Bleep

Depeche Mode's guitarist, keyboardist and primary songwriter Martin Gore's first solo effort in six years, The Third Chimpanzee EP resumed the heavy, instrumental synthesis of Gore’s past extracurriculars with a bilious set of industrially-tainted synth sound designs. True to form, and true to his esteemed status among the legions of his latter-day followers, The Third Chimpanzee gets its remix due from a cohort of Gore admirers.

The breadth of work Gore’s originals has inspired is diverse — ranging from eerie ambient and cybernetic electro to foreboding industrial rave and pin-sharp footwork — even as each rendition continues mulling over the deep, dark stuff. The distance between Wehbba and Jlin’s versions of ‘Capuchin’ is far-flung, the former darkened by big room sonics, the latter driven by a masterfully contained rhythmic chaos. Meanwhile, Barker and MoReVoX spin ‘Mandrill’ into furious, slippery beasts worthy of the track’s primate namesake, as does Rrose who takes the track's loping industrial gait and implodes the menace into a dense light absorbing techno roller ripe for deployment in darkened rooms packed with moving bodies. The Exaltics on the other hand have favoured immersing the originally beatless "Howler" into Drexciyan waters for a lowkey Detroit electro soaked rework and Kangding Ray's shimmering syncopation reinvigorates the soundscape building up to a shuffling break which snaps into place at the midway point.

Despite the spectacular sonic acrobatics, The Third Chimpanzee Remixed has the air of a single visionary artist. That’s testament to what Martin Gore has achieved throughout his career and beyond.