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Welcome to SeeDarkly Sunday DisCOVERies:
a weekly exploration of goth, industrial, & dark alternative cover songs!
First time here? Click here for details from first entry.
OCTOBER IS HERE! And so begins what I've long considered a month-long celebration of Halloween - OCTOBERWEEN!
As frequent readers may already know, whenever there is a fifth Sunday in a month, I do a feature called "Fifth Sunday A La Mode" and present a cover of Depeche Mode. (For reasons why, click here). However, last Octoberween, like this one, was also a five-Sunday month, this year I thought I'd offer up a "First Sunday A La Mode" instead, and then the following four weeks of covers leading up to October 31 will be categorically apropos of Halloween.
And since today's cover is coming to us from the 20th Century, we might as well call it a "First Sunday A La Mode Flashback":
Kebabträume - More Than A Party (Depeche Mode)
Depeche Mode released their third studio album, Construction Time Again, in August of 1983. It's been reported that Martin Gore was inspired to experiment with industrial elements in their music after seeing a live performance of Einstürzende Neubauten earlier that year. It's believed Gore also had developed a sense of political awareness in this time that started presenting itself in his lyrics. More Than A Party might be one of the tracks from this album most representative of that influence and awareness. It seems clear the lyrically simple track is more about a political party, if somewhat vague about specifically which. It was never a single but appears to have been a fan-favorite in concert and was included on quite a few of their early "collected works" and live album releases.
The covers compilation Death Is Everywhere - A Tribute To Depeche Mode From Italy was released in February 1994. This extremely limited edition collection of thirteen tracks, varying in genres from industrial, EBM, darkwave, neo-folk, and Italodance, features eight Italian "acts." Only three of them seem to still be active today: Alio Die, Marika (also known as Marika Martyr), and Kebabträume. The rest seem to be various rearrangements of Kebabträume's members and studio musicians operating under other group names that only existed for the duration of this production. However, it was under their name Kebabträume (taken from the DAF track of the same name) they contributed their cover of More Than A Party, which may be the highlight of the entire album and certainly its best produced track. They also offered a bonus track; a medley of Photographic and Puppets (which amounts to a cover of Photographic with maybe two lyrics and a musical phrase of Puppets mixed in).
While Depeche Mode was experimenting with mixing industrial elements into their synthpop style for the song, industrialists Kebabträume integrated a somewhat spookier sound in their version. And that spooky touch makes it an aesthetically welcome track to open this year's Octoberween festivities as an inadvertent reassertion for those of us who insist that Halloween is everyday, it is also more than a party!:
The Cover:
The Original:
Next week:
I had a very specific plan for the Octoberween series of blogs this year and one unfortunate discovery in my research forced me to put all of that plan on hold for now. So the best I can tell you now as I scramble to reorganize is that the "Second Sunday Slowly" entry of Octoberween will be a dark downtempo cover of something suitably sinister.
Comments, suggestions, discussions, etc... welcome!
(You do NOT need a Dreamwidth account to comment, but all comments are screened for spam prevention.)
I've got two upcoming gigs to spin this month! You can find details on my schedule if you'd like to join those events. ^_^
Explore the darkness,
-Xero
Previous DisCOVERies
Sep 24 - Steril - Misery (Psyche)
Sep 17 - The Cure - Foxy Lady (the Jimi Hendrix Experience)
Sep 10 - The Echoing Green - Voices Carry ('til tuesday)
Sep 03 - Gaywire - Nazi Goths Fuck Off (Originally Nazi Punks Fuck Off by Dead Kennedys)
Aug 27 - Clan of Xymox - Venus (Shocking Blue)
Directory of All Previous DisCOVERies
a weekly exploration of goth, industrial, & dark alternative cover songs!
First time here? Click here for details from first entry.
OCTOBER IS HERE! And so begins what I've long considered a month-long celebration of Halloween - OCTOBERWEEN!
As frequent readers may already know, whenever there is a fifth Sunday in a month, I do a feature called "Fifth Sunday A La Mode" and present a cover of Depeche Mode. (For reasons why, click here). However, last Octoberween, like this one, was also a five-Sunday month, this year I thought I'd offer up a "First Sunday A La Mode" instead, and then the following four weeks of covers leading up to October 31 will be categorically apropos of Halloween.
And since today's cover is coming to us from the 20th Century, we might as well call it a "First Sunday A La Mode Flashback":
Kebabträume - More Than A Party (Depeche Mode)
Depeche Mode released their third studio album, Construction Time Again, in August of 1983. It's been reported that Martin Gore was inspired to experiment with industrial elements in their music after seeing a live performance of Einstürzende Neubauten earlier that year. It's believed Gore also had developed a sense of political awareness in this time that started presenting itself in his lyrics. More Than A Party might be one of the tracks from this album most representative of that influence and awareness. It seems clear the lyrically simple track is more about a political party, if somewhat vague about specifically which. It was never a single but appears to have been a fan-favorite in concert and was included on quite a few of their early "collected works" and live album releases.
The covers compilation Death Is Everywhere - A Tribute To Depeche Mode From Italy was released in February 1994. This extremely limited edition collection of thirteen tracks, varying in genres from industrial, EBM, darkwave, neo-folk, and Italodance, features eight Italian "acts." Only three of them seem to still be active today: Alio Die, Marika (also known as Marika Martyr), and Kebabträume. The rest seem to be various rearrangements of Kebabträume's members and studio musicians operating under other group names that only existed for the duration of this production. However, it was under their name Kebabträume (taken from the DAF track of the same name) they contributed their cover of More Than A Party, which may be the highlight of the entire album and certainly its best produced track. They also offered a bonus track; a medley of Photographic and Puppets (which amounts to a cover of Photographic with maybe two lyrics and a musical phrase of Puppets mixed in).
While Depeche Mode was experimenting with mixing industrial elements into their synthpop style for the song, industrialists Kebabträume integrated a somewhat spookier sound in their version. And that spooky touch makes it an aesthetically welcome track to open this year's Octoberween festivities as an inadvertent reassertion for those of us who insist that Halloween is everyday, it is also more than a party!:
The Cover:
The Original:
Next week:
I had a very specific plan for the Octoberween series of blogs this year and one unfortunate discovery in my research forced me to put all of that plan on hold for now. So the best I can tell you now as I scramble to reorganize is that the "Second Sunday Slowly" entry of Octoberween will be a dark downtempo cover of something suitably sinister.
Comments, suggestions, discussions, etc... welcome!
(You do NOT need a Dreamwidth account to comment, but all comments are screened for spam prevention.)
I've got two upcoming gigs to spin this month! You can find details on my schedule if you'd like to join those events. ^_^
Explore the darkness,
-Xero
Previous DisCOVERies
Sep 24 - Steril - Misery (Psyche)
Sep 17 - The Cure - Foxy Lady (the Jimi Hendrix Experience)
Sep 10 - The Echoing Green - Voices Carry ('til tuesday)
Sep 03 - Gaywire - Nazi Goths Fuck Off (Originally Nazi Punks Fuck Off by Dead Kennedys)
Aug 27 - Clan of Xymox - Venus (Shocking Blue)
Directory of All Previous DisCOVERies