less than the sum of its parts
Martin Gore is my favourite songwriter. Vince Clarke has written many great songs as well, albeit of a generally 'poppier' nature than Gore's. Read more
Published 2 months ago by DE01
Pure Genius !!!!
What do you get when you put two Gods of electronica together - well - you get this.
I love this album, I mean truly LOVE it - and I've only heard it a few times. Read more
I love this album, I mean truly LOVE it - and I've only heard it a few times. Read more
Published 2 months ago by A. Russell
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