Violator (AM9)
Artist: Depeche Mode
Released: March 19, 1990
Recorded at: Logic Studios, Puk Studios, Master Rock Studios and Axis Studios
Produced by: Depeche Mode and FloodMixed by: Depeche Mode and François Kevorkian; Engineered by François Kevorkian, Alan Gregorie, Goh Hotoda, Peter Iversen, Phil Legg
Tracks: 1. World in My Eyes; 2. Sweetest Perfection; 3. Personal Jesus; 4. Halo; 5. Waiting for the Night; 6. Enjoy the Silence; 7. Policy of Truth; 8. Blue Dress; 9. Clean
Throughout the 80s, Depeche Mode were the kings of the electro-pop soundscape. Some Great Reward, Black
Celebration and Music for the Masses had defined a sound and
style that was both alluringly original and at the cutting edge of
technological innovation. "We
decided that as our first record of the 90s, it ought to be different," Martin
Gore told NME in 1990. For this record, Gore intentionally kept his demo
ideas as simple as possible, with much of the layering and arranging duties
left to band-mate Alan Wilder. It was a very different approach. Enlisting the
help of the increasingly respected producer Flood, the band began the Violator sessions
at Logic Studios in Milan with "Personal Jesus."
Unusually for Depeche Mode the dominant instrument here is the
electric guitar – a fairly significant deviation (indeed the concert at Radio City Music Hall
early that same year contained virtually no sounds that actually exist in
nature.) The track's driving, repetitive rhythm was actually the sampled sound of feet
stomping on flight cases and then looped, treated and mixed with electric snare
and tom sounds. The mantra-like vocal melody (and brooding croon from Gahan)
would cement this track in ears and minds on both sides of the Atlantic following
its swift release as a single and MTV video.
After the resulting success of the single, Gore's twangy,
insistent guitar sound became a key component in subsequent songs by the
band. Although Gore's songwriting and
craftsmanship were massively important to the resulting album, much of its
sonic depth can be credited to Alan Wilder's arrangements, utilizing an arsenal
of vintage synthesizers and sound-generating tools: an
EMS VCS3, Minimoog and Oberheim OB-8 synths, as well as the ever-popular
Roland Space Echo and Manley amplifiers, staples of the 80s.
The band
relocated to Puk Studios in Denmark to record the remainder of the album. Both Flood
and Alan Wilder were heavily influenced by the then-burgeoning sound of hip-hop
coming out of America and had begun to utilize sampling a great deal during the sessions,
building up whole sampled kits and rhythmic loops. Nowhere on the record is
this more apparent than on "Halo," a track that uses a drum loop from
Led Zeppelin's "When the Levee Breaks."
The album's arguable high point, "Enjoy the Silence," has
subsequently, along with "Personal Jesus," become one of Depeche Mode's most
recognizable songs, being their highest climber in the US. The single immediately preceded the release of the LP and became the
band’s biggest hit. Upon release, Violator was instantly hailed as a
milestone in the band's history. Referred to as a “perfectly formed void” by
Tom Nicholson of Record Mirror, most critics were enthralled by the album's
textured, dark and edgy sonic landscape as well as its pop sensibilities.
