Tuesday, November 15, 2016

DEPECHE MODE - BARREL OF A GUN

This is the US maxi single for Depeche Mode's 'Barrel Of A Gun', from the "Ultra" album.  During this time, I was buying up everything I could find by them.  For this album, I think I bought the UK and US singles.  Mostly because I wanted to have a complete collection of mixes and you could only get that by collecting the various singles together.

 My only complaint about the US singles during this time is that they didn't have nearly the amount of music the UK multiple singles did.  You would hope the US maxi would collect everything together on one disc, but alas...  That wasn't the case.

 The single includes three mixes of 'Barrel Of A Gun'.  Two of them are by Underworld and the other is by One Inch Punch.  There's also a mix of the b-side, 'Painkiller' by Plastikman.  'Painkiller' is basically a longer version of 'Junior Painkiller', the hidden track at the end of "Ultra".  The Underworld Soft Mix is actually quite nice.  It's more of an ambient version of the song and oddly enough, as frantic as the tune is, it lends itself to a slower mix quite nicely.  The One Inch Punch Mix is harsh and disgusting.  The tempo is bizarre and the music is sinister.  You imagine a bad acid trip or something.  This isn't a mix you'd want to hear under the influence of any kind of drug.  It's spooky evil.  Yikes!

 The Underworld Hard Mix, is as manic as the Soft Mix is mellow.  I find it hard to listen to and prefer the first one over it.  I'm not sure this release was worth the purchase, but US singles at the time weren't that expensive and I could justify it to polish off my various missing mixes and versions collection.  My final words:  NOT EXACTLY THE GREATEST SINGLE EVER, BUT IT HAS ITS MOMENTS.

 DEPECHE MODE - BARREL OF A GUN
01. Barrel Of A Gun (Single Version)
02. Painkiller (Plastikman Mix)
03. Barrel Of A Gun (Underworld Soft Mix)
04. Barrel Of A Gun (One Inch Punch Mix)
05. Barrel Of A Gun (Underworld Hard Mix)  
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2 comments:

  1. UnknownNovember 15, 2016 at 5:50 AM

    Nice reveiw, however, UK laws are different with time constraints, as to what is a single vs. album, hence multiple discs for remix collections, often ma ny of these wheere split up as imports.

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    1. Spencer GoodwinDecember 12, 2016 at 1:08 PM

      I'm aware of the UK single thing. They would release the first single with the edit and limited time because they could only have so much on it to be considered for the UK charts. The second single would usually include mixes and further materials. But the US maxi's would usually include all of the material between the multiple UK releases on one single. Not always but sometimes. My complaint here is that as a maxi, there was plenty of room on this single to include more. I'm just surprised they didn't.

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