Remixes 81-04 [3-CD Set] [Limited] (CD - 2004)

Personnel: Allison Goldfrapp (vocals).

Additional personnel: Allison Goldfrapp (background vocals).

Audio Mixers: Daniel Miller; Depeche Mode; Gareth Jones ; Norscq; Mark "Spike" Stent.

Audio Remixers: Stephane "Alf" Briat; Club 69; DJ Shadow; Daniel Miller; Danny Tenaglia; Dave Bascombe; Dave Clarke ; Johnny Dollar ; Dennis Mitchell ; Depeche Mode; Dominique Brethes; Eric Radcliffe; Flood; Gareth Jones ; George Holt; Goldfrapp; Alan Gregorie; François Kevorkian; Doug Hart; Joshua Tobias; Danny Briottet; Jack Dangers; Paul Freegard; Brandon Abeln; John Fryer; Adrian Sherwood; Jon Marsh; Air; Kruder & Dorfmeister; LFO; Alan Moulder; Martin Buttrich; Mike Shinoda; Peter Kruder; Peter Rauhofer; Portishead; Ray Carroll; Renegade Soundwave; Richard Dorfmeister; Rico Conning; Robin Hancock; Speedy J; The Beatmasters; Timo Maas; Troy Staton; Underworld; Ulrich Schnauss; William Orbit; Rex the Dog; Chamber.

Liner Note Author: Paul Morley.

Since their emergence in the early 1980s, Depeche Mode has made the remix an integral part of their art. Their remix catalogue, in fact, outweighs their studio releases by a significant margin, and knowing where to begin sifting through the towering stack of extended singles can prove tricky. Fortunately, REMIXES 81-04 offers a Reader's Digest version of the band's remixes, boiling down the best from Mute's three-disc set of the same name, and providing casual fans with a manageable starting point. REMIXES 81-04 acts, on one hand, as a sampler of the band's remix history, but also includes new mixes by contemporary studio wizards.

While not comprehensive, REMIXES 81-04 is outstanding nonetheless, highlighting the group's club-friendly, industrial-tinged dance beats while leaving room for their brooding melodic pop. The oldest mix, Daniel Miller's "Just Can't Get Enough" (1981), with its Kraftwerk-inspired electro-boogie, bears its age but is still compelling. Highlights include Kruder & Dorfmeister's acid-lounge treatment of "Useless," Air's lush re-invention of "Home," and Dave Bascombe's work on "Personal Jesus," which deepens the song's throbbing, hard-driving groove. In all, the album offers a fine cross-section of Depeche Mode's remarkable talent for invention and reinvention.

There was a time when you could walk into your average record store and find the singles section by spotting the big block of black rows. These rows signaled the whereabouts of the Ds and tended to eat up a disproportionate space of the singles section. In 2004, the Mute label condensed all of these releases into Remixes 81-04, which itself was ironically (or fittingly) presented in multiple versions. This particular version is a triple-disc set that attempts to function as a representative sampling of Depeche Mode's innumerable remixes. It does an admirable job, making a point to highlight glorified extended versions and radical reworkings alike. François Kevorkian, for instance, uses his invaluable understanding of the inner workings of both disco and dub to extend and sensitively tweak "Personal Jesus" for the dancefloor, transforming it into something that he would likely spin while DJing. Air, however, alter "Home" to the point where it sounds like one of their own moody, downcast productions -- Martin Gore plays guest instead of host. One of the most thrilling remixes shows no respect to the source material; Adrian Sherwood's decimation of "People Are People," from 1984, is a succession of jackhammering beats, agitated noise fragments, bizarre vocal interjections. In order to entice hardcore fans who already have the old remixes on the original single releases (or the six exhaustive box sets), a handful of new remixes were commissioned. Most of these appear in the latter half of the third disc, and at least half deserve to be in the company of the better-known reshapes. "Clean" is turned into a bristly acid gallop by Colder, and the new rhythm winds up coming close to mirroring "Personal Jesus." Rex the Dog reaches all the way back to "Photographic," providing layer upon layer of bursting synth. Ironically (or fittingly), Paul Morley -- who, as one of the tricksters behind the ZTT label (Frankie Goes to Hollywood, Propaganda), came up with the idea that you could never have a track remixed too many times -- pens the liner notes. ~ Andy Kellman minimize