In the Brave New World of the internet, things are very different than they used to be. De/Vision has apparently fully embraced the kickstarter patron funded model of releasing albums (and then, of course, they continue to sell them once they're released via iTunes and Amazon and stuff like that.) Because of this, they need to issue a fair number of teasers and other hooks that encourage potential patrons to take the plunge.
For the "song" I'm going to feature today, I'm doing something unusual, then—I'm linking to (well, actually embedding) the soundcloud file which is the instrumental teaser for their new album. It's not named yet, as near as I can tell, so I'm using the symbols on the cover as the de facto name of the album "plus equivalent".
Showing posts with label De/Vision. Show all posts
Showing posts with label De/Vision. Show all posts
Friday, January 29, 2016
Wednesday, February 18, 2015
Plastic Heart by De/Vision
I'm probably a little too circumspect in describing how much I like De/Vision material. I admit that my prior posts on them seem a bit ambivalent. De/Vision didn't really get consistently good until their fourth album, and I do have to admit that there's a lot of filler in all but two of their albums (Monosex and Popgefahr) but since they have twenty albums available (if you count remix albums, that is--if not, you've still got 14 or so) there is a lot of really good material out there. A casual glance at the audio files on my memory card on my Android will indicate that other than Depeche Mode tracks, I have more De/Vision than any other single artist. Probably by quite a long shot, in fact (although Erasure, Mesh, Duran Duran, Pet Shop Boys, and several others have a pretty respectable number of tracks too.) Some of their tracks are among my favorite synthpop tracks--80s or otherwise--that I turn to over and over again, and have done so for years.
Part of this is the collection of stunningly fabulous remixes of De/Vision songs that I have, though, I should admit. Not only do they have singles with remixes (like anyone else) but they also did something that was somewhat unprecedented, and which I can't remember ever seeing anywhere else. They took 2010's Popgefahr, as I mentioned above, already tied for best of their albums ever, with essentially no real filler tracks, and opened up a remix contest. The intent was that they'd release an all new Popgefahr remixed, with all ten tracks, in order, remixed by an outside source. In point of fact, they did considerably more. They released a double-CD with all ten songs remixed twice. They then put out another release for the North American market, also a double CD, but with all new remixes that are not the same as the European remixes (with a small number of exceptions, which are duplicated.) Because out of 40 remixes, only three of them are repeats (for a total number of unique remixes of 37) you really should, if you like De/Vision remixes, track down both double-CD releases. Neither the US nor the European release is qualitatively better than the other (both contain some of my favorite versions, as a matter of fact) you're missing out on great material if you don't get both of them.
Then they went and released yet another limited edition remix album with ten completely different remixes of all of the same songs. Counting the original, that means that there are six versions of the Popgefahr album, and with very few exceptions, all of the tracks are unique. On top of this, the album did also spawn two CD singles, both of which have at least some other remixes from the album other than those released on the remix album. This remix frenzy is really quite unprecedented, and it is fun to see it, actually. It also contributes greatly to the amount of De/Vision sound files that I have on my phone. I probably have almost as many Popgefahr tracks, in one version or another, as I do all of the other De/Vision tracks put together (on my phone that is. I actually have all of their albums now, so far, and many of their singles.) This is, in part, due to the extremely high quality of the songs themselves, but also due to the extremely high quality of many of the remixes.
Sadly, one of my favorite of the tracks, "Twisted Story" only has three remixes, one by Vasyl Tkach and one by Rob Dust. These two tracks are repeated on both the German and US version of the remix album (the limited edition 3.0 mix has a third remix) and both of them are also on the "Twisted Story" CD single. I would have expected to see more, and given that it was one of my absolute favorite tracks on the original CD, I'm disappointed not to see it out there.
However, one of my other favorite tracks, "Plastic Heart" has all unique remixes, and some fan remixes of nearly equal quality abound on youtube and elsewhere. I, in fact, have nine versions on my phone, and I'm aware of at least a couple other bootlegs out there here and there.
In fact, I'm going to specifically highlight one of these bootlegs today, but I have to reiterate; this Popgefahr stuff is really good. Tons of good tracks, tons of good remixes. I don't love every single remix, of course (a few are totally not my style) but I really do like most of them. You can buy everything except the US version as a Popgefahr Collection 4-cd from Amazon for less than $40--it includes the two German remix albums, the 3.0 remix album and the original. You can also buy the US remix albums as an mp3 download (or CD) fairly easily too. For about $50, you can get six albums with better than 70% (in my opinion) of the tracks being incredibly excellent. That leaves, if you're somewhat math impaired, only about three versions of any song per album that I could kind of take or leave, or otherwise don't like. That's an extremely good ratio; better than almost any other album I could name across any genre.
Part of this is the collection of stunningly fabulous remixes of De/Vision songs that I have, though, I should admit. Not only do they have singles with remixes (like anyone else) but they also did something that was somewhat unprecedented, and which I can't remember ever seeing anywhere else. They took 2010's Popgefahr, as I mentioned above, already tied for best of their albums ever, with essentially no real filler tracks, and opened up a remix contest. The intent was that they'd release an all new Popgefahr remixed, with all ten tracks, in order, remixed by an outside source. In point of fact, they did considerably more. They released a double-CD with all ten songs remixed twice. They then put out another release for the North American market, also a double CD, but with all new remixes that are not the same as the European remixes (with a small number of exceptions, which are duplicated.) Because out of 40 remixes, only three of them are repeats (for a total number of unique remixes of 37) you really should, if you like De/Vision remixes, track down both double-CD releases. Neither the US nor the European release is qualitatively better than the other (both contain some of my favorite versions, as a matter of fact) you're missing out on great material if you don't get both of them.
Then they went and released yet another limited edition remix album with ten completely different remixes of all of the same songs. Counting the original, that means that there are six versions of the Popgefahr album, and with very few exceptions, all of the tracks are unique. On top of this, the album did also spawn two CD singles, both of which have at least some other remixes from the album other than those released on the remix album. This remix frenzy is really quite unprecedented, and it is fun to see it, actually. It also contributes greatly to the amount of De/Vision sound files that I have on my phone. I probably have almost as many Popgefahr tracks, in one version or another, as I do all of the other De/Vision tracks put together (on my phone that is. I actually have all of their albums now, so far, and many of their singles.) This is, in part, due to the extremely high quality of the songs themselves, but also due to the extremely high quality of many of the remixes.
Sadly, one of my favorite of the tracks, "Twisted Story" only has three remixes, one by Vasyl Tkach and one by Rob Dust. These two tracks are repeated on both the German and US version of the remix album (the limited edition 3.0 mix has a third remix) and both of them are also on the "Twisted Story" CD single. I would have expected to see more, and given that it was one of my absolute favorite tracks on the original CD, I'm disappointed not to see it out there.
However, one of my other favorite tracks, "Plastic Heart" has all unique remixes, and some fan remixes of nearly equal quality abound on youtube and elsewhere. I, in fact, have nine versions on my phone, and I'm aware of at least a couple other bootlegs out there here and there.
In fact, I'm going to specifically highlight one of these bootlegs today, but I have to reiterate; this Popgefahr stuff is really good. Tons of good tracks, tons of good remixes. I don't love every single remix, of course (a few are totally not my style) but I really do like most of them. You can buy everything except the US version as a Popgefahr Collection 4-cd from Amazon for less than $40--it includes the two German remix albums, the 3.0 remix album and the original. You can also buy the US remix albums as an mp3 download (or CD) fairly easily too. For about $50, you can get six albums with better than 70% (in my opinion) of the tracks being incredibly excellent. That leaves, if you're somewhat math impaired, only about three versions of any song per album that I could kind of take or leave, or otherwise don't like. That's an extremely good ratio; better than almost any other album I could name across any genre.
Thursday, February 14, 2013
Hear Me Calling by De/Vision
In the mid-90s, synthpop was forced deep underground, but the advent of the Internet meant that it could keep itself alive in the ICU for a time; until the internet actually completely fragmented the traditional music distribution channels and opened the market up for all kinds of niche tastes. Nowadays, finding good electronic music of all kinds of varieties--synthpop, futurepop, EBM, electro, and many, many others is something we take for granted, but during much of the 90s, finding stuff on synthpop meant following the e-mail newsletter and discussion list of Todd Durant of A Different Drum. In fact, much of my first introduction to the label bands, and other bands associated with the scene in those days, was from the samplers and collections put out by A Different Drum. The Mix, Rinse and Spin series, which had two entries (the second was a double CD) introduced me to De/Vision, which got a lot of chatter as an "important" player in the scene during the 90s (and beyond, although after the 90s, I didn't feel it was as important to follow the scene, since it was growing too fast to keep up with.) The first volume had a longer remix of "Try to Forget", one of the band's earliest hits (in a relative sense, of course--they released it during the height of the synthpop crash. Too bad; they were already formed; if they'd managed to release it in 1988, when they first wrote it, we could be talking about it in the same breath as Camouflage's "The Great Commandment" as an example of German synthpop that was heavily influenced by Depeche Mode.) The second volume had a number of songs, including three remixes of the song "Hear Me Calling", which remains one of my favorite De/Vision tracks today.
Eventually I got a lot of De/Vision material--most of it, except for many of the remixes, actually--but it took me a while. Not that I didn't like all of those songs, but because I got Zehn, which billed itself as a "greatest hits" kind of CD up through the late 90s. And frankly, if it was the greatest hits, then it scared me to listen to the non-hits. Eventually, I also got Monosex, which was released the same year, and it's excellent. After that, I started collecting De/Vision more carefully--like I said, I eventually ended up with the entire album collection (including Zehn and Remixed, which are obviously compilation albums.) I just picked up their newest album, Rockets & Swords, which prompted me to create mp3 CDs of the entire collection (in order) so I could throw it in the car and listen to their body of work in order. I couldn't fit everything I had on a single CD, and in fact, I couldn't fit it on two CDs without either splitting one of the albums in half, or omitting about half a dozen remixes. I opted for the latter.
In the car this morning on the way in, I finished the first CD, which goes through the Two album, and popped in the second one, which starts off with Remixed. Doing it this way brought to mind the fact that it really took De/Vision a while to get rolling with good material, and it's a big part of the reason Zehn didn't immediately impress me much--it's mostly made up of early material.
Their debut album, World Without End has a total of three good songs (which admittedly, are quite good) and the rest are pretty forgetable. Unversed in Love is even worse--I think none of the tracks on it are as good as the three stand-outs from the prior album (although admittedly some are better than the remainder, at least.) Then De/Vision released Antiquity which was a compilation of sorts of some songs that were hanging around but not put on either of the other two albums, presumably because they weren't even as good as the mediocre, forgettable tracks that made up the bulk of the releases to date. So, it really isn't until the fourth release, Fairyland, that we get a De/Vision release that's genuinely good, with several good tracks, and with non-stand-out tracks that are still respectable. Zehn gives us the three good tracks from the freshman effort (including some great remixes of them as well) and then a smattering of songs from either Fairyland, Unversed in Love, or unreleased tracks that must have been b-sides or something.
Then, finally, we get to Monosex which was the best De/Vision release to date by a long shot. Frankly, I wonder if maybe it isn't still the best De/Vision album, although most of the albums since have also been quite good. The possible exception here is Void, which followed Monosex. I actually think it's not bad, but I remember all kinds of bitter, hyperbolic, and melodramatic responses from the fans who felt betrayed by it, calling it "not even a synthpop album; it's a rock album" as if that were some kind of pejorative (or as if that were some kind of true; neither of which is the case.)
Sadly, for the Remixed CD, producer José Alvarez-Brill, who despite his name is a German, mostly took material from the same period as Zehn. I think what he did with it was better, but I still would have preferred to see remixes of newer material. Some of that has since come out too.
Browsing through their collection on Amazon, you get a weird mix of readily available and then... not. You can find almost everything, but a lot of it is collectible, imported CDs and sells at prohibitively high prices. Other stuff is available for mp3 download. Which seems to be which doesn't always make a lot of sense. There's also a fair bit of collected stuff; you can end up with quite a few repeat tracks if you're a real completist. I've even got a lot, and I'm not a completist.
I would recommend skipping entirely World Without End, Unversed in Love and Antiquity. Almost anything that's any good on those CDs are already on Zehn, plus if you get the CD version of Zehn (instead of the mp3 version) you get awesome remixes of the three freshman songs. If you do like remixes, make sure and get the Limited version of Remixed which comes with a second CD of remixes, some of which are better (or at least as good) as the ones on the first CD. The 2006 Best Of also has a second CD of remixes, many of which are excellent. Many of which, however, are rather older--if you've been hunting down remixes already (as I had, in limited amounts) you may not see much here that you don't already have. De/Vision seem to be learning from George Lucas how to repackage and resell the exact same content all over again.
Their 2010 release Popgefahr, which is really good, had a 2011 Remix release, and it also comes in many varieties. The US Mix, which is readily available as an mp3 download, and you can get everything else as the Popgefahr collection, which sells for a pretty cheap price, considering that it's four CDs. Between the two, you can get no less that six versions of the Popgefahr album for a price that's about the same as two reasonably priced import CDs. Not at all a bad deal, and the remixes are--surprisingly--mostly pretty consistently good (of course there are a few exceptions. Aren't there always?)
But that's remixes: after Fairyland in regular, non-compilation, non-remix releases, I think most of the rest of the following albums are worth picking up with the possible exception of Void, which may not quite be to everyone's taste. The accusations of it not even being synthpop are absurd, but it is true that it has a somewhat different sound than, say, Two, or Devolution, or n00b or whatever. Subkutan also seems to me to be a little bit of a mis-step; it's not actively bad, but it just doesn't seem to stand out much either. But listening to all of their music back to back like I did also made another point fairly clear; there's a fair bit of filler with De/Vision too. If I really wanted to, I could cut out at least 2/3s of their body of work and not really miss it too much--in fact, sticking with just the more standout tracks, from their long, long collection, you still end up with a massive collection of great songs that only a handful of other electronic artists could match (Depeche Mode? Maybe Erasure, VNV Nation, Assemblage 23 and a few others too?)
Anyway, like I said, I'm not exactly a completist, but one particular remix sent me on a merry wild-goose chase for a long time, the EnTrusted to Mesh mix of "Hear Me Calling." That was supposed to be a third single release from Monosex (after "We Fly... Tonight" and "Strange Affection") but for some reason it was commuted to just being a promo-release. The Compilation by A Different Drum Mix, Rinse and Spin vol. 2 actually included every remix from the single except the EnTrusted to Mesh.
In any case, a quick search of Youtube turned up at least three uploads of the song, so here it is, for your enjoyment.
Eventually I got a lot of De/Vision material--most of it, except for many of the remixes, actually--but it took me a while. Not that I didn't like all of those songs, but because I got Zehn, which billed itself as a "greatest hits" kind of CD up through the late 90s. And frankly, if it was the greatest hits, then it scared me to listen to the non-hits. Eventually, I also got Monosex, which was released the same year, and it's excellent. After that, I started collecting De/Vision more carefully--like I said, I eventually ended up with the entire album collection (including Zehn and Remixed, which are obviously compilation albums.) I just picked up their newest album, Rockets & Swords, which prompted me to create mp3 CDs of the entire collection (in order) so I could throw it in the car and listen to their body of work in order. I couldn't fit everything I had on a single CD, and in fact, I couldn't fit it on two CDs without either splitting one of the albums in half, or omitting about half a dozen remixes. I opted for the latter.
In the car this morning on the way in, I finished the first CD, which goes through the Two album, and popped in the second one, which starts off with Remixed. Doing it this way brought to mind the fact that it really took De/Vision a while to get rolling with good material, and it's a big part of the reason Zehn didn't immediately impress me much--it's mostly made up of early material.
Their debut album, World Without End has a total of three good songs (which admittedly, are quite good) and the rest are pretty forgetable. Unversed in Love is even worse--I think none of the tracks on it are as good as the three stand-outs from the prior album (although admittedly some are better than the remainder, at least.) Then De/Vision released Antiquity which was a compilation of sorts of some songs that were hanging around but not put on either of the other two albums, presumably because they weren't even as good as the mediocre, forgettable tracks that made up the bulk of the releases to date. So, it really isn't until the fourth release, Fairyland, that we get a De/Vision release that's genuinely good, with several good tracks, and with non-stand-out tracks that are still respectable. Zehn gives us the three good tracks from the freshman effort (including some great remixes of them as well) and then a smattering of songs from either Fairyland, Unversed in Love, or unreleased tracks that must have been b-sides or something.
Then, finally, we get to Monosex which was the best De/Vision release to date by a long shot. Frankly, I wonder if maybe it isn't still the best De/Vision album, although most of the albums since have also been quite good. The possible exception here is Void, which followed Monosex. I actually think it's not bad, but I remember all kinds of bitter, hyperbolic, and melodramatic responses from the fans who felt betrayed by it, calling it "not even a synthpop album; it's a rock album" as if that were some kind of pejorative (or as if that were some kind of true; neither of which is the case.)
Sadly, for the Remixed CD, producer José Alvarez-Brill, who despite his name is a German, mostly took material from the same period as Zehn. I think what he did with it was better, but I still would have preferred to see remixes of newer material. Some of that has since come out too.
Browsing through their collection on Amazon, you get a weird mix of readily available and then... not. You can find almost everything, but a lot of it is collectible, imported CDs and sells at prohibitively high prices. Other stuff is available for mp3 download. Which seems to be which doesn't always make a lot of sense. There's also a fair bit of collected stuff; you can end up with quite a few repeat tracks if you're a real completist. I've even got a lot, and I'm not a completist.
I would recommend skipping entirely World Without End, Unversed in Love and Antiquity. Almost anything that's any good on those CDs are already on Zehn, plus if you get the CD version of Zehn (instead of the mp3 version) you get awesome remixes of the three freshman songs. If you do like remixes, make sure and get the Limited version of Remixed which comes with a second CD of remixes, some of which are better (or at least as good) as the ones on the first CD. The 2006 Best Of also has a second CD of remixes, many of which are excellent. Many of which, however, are rather older--if you've been hunting down remixes already (as I had, in limited amounts) you may not see much here that you don't already have. De/Vision seem to be learning from George Lucas how to repackage and resell the exact same content all over again.
Their 2010 release Popgefahr, which is really good, had a 2011 Remix release, and it also comes in many varieties. The US Mix, which is readily available as an mp3 download, and you can get everything else as the Popgefahr collection, which sells for a pretty cheap price, considering that it's four CDs. Between the two, you can get no less that six versions of the Popgefahr album for a price that's about the same as two reasonably priced import CDs. Not at all a bad deal, and the remixes are--surprisingly--mostly pretty consistently good (of course there are a few exceptions. Aren't there always?)
But that's remixes: after Fairyland in regular, non-compilation, non-remix releases, I think most of the rest of the following albums are worth picking up with the possible exception of Void, which may not quite be to everyone's taste. The accusations of it not even being synthpop are absurd, but it is true that it has a somewhat different sound than, say, Two, or Devolution, or n00b or whatever. Subkutan also seems to me to be a little bit of a mis-step; it's not actively bad, but it just doesn't seem to stand out much either. But listening to all of their music back to back like I did also made another point fairly clear; there's a fair bit of filler with De/Vision too. If I really wanted to, I could cut out at least 2/3s of their body of work and not really miss it too much--in fact, sticking with just the more standout tracks, from their long, long collection, you still end up with a massive collection of great songs that only a handful of other electronic artists could match (Depeche Mode? Maybe Erasure, VNV Nation, Assemblage 23 and a few others too?)
Anyway, like I said, I'm not exactly a completist, but one particular remix sent me on a merry wild-goose chase for a long time, the EnTrusted to Mesh mix of "Hear Me Calling." That was supposed to be a third single release from Monosex (after "We Fly... Tonight" and "Strange Affection") but for some reason it was commuted to just being a promo-release. The Compilation by A Different Drum Mix, Rinse and Spin vol. 2 actually included every remix from the single except the EnTrusted to Mesh.
In any case, a quick search of Youtube turned up at least three uploads of the song, so here it is, for your enjoyment.
Wednesday, November 10, 2010
Until the End of Time by De/Vision
I'm going to make two posts today that will change my format just a little; these are not 80s songs. But both of the bands I'll be highlighting in these posts formed in the 80s or earliest 90s, actually signed and released their first material in the mid-90s after it was too late for them to get major mainstream recognition for their work. They both did, however, go on to become major players in the post-mainstream synthpop scene.
They're also quite similar in style in many ways, and I consider the two bands I'll be talking about in these two posts, Mesh and De/Vision, to be amongst the premier "false Depeche Modes" out there.
Perhaps its not really fair to characterize De/Vision (and Mesh, but I'll get to them in the next post) as merely another Depeche Mode imitator, but certainly there's an element to that in their work. Despite coming up through the ranks as synthpoppers, they've gradually converged somewhat with the harder-sounding futurepop in many ways. De/Vision actually formed in the mid to late 80s, and although they wandered throughout Germany with some demos, opening acts and other live shows for a while, they didn't actually release anything until 1993. Their anthem for many years was the song "Try to Forget" which highlights both the strengths and the weaknesses of De/Vision. Like fellow countrymen Camouflage, it was dark-edged, frequently danceable synthpop, very much in the same vein as mid to late 80s Depeche Mode except without (yet) any hint of guitars. "Try to Forget" is a catchy song, and an easily danceable one. It really sounds great. However, if you listen to it too closely, the fact that the songwriter and singer isn't a native English speaker becomes very obvious. The lyrics are often awkwardly written and sung with a strong accent. This is true of much of De/Vision's work even to this day. "Try to Forget" also tries too hard. The subject matter becomes melodramatic to the point of silliness. Yeah, OK, so the subject of the song is lonely. Is that really going to cause her to scream in horror?
In any case, in most respects De/Vision started off very strong and have continued to improve as time has marched on. They haven't changed too dramatically... starting with 1998's Monosex, their samples became much more organic sounding, picking up some "fuzz" so to speak, but that was common right about then, and it makes the songs sound more modern rather than the older, more sterile sound of the 80s and early 90s.
With 2000's Void they added a harsher sound and more guitars. A lot of synthpop fans rejected Void, and called it a betrayal of synthpop altogether, disparagingly labeling the effort a "rock" album. A lot of synthpop fans are pretty stupid, though, quite frankly. If Void is a "rock" album and not synthpop, then so is everything Depeche Mode has done from Violator on down, and so is the entire catalog of New Order. That accusation is both puerile and preposterously wrong anyway.
However, De/Vision were a bit gun-shy from departing too much from their trademark sound after that minor experimentation fell kinda flat with many fans. Although they did go a bit up and down in terms of how dark and depressing their sound would be, by and large the post-Void output of De/Vision is remarkably unified in style.
And De/Vision's output has been rather remarkable altogether. From 1993 to 2010, they've released no less than twelve studio albums, several compilations, remix albums, greatest hits and live albums. There's a lot of material out there, and much of it is very, very good; amongst the best in the modern, post-mainstream synthpop scene.
2010's Popgefahr is their latest album (not surprisingly, since it just came out this year) and has a lot of great songs. I short-listed four potential tracks (out of ten) to highlight in this post, and finally settled on "Until the End of Time" which is the final, closing track. Not exactly a dance monster, but certainly highlighting De/Vision's ability to craft these dark, melancholy tracks that see them so often compared to Depeche Mode. Hope you enjoy.
They're also quite similar in style in many ways, and I consider the two bands I'll be talking about in these two posts, Mesh and De/Vision, to be amongst the premier "false Depeche Modes" out there.
Perhaps its not really fair to characterize De/Vision (and Mesh, but I'll get to them in the next post) as merely another Depeche Mode imitator, but certainly there's an element to that in their work. Despite coming up through the ranks as synthpoppers, they've gradually converged somewhat with the harder-sounding futurepop in many ways. De/Vision actually formed in the mid to late 80s, and although they wandered throughout Germany with some demos, opening acts and other live shows for a while, they didn't actually release anything until 1993. Their anthem for many years was the song "Try to Forget" which highlights both the strengths and the weaknesses of De/Vision. Like fellow countrymen Camouflage, it was dark-edged, frequently danceable synthpop, very much in the same vein as mid to late 80s Depeche Mode except without (yet) any hint of guitars. "Try to Forget" is a catchy song, and an easily danceable one. It really sounds great. However, if you listen to it too closely, the fact that the songwriter and singer isn't a native English speaker becomes very obvious. The lyrics are often awkwardly written and sung with a strong accent. This is true of much of De/Vision's work even to this day. "Try to Forget" also tries too hard. The subject matter becomes melodramatic to the point of silliness. Yeah, OK, so the subject of the song is lonely. Is that really going to cause her to scream in horror?
In any case, in most respects De/Vision started off very strong and have continued to improve as time has marched on. They haven't changed too dramatically... starting with 1998's Monosex, their samples became much more organic sounding, picking up some "fuzz" so to speak, but that was common right about then, and it makes the songs sound more modern rather than the older, more sterile sound of the 80s and early 90s.
With 2000's Void they added a harsher sound and more guitars. A lot of synthpop fans rejected Void, and called it a betrayal of synthpop altogether, disparagingly labeling the effort a "rock" album. A lot of synthpop fans are pretty stupid, though, quite frankly. If Void is a "rock" album and not synthpop, then so is everything Depeche Mode has done from Violator on down, and so is the entire catalog of New Order. That accusation is both puerile and preposterously wrong anyway.
However, De/Vision were a bit gun-shy from departing too much from their trademark sound after that minor experimentation fell kinda flat with many fans. Although they did go a bit up and down in terms of how dark and depressing their sound would be, by and large the post-Void output of De/Vision is remarkably unified in style.
And De/Vision's output has been rather remarkable altogether. From 1993 to 2010, they've released no less than twelve studio albums, several compilations, remix albums, greatest hits and live albums. There's a lot of material out there, and much of it is very, very good; amongst the best in the modern, post-mainstream synthpop scene.
2010's Popgefahr is their latest album (not surprisingly, since it just came out this year) and has a lot of great songs. I short-listed four potential tracks (out of ten) to highlight in this post, and finally settled on "Until the End of Time" which is the final, closing track. Not exactly a dance monster, but certainly highlighting De/Vision's ability to craft these dark, melancholy tracks that see them so often compared to Depeche Mode. Hope you enjoy.
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