Depeche Mode men Vince Clarke and Martin L. Gore’s reuniting this year as VCMG raised serotonin levels across the board, both on album SSSS and a series of EPs assembling a series of formidable remixers to take their pinking shears to the original material: Regis, Matthew Jonson, Raster-Noton co-label head Byetone.
Now Carsten Nicolai, aka Alva Noto, Raster-Noton’s other boss – and one half of Diamond Version alongside Byetone – has had a go at album track ‘Aftermaths’ for the third VCMG remixes EP. His appears on EP3: Aftermaths alongside remixes by LFO, Christoffer Berg, Gesaffelstein and Vince Clarke himself – another suitably bracing roster. We’re very excited to be able to offer you a stream of the track, which is an absolute scorcher, below.
It’s an unusually club-ready track for Nicolai, whose music and sound art frequently occupies a space somewhere between darkened warehouse and the whitewashed crispness of a modern art gallery. Its strobing rhythms and parched swells of static aren’t too dissimilar from his recent Diamond Version music, and constructed with his usual attention to textural detail it’s an immense and sonically overwhelming beast, even through headphones. One imagines that, played through a suitably sized system, its tortured duck screams and rippling low-end could probably shatter windows.
The EP, which on 12" vinyl features the original plus Alva Noto and LFO’s remixes, and in digital formats features the full package of remixes, is set for release this coming week (20th August) through Mute, who are also about to release the first in a series of Diamond Version 12"s. The first, Technology At The Speed Of Life, is due out imminently.
In other VCMG news, NYSU Films have created a series of shorts based on the album, which you can watch at Mute’s YouTube channel here.
