Things Must Change – 81-85 Depeche Mode Remake
amseiko / minimalnomad / sekret oktober / chilzenni / lekker hondje – Things Must Change 81-85 Depeche Mode Remake
This is one of those true variety-filled various artists-type of compilation cover albums – let’s check it out!
In the case of the first impression we get of this record, it traces back to amseiko’s band sekret oktober has first covered way back in 1995. Daniel found the original MIDI files buried in the archives, and they revived this song for this album, with singer minimalnomad lending her talents on “Any Second Now (Voices)” to the gateway into this record. Personally, I enjoy what I’m hearing here…it’s handled with an audibly delicate care, and yet still carries an enigmatic & engaging degree of personality shared between the music & what’s happening on the microphone. Nothing feels too overdone here, you know what I mean? A lot of covers can come out feeling overstuffed, but this collaboration between minimalnomad & sekret oktober retains the minimalist vibes of the original & stays fairly faithful to the Depeche Mode version you know and love. Nothing wrong with taking that approach – that’s pretty much guaranteed to please the existing fans out there. You can argue there’s room for a bit more experimentation and the space to add more of their own stamp on a song like “Any Second Now (Voices)” – and I might even be inclined to agree…but I felt like minimalnomad’s sweetened vocals still provided enough variation to make the difference, and even though the music was unearthed from long ago, it felt like sekret oktober was able to update this cut with a dose of colorful sound that has a subdued energy & lively spark to it.
In many ways, I think people will be highly pleased with the results of this album, especially in the spots where you’ll find minimalnomad taking on the challenge of the lead vocals. She brings something that is undeniably different to the music, which essentially switches out the signature sound of Depeche Mode’s David Gahan, with vocals that aren’t nearly as listless. Don’t get me wrong – Depeche Mode built an entire career around his sound, and it has a massive degree of appeal to it to a large fraction of the audience out there – I’m not here to argue that minimalnomad is doing what he did long ago better than he did it, I’m simply telling you that she brings a new dimension to the potential of the DM songs. “The Sun And The Rainfall” is a solid example of what she adds to the overall sound, and to me, it’s very reminiscent of the combination you’d find in tracks like “Shake The Disease” by Hooverphonic from the For The Masses cover album put out way back in 1998…it’s that kind of vibe that seamlessly blends the beauty of melody in lighter vocals when pairing it with the colder/darker aspects of the music that comes along with it. To me, it’s a method that not only works well, but it reveals a lot about the songs of Depeche Mode that the actual band themselves weren’t able to do with their own material, and kind of shows us how timeless their music truly is by exposing us to their ideas filtered through a different lens. Personally, I appreciate it. Again, I don’t expect to win an argument against fans of the originals & whatnot – but I’d tell you that amseiko & minimalnomad found a level of beauty on their cover of “The Sun And The Rainfall” that the majority of us will genuinely appreciate – they both sound great together.
You know what sounds even closer to Hooverphonic’s version of “Shake The Disease” by Depeche Mode though? The actual cover of “Shake The Disease” by amseiko & minimalnomad on this album right here! I’ll be real with ya – of the six songs that are featured on this album, this is the cut I’m the most familiar with, and it’s honestly specifically due to the fascinating way that Hooverphonic covered it back in 1998, which ended up making me a lifelong fan of the band. In this case, I knew we’d be on solid ground with this cover – I’ve enjoyed minimalnomad’s vocals throughout the early tracks on this album so far, and I’m familiar with amseiko’s past work in a previous project called TKO, which I still listen to, to this very day. So really, it wasn’t much of a surprise to me that “Shake The Disease” came out sounding as perfect as it did – both amseiko and minimalnomad clearly have high regards for the original material and they handle it with great care. The melody is fully intact, and that’s the main feature of this song – the vocals have the right combination of fascination & an audible glow we can all hear…and that’s really what I’m looking for when it comes to this particular song. I’m sure most folks would likely agree that this collaboration does sound more comparable to the Hooverphonic version than the Depeche Mode version as a result of having a female lead on the vocals, but both covers ended up being quite faithful to the original. The real bottom line for me is, they didn’t mess up one of my all-time favorite DM tunes.
“Boys Say Go” adds a vibrant energy to the set-list that was probably a little necessary by track four. I know I’d be happy to listen to a bunch of low-key atmospheric vibes all day long, but I’m not most folks when it comes to feeling that way. When it comes to the masses, they typically need a bit more of a noticeable spark and a little something upbeat to keep’em fully engaged, and in that respect, “Boys Say Go” will go a long way for this collaborative record in keeping the people listening as it approaches the halfway mark. Overall, I’d probably be inclined to tell ya that this version split between amseiko and minimalnomad is not only one of the most universally accessible tracks in this lineup, but it’s also one of the most complete tunes you’ll find in this set of songs as well. Ultimately, I felt like what this duo of talents create together on “Boys Say Go” give this track a genuine shot at being relevant today. If you listen to the original, you know the era it came from, and you can’t help but notice that it has quite a dated sound to it, even if you still love it to this very day. The refreshing spin that minimalnomad and amseiko bring to this song is practically freaking crucial in regards to the longterm survival of “Boys Say Go” and introducing it to a whole new generation of listeners. I’d also argue that they flex a bit more of their own identity here too…it speaks incredibly strongly on behalf of the excitement that amseiko can create with his music, and also for the bold & beautiful mix of dark angelic sound minimalnomad is capable of as well. To me, what you’ll hear on “Boys Say Go” is one of the biggest wins on this record.
sekret oktober returns for a second appearance on Things Must Change with minimalnomad for a cover of “Lie To Me” – and I’d likely have to lie to them, at least a little, if I was to say this track hit the mark in my personal opinion. Pulling the low-end dynamics outta this track was probably a little bit of a misstep here, because to be truthful, there’s just not a whole lot in this song to get all that excited about. That’s not on sekret oktober, that’s not on minimalnomad either – it’s really on the original songwriters in Depeche Mode. What makes this arrangement strange though, is that sekret oktober chooses to make this moment in music even more threadbare than the original was, and there’s so much risk in doing that when you’re up against a song that was already registering what was basically a flatline energy-wise. So…yeah…not really any fault in the performance here that I can hear, there’s just not a whole lot to work with in the actual material to create some kind of viable reason to return – once you’ve heard “Lie To Me,” your ears know what to expect from start to finish on that second spin by the time you’re ten seconds into repeating it, because there’s not really enough happening to generate a memorable level of diversity. That’s the real key to bringing us back time & time again…our ears are always happy to discover a fragment or piece that we haven’t heard before, or that we can appreciate from a different perspective. “Lie To Me” as it stands here, is really about as take it or leave it as music can possibly get; if you dig the vibe, you’ll be happy to spin it again I’m sure – but if you’re looking for major fireworks and dynamism, there’s a good chance you’ll feel like “Lie To Me” doesn’t quite measure up to the rest here.
I’m sure “Oberkorn (It’s A Small Town)” has gotta rank up there in the lesson known corners of the Depeche Mode catalog, but what a neat tune, and what a great choice to have included on this album! Don’t get me wrong, it’s hard to make significant comments on the minimalistic approach of a track like “Lie To Me” and then praise this record for its inclusion of “Oberkorn (It’s A Small Town),” which also moves at a glacial pace more or less – but what can I say…us critic-types are a generally fickle bunch. As objective as we try to remain, our own personal bias and what appeals to us can tend to trickle into our work – and that might be what’s happening here. sekret oktober made a very wise move in deciding to cover this song, and the reason that I think it still works even with its intensely minimalistic design, is that everything you’ll hear is authentically intriguing to our ears. To think that the original version of “Oberkorn (It’s A Small Town)” ended up being a B-side is practically criminal! You’ll get it when you hear it for yourself though – it’s pretty obvious that this wasn’t really what Depeche Mode did regularly when it comes to their overall catalog, but I gotta admit, this instrumental departure was 100% welcome to my ears. It’s unique, it’s interesting, and it’s loaded with curious sound that has you impressively on the edge of your seat considering how slowly it moves. It’s got a built-in intensity to it that works wonders, and it felt like sekret oktober fully understood how to capitalize on that…”Oberkorn (It’s A Small Town)” is like a feeling…a mood…a moment…and a vibe of its own. I’m willing to bet on listeners out there being as invested in this song as I am – it’s an experience; you can feel it stimulate your brain! It’s all a bit more sparkly in this version here, but equally mesmerizing & captivating to listen to for sure.
So let’s see here…you get your first reappearance of a song with “The Sun And The Rainfall,” which this time around features chilzenni at the helm of a remix for ya. I feel like I’m fairly onboard with this being the stronger of the two versions…personally, I really like what chilzenni brings to this mix, and it seems to put each element of the song on a more level playing field. What I really like about it perhaps even more than the track itself, is the smart placement for where it appears on this album – you can continue to drift along with the enchanting & hypnotic vibes you were just shrouded within from “Oberkorn” right beforehand, and remain comfortably on the cloud you were perched on as you listen to “The Sun And The Rainfall” in this chilzenni vs. amseiko variation. At first, I wasn’t entirely as sure about the fit for minimalnomad’s vocals as they seem pretty heavily verbed-out, which kinda makes them sit directly atop the entire track rather than have them set within the music, but eventually I felt like I came around to the sound and it seemed like a perfect fit after a couple spins. All-in-all though, I really loved getting myself lost in the dreamy fog of this one and the gentle Electro additions that chilzenni has added to it. By the time I ended up writing this review, I felt like I was pretty convinced that this was also one of the album’s most impactful cuts, achieved by some of the most delicate means when it comes to its sound.
Overall, I’d say I generally feel just as strongly towards “Any Second Now (Voices)” when filtered through the sonic perspective of chilzenni as well – this dude clearly knows what he’s doing and has a very steady hand on the studio boards. From what I understand, he’s a pretty well-known & respected Japanese Electro artist, and from what I can hear, I absolutely get why that would be the case. He’s essentially serenity incarnate – and he’s clearly got an extraordinarily gifted ear for creating music that you can genuinely feel. Much like he did with “The Sun And The Rainfall” right beforehand, he spreads out the love on “Any Second Now (Voices)” and makes everything you hear completely pillowy soft in all the right ways. As a result, I think you get an even better glimpse of the work sekret oktober put in, the stunningly angelic vocals of minimalnomad, and the spellbinding electro vibes that chilzenni is capable of combined. There’s no doubt the second half of Things Must Change is firing on all cylinders, 100%.
The real question becomes – how do I feel about the amseiko remix of “Shake The Disease,” especially considering my previous comments about how much of an affinity I have for this particular song? Well – I’ll be honest with ya…I appreciate the way that amseiko has created a very different version from the last one we heard on this album, but he’s also gone so far that we’re basically talking about one of those kind of remixes that shares a commonality in name only, and not a heck of a lot more. Sometimes I’m all for that kind of stuff…I mean, one of my favorite remix albums of all time, 26 Mixes For Cash by Aphex Twin has a whole lineup of songs that you can barely even tell have some kind of resemblance to the originals they’re based on…but that’s also not every day listening for me usually, and I wasn’t half as attached to the source material as I am in this particular instance. So take everything I say with a grain of salt when it comes to this version of “Shake The Disease” – it’s personally taking away a bit too much of what I love in the original and leaving us with a bunch of flashy DnB in its place, which I don’t mind – but we end up essentially talking about apples and oranges if we’re making comparisons here. Is it well assembled & put together with care & precision? Of course it is! It’s still amseiko. All I’m saying is that we’re now light years away from the original and the core of the melody that makes a song like “Shake The Disease” as great as it is, and merely having the one line of the main hook appear at the end can’t change our opinion on that. Does this version do some cool stuff too? Of course it does! Like I said, it’s still amseiko, and the dude is highly dedicated to his craft when it comes to the art of Electro-based music. I have no qualms with what he’s done or how he’s done it…but yeah, if you’re asking me which of the two versions I’d prefer in the context of this album, it’s the one my ears still ultimately recognize. He’s taken major liberties with the framework of “Shake The Disease,” and I happen to be very much attached to the original melody…so don’t get me wrong, it’s not my favorite, but you still might love it.
And that being said…I mean…if we’re really talkin’ about taking liberties and such…it doesn’t get more aggressive than what you’ll find lekker hondje did with the final version of “Any Second Now,” which is…absolutely too much. Don’t get it twisted y’all – you know I’m always hoping to support each and every one of your amazing ideas out there, but I’ve also got a responsibility to call things like I hear’em from my perspective and be as honest as I can with ya. lekker’s clearly a madwoman to the nth degree and happy to light up every node on the studio board in front of her as she adds in the kitchen sink. There IS a time and place for that, believe me – I wouldn’t have an Aphex Twin tattoo on my forearm if I couldn’t handle an onslaught of sound like this…but…I feel like there’s a very good chance this album would have likely been served better by cutting it shorter at eight tracks, and having these final two cuts appearing on their own as singles if they were going to be put out at all. I suppose the way I’m hearing it, is that the last two tracks take us several nautical miles away from where this journey all began, and I have to believe that’s going to be extremely tough for the average everyday listener to appreciate and/or enjoy as a result. Even if we consider these tracks to be done well, which in their defense – they are…they still threaten the listenability of the rest of the set-list by going so far overboard with the range of sound that it could potentially turn more people off than it could draw in through the diversity included at the end – make sense? I can definitely get behind the creativity and the sheer audible madness & mayhem that lekker creates, sure – all I’m saying is I’m not as convinced this was the right place for us to find that in.
Overall though, I really enjoyed this refreshed set of old Depeche Mode tunes, and I’d expect a lot of the fans of their music would be as well. Lots of great stuff to be found on Things Must Change, right up to & including the powerfully wild extremes of its audibly menacing ending, whether it belongs here or not.
Find out more about amseiko from his official Facebook page here: https://www.facebook.com/amseikomusic
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