Since 1989, in and around writing the bulk of the songs recorded by Depeche Mode, Martin Gore has been slowly building a solo discography. It’s a humble side hustle comprising cover versions or, as on MG, modular-synth instrumentals, some of which originated as demos for his band’s 2013 album Delta Machine. But with Gore having no one to please but himself, he’s free to make weirder and more dynamic sounds than he would dare with the day job.
The Third Chimpanzee is his darkest—and strongest—solo work yet. The five instrumentals, all of them named after different primates, have the overdriven sting of vintage industrial, with bone-shuddering bass and the nastiest synth eruptions that he has elicited since Depeche Mode’s 1997 album Ultra. The mood is feral and erotic yet curiously comfortable, as if Gore discovered his old bondage gear in the back of a closet and found that it still fits.
Gore establishes a seamy atmosphere in the EP’s first seconds. Opening track “Howler” kicks off with a shredded bass pulse and metallic groans that gradually mesh with assorted blips to build a lumbering rhythm. By the time the main melody’s blurry, four-note shuffle kicks in, it feels like a gratifying release.
Other tracks are even more agitated. “Mandrill” stomps with an ugly sensuality evocative of former Depeche Mode tourmates Nitzer Ebb, while “Capuchin” slowly rolls with a John Carpenter-like tension. The best is “Vervet,” eight and a half minutes that glisten and creak like skintight latex. Various glassy melodies and countermelodies wind around a 4/4 thump, growing in size and intensity as the song rumbles steadily ahead.
What Chimpanzee could use is simply more music. The EP works well as a compact statement, and even in its short form it’s more fulfilling and inspired than any of the last half-dozen lengthy Depeche Mode albums. But it feels incomplete. The way “Vervet” continues to build suggests an even more explosive track to follow. Instead, Gore circles back to the beginning, reprising two minutes of “Howler”’s melody and then ending the EP there. Maybe these five tracks were all that he had in him this time around; perhaps he’s got more music ready but is parceling it out in small doses. Whatever the case, on The Third Chimpanzee Gore sounds refreshingly inspired.
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