Depeche Mode
VIOLATOR: THE 12" SINGLES
SONY
Since August 2018, Sony have been doing a solid job in releasing boxsets of Depeche Mode’s 12" singles for each album. For the previous six LPs, the boxes have come two albums at a time. Given Violator’s four singles produced 10 12"s, it’s only fair Depeche have waited a year since the Black Celebration and Music For The Masses boxsets for their 1990 masterpiece, if only to let fans save £140. Most of the remixes are by Depeche’s de-facto in-house team of François Kevorkian, Daniel Miller and Flood, joined by The Orb, The Beloved’s Jon Marsh and – on a trippy 15-minute dub excursion into Enjoy The Silence – a six-strong team including Adrian Sherwood and Bomb The Bass’ future Depeche producer Tim Simenon. The other exception is The KLF, creating one of just three of their external remixes on their low-key Trancentral mix of Policy Of Truth. Marsh’s euphoric house reworking of World In My Eyes, the brilliantly titled ‘Mode To Joy Mix’, is comfortably the best guest remix. With CD singles starting to take over by Violator, there wasn’t room for everything, even across 10 singles: four of Violator’s six B-sides could do with their regular 7" versions, as engaging as Kevorkian’s extended versions of Dangerous and Happiest Girl are. The remixes are reliable, as is the packaging, complete with etched vinyl for the third Enjoy The Silence 12". But a little more adventurousness in choosing who to overhaul the singles would have been welcome.