In this episode, we discuss Depeche Mode's debut album, A Broken Frame, which is considered by many to be one of the most influential albums of the 80s and 90s. The album is an exploration of the band's transition into the electronic music world and the music they were making at the height of their popularity.
00:22:40.900Well, there is this weird thing because it's, you know, it's like with Construction Time, again,
00:22:46.680they were aggressively trying to be political.
00:22:50.760You know, they they were singing about, you know, nuclear war and environmental degradation and and so on and working in a factory and some kind of I don't know, a bit kind of a muddled version of communist utopia or something.
00:23:14.560Here, it's this weird theme that I've never thought of it before.
00:23:21.080But I mean, if the, you know, if you want, it's, you know, party time is here again.
00:23:28.940And it's this it's almost like he's making an announcement that it's 5 p.m.
00:23:35.320You no longer have to work at the jackhammer and party time is here again.
00:23:39.660I mean, it's it's weird in many ways, but it's like this leaving the factory to party and they are going to be the act that is offering music for the masses, so to speak.
00:24:27.060And then he wants to put the this weird like moving from an industrial town into party time, which I guess it's it's almost like their own trajectory into, you know, we're going to create pop music out of this.
00:24:47.060I'm going crazy with boredom, come with me, tell me, is there something to do, is there something to do, is there something to do, is there something to do?
00:25:12.400And I think one of the interesting things with, if you want, is that the melody is kind of, the vocal melody is kind of Eastern sounding.
00:25:21.420It's like this Phrygian, which is like the darkest of the minor modes.
00:25:25.700I mean, until you get to like a diminished mode, but that is like, and then it goes back like a fourth.
00:25:39.840If I have this correct, I think it's from B flat minor to F minor, but in this basically B flat Phrygian to F Phrygian, if that makes sense.
00:25:48.200It's this very dark and like I said, Eastern kind of sound.
00:25:52.760And it really, that to me is why I wish Alan would have wrote more songs, because that song is just, it's so weird.
00:26:04.280It's literally like foreign sounding, you know, it's very, to me, very Eastern sounding, that melody.
00:26:10.960Yeah, I mean, it does kind of sound like this working class, communist-ish party time, which kind of gets into the fact that this was the first tour where they would cross the Iron Curtain.
00:26:37.180But the first city behind the Iron Curtain they would play in is July 23rd, 1985, and they would play in Budapest and then Warsaw after the fans there were so devoted that they welcomed Martin Gore by singing.
00:26:57.780It was his birthday, and they had welcomed him out to Happy Birthday.
00:27:03.860And he was just so like flabbergasted and impressed.
00:27:06.760Like, how the hell do these people know?
00:27:09.480You know, they're under the thumb, you know, and they're in a basically secluded world.
00:27:16.420And it actually, from what I understand, it actually cost them to go there, which is interesting.
00:27:30.640And so I'm sure you could go off on this.
00:27:33.340I think, now Hungary is not a Slavic country, but it's like, what is this fascination between or among like Slavs or Eastern Europe in general and Depeche Mode?
00:27:46.580I mean, I'm sure you have some answers or opinions, but I'd love to hear them.
00:27:54.380Well, yeah, and it's not just Slavs, it's also Germans.
00:27:58.860I mean, they were, Martin Gore is living in Germany, dating a German, and they're most popular in Germany.
00:28:06.440And they continue to have this fan base there that is passionate.
00:28:11.180Yeah, as you go to Central Europe and then to Eastern Europe, I don't have an answer without resorting to cliches like a German soul or a Russian soul or something.
00:28:27.820There's definitely, I mean, you can, I think it's interesting that Depeche Mode is now popular in America.
00:28:34.780They have a huge fan base, but they weren't even touring in America early on there.
00:28:40.520They jokingly say that they're least popular in their hometown.
00:28:44.340There's something about the hard aesthetic minor key that I think appeals to anyone who's lived in under socialism or in the sense of the communist bloc or is kind of in the midst of it in terms of Germany.
00:29:07.080And there's also that German desire for progression and kind of like development, moving through something into something else.
00:29:18.920And it's not an escapist fantasy music.
00:29:24.260It's not, you know, somebody aside, it's not music about, you know, finding love and kind of finding this pure love that's outside of the world and so on like that.
00:29:38.500It's about kind of diving in to the experience and reality of living in the 20th century.
00:29:48.980I, you know, I, I, I, that's the best I can do.
00:29:53.020I can't quite explain it without cliches.
00:29:55.100I also think with German music, I mean, there's a, there's obviously a deeper German tradition of music than there is in Great Britain.
00:30:05.620I mean, you know, no, you know, no fault to Great Britain, of course, but in, from the German world springs, you know, Mozart, Beethoven, Haydn, Wagner, et cetera, et cetera.
00:30:21.760And, uh, there's just less of a tradition or less glorious classical music from Great Britain.
00:30:30.940I don't know if the precision of synthesized music where you're not hearing a strummed guitar and that has been taken away and you're more able to listen to actual music development and that these people just have a better ear for that.
00:30:56.100I, I, I might suggest that, I guess, but I can't, I can't quite explain it.
00:31:01.960I mean, I think probably the best is the best answer is probably that there is a general vibe in Central and Eastern Europe that wants to get away from poppy love songs and wants to dive into industrial music.
00:31:19.680Yeah, that's about what I would expect.
00:31:23.480You know, every time I see like an article or something about what is the connection between Eastern Europe and Depeche Mode, I think of this meme, it's been, you know, around Twitter and stuff, but it's got like Shakespeare.
00:31:37.860And, uh, he says, uh, English literature, I will die for honor and it'll say American literature, I will die for freedom.
00:31:46.480And it's got a picture of Dostoevsky and it says Russian literature, I will die.
00:31:50.440But there is, there is that connection.
00:31:54.640I think that Depeche does have, it's, it's not totally a pessimistic band as Martin has said before, he does offer light at the end of the tunnel or tries to, but you know, there's something there with a song like Blasphemous Rumors.
00:32:09.840That is not a happy ending song in any way, shape or form.
00:32:17.040And I think actually Ed Dutton has pointed this out is that they kind of do have this, um, penchant for, or this kind of like death drive.
00:32:28.280Courageous would be a nice way of saying it.
00:32:30.080Foolhardy might be a more accurate way of, of talking about slobs.
00:32:34.660And there's also kind of a goofiness about that.
00:32:37.500And I, you could say that about white people in general, that's fine.
00:32:40.020But I really do think there is some kind of, uh, awkwardness to, uh, to slobs in, in, in general, but I, I really don't see it any other, uh, other way for, for, uh, Depeche and the connection between Depeche and Russia, especially they were, they were popular in.
00:32:58.040Well, yeah, I mean, look, as we talked about the last time, they're, they're developing into a fascist aesthetic.
00:33:04.600And not necessarily actual fascist politics, but, and, and it's almost a visual aesthetic, maybe before it's a oral aesthetic, which is very interesting for a band.
00:33:24.060But yeah, I mean, it, that, it, it resonates right then and there with the propaganda of Germany.
00:33:34.900I mean, obviously you, he was living in West Berlin, Martin Gore, that is, but it's all around you.
00:33:41.220There's actually a little anecdote that I read of, they were driving the Autobahn, um, into Berlin and they, cause Berlin was a surrounded city, of course, or West Berlin was a surrounded city.
00:33:52.640And they got off on an exit and they saw all these, like, like tenant homes that had no windows or something and red stars everywhere.
00:34:02.420And they kind of quickly got back into their car.
00:34:06.440I mean, it's, it's a weird, it's just a weird place in many ways.
00:34:10.100I mean, I remember visiting Berlin many years ago now, uh, must be like 15 or 17 and walking through no man's land and, um, you, these houses, maybe they'd been reclaimed since I was there, but they weren't reclaimed at the time.
00:34:28.080And you can walk around, nature's taken over, you can see bullet holes in houses, you can easily find old, uh, you know, Soviet or, or, or, you know, day to air posters.
00:34:42.040And it's, yeah, I mean, that, that's what they're going for and that's who they're, whom they're appealing to.
00:34:49.380So definitely, if I was a more conspiratorially minded, I'd say that like MI6 sent them over to demoralize, uh, the Soviet union or something like that.
00:35:02.740Demoralize more like, well, yeah, that's yeah.
00:35:06.700I would think they were funded by the Soviet union turned innocent Americans against God or something.
00:35:13.440I mean, I don't think actually think that, but that, um, makes more sense.
00:35:19.380They are more than just, uh, a band for us.
00:35:26.640Of course, they don't know us in person, but, uh, not only their lyrics and music are close to us, uh, as a people, the Depeche Mode are very close to our souls.
00:35:39.720And we will always, uh, uh, be waiting for them.