Songwriter and multi-instrumentalist Martin Gore is best known as a founding member of Depeche Mode, with that electronic pop juggernaut’s most recent album Spirit released in March 2017. In the years since Depeche Mode’s 1980 formation, Gore has peppered his career trajectory with a few solo releases (though he did skip over the 1990s). His newest is “The Third Chimpanzee” EP, a five-song set out January 29 via Mute as a download, on compact disc, and on limited 12-inch azure blue vinyl with a sleeve featuring a commissioned painting by noted capuchin monkey artist Pockets Warhol.
The release of “The Third Chimpanzee” EP brings symmetry to Martin Gore’s solo output, which began in 1989 with the “Counterfeit e.p.” That set consisted of six cover songs, with its full-length follow-up of 11 versions Counterfeit² not emerging until 2003. Then, 12 more years elapsed before his next LP MG arrived. For that one, the 16 tracks were all Gore originals, and all were completed sans vocals.
“The Third Chimpanzee” is also comprised of Gore’s instrumental compositions, which in turn allows for his non-Depeche Mode activities to be grouped into the distinct halves of early and mid-career vocal covers and later instrumental originals, at least if one excludes the “MG Remix EP” from 2015 (which in addition to four remixes of tracks from that album featured two Gore originals) and his 2012 LP Ssss as half of VCMG alongside Depeche Mode cofounder (and the first to depart the band) Vince Clarke.
Of Gore’s two solo periods, the cover material has is pleasures (as interpretations often do) but it’s really the later stuff that’s more rewarding, partly for how it both solidifies and deepens the man’s abilities by extending them beyond the sphere of his main gig. Not that the departure is radical, but MG did allow Gore to delve into somewhat darker and harsher regions, while also engaging with melodies in ways that are distinct (if not wholly unique) from his songwriting in Depeche Mode.
And so it is with his latest, which commences with a distorted electronic pulse that’s quite menacing even before the emergence of thumps, thuds and atonal peals. Around two minutes in, “Howler” (named for the New World monkeys of tropical Central and South America, don’tcha know) gets a considerable rhythmic boost, which persists until a upswell of keyboards settles the track into territory that’s more commonly associated with Martin Gore’s oeuvre.
That would be electronic pop with an aura of the dour. But this set doesn’t maintain a Mode-ian sensibility for long, as “Mandrill” (you might be sensing a titular theme here) registers as more of a club techno affair. Now, those familiar with MG might recall a few spots of relentlessness that came off like post-rave music for dank cellar dancefloors, but the techno sheen of “Mandrill” is much nearer to a soundtrack for a dystopian thriller.
As such, not an expressly pop scenario, but it does benefit from Gore’s melodic savvy. In those soundtrack terms, it’s about atmosphere, but it’s just as much about action, which is to say, the track moves. The same is true for “Capuchin,” though that selection is less driving and instead is a more interestingly layered affair, including a recurring motif vaguely reminiscent of obsolete landline telephone audio tones (which in turn brought to mind a key portion of Trent Reznor and Atticus Ross’ terrific score for David Fincher’s The Girl With the Dragon Tattoo).
It’s the lengthy (at eight and a half minutes) “Vervet” which plays around with electronic-pop most forthrightly, though the environment is still appropriately edgy, particularly a few surges of serrated tech that bypass the dystopian and head straight for the cyborg. “Howler’s End” (nice E.M. Forster reference) returns to the keyboard theme from the opening cut for a satisfying conclusion. In so doing, “Howler’s End” adds symmetry to a release that has already balanced Martin Gore’s solo discography. Nice.
One approach to solo efforts by artists holding down spots in hugely popular bands is to gauge their necessity. If the music connects as little more than a time filler for the person who made it, then it will be unlikely to serve the same purpose for all but the most ardent of the musician’s fans. “The Third Chimpanzee” EP reverberates as necessary as it reveals that Gore was engaged throughout the process while striving for something different yet not disconnected from his achievements in Depeche Mode. It may not be an essential release, but its five tracks are surely worthy of keeping around.
GRADED ON A CURVE:
B+
