A few seconds into Tigerskin's remix of "In Chains", a pro forma Martin Gore song from 2009's Sounds of the Universe, there's a startling sound-- a little two-note metallic clank, off-pitch but ear-grabbing in a way the rest of the track (and most of the album) isn't. It's the opening noise of Depeche Mode's 1984 single "People Are People", or something a lot like it, and it's a reminder that the band used to be about sound as much as mood and tune and personality.
The first decade's worth of Depeche Mode songs were eminently remixable, because they almost all had sonic signatures: You could put together a terrific version of anything on, say, Some Great Reward without even using their melodies or vocals. "Personal Jesus", from 1989, got over on its glam beat and a sneering electric guitar that the band treated like the coolest new gizmo they'd ever encountered. But for the past 20 years-- and especially since Alan Wilder left in 1995-- their arrangements sound more like the work of a generic band-that-uses-electronics, and most of the remixers here don't replace them with anything particularly distinctive either.
As its title suggests, the 3xCD Remixes 2-- also available in a condensed single-disc edition-- is a sequel to another brick of a set, 2004's Remixes 81-04. That collection consisted mostly of fondly remembered mixes that had appeared on Depeche Mode's 12" singles over the years, with a few newly commissioned reworkings of old favorites. Since then, they've released two awful-ish studio albums, whose single remixes are drawn on heavily here, along with a bit of barrel-scraping for passable older stuff, like Gareth Jones' 1985 remix of "Fly on the Windscreen", and another smattering of new interpretations. There are some big names here: UNKLE, M83, Trentemøller, Dan the Automator (who sadly doesn't take on "John the Revelator"). Few of them are doing anywhere near their best work, because they generally don't have much to work with.
There's some good stuff here anyway, probably a really solid EP's worth. Röyksopp's "Puppets" reaches all the way back to a 1981 album track-- it's effectively a half-rewritten cover of the song rather than a remix proper, but they sound like they're having a blast. It's fun to hear the two ex-members of Depeche Mode each remixing a song written after his departure-- Vince Clarke does "Behind the Wheel" and Alan Wilder does another version of "In Chains". Digitalism's take on "Never Let Me Down Again" takes advantage of its one-note melody to build up a head of scalding digital distortion. And of the three mixes of "Personal Jesus" here, one is pretty good. (That would be the one by Stargate, who are big enough Depeche Mode fans that they snuck a musical quote from "Master and Servant" into Rihanna's "S&M". Their version is also one of only three tracks on these three discs to come in under the four-minute mark.) Mostly, though, this is a depressing reminder of the distance between what Depeche Mode once were and what they've become.
