Vince Clarke helped form Depeche Mode, created Yaz, and has been with Erasure for decades. From time to time he likes to hook up with other musicians (usually Martyn Ware) and make something other than pop music. This page covers all of those groups.
See Depeche Mode, Yaz, The Assembly, Erasure, The Human League
Information: Wikipedia
Suggested First Purchase: Pretentious
Vince Clarke and Paul Quinn: "One Day" (1985) -- After Yaz and The Assembly, and before Erasure, Vince Clarke hooked up with Paul Quinn for this one-off single. The song is okay, but not great (the B-side is just as good, if that tells you anything). B
The Clarke and Ware Experiment: Pretentious (2000) -- Vince Clarke (Erasure, Yaz) teamed up with Martyn Ware (The Human League, Heaven 17) to make new age music with a beat. The title gives away the joke of it all, as do the funny liner notes that explain the meticulous way the album was created ("The techniques and technology used in creating this album have never been used before"), and the insistence that it be listened to with headphones in order to hear the three-dimensional sounds. In spite of the overall jokey nature of the record (or of the need to be jokey when doing something normally considered this serious), the album is actually pretty good and listenable as far as background space music goes. The interesting beats and slightly-melodious repetitions throughout keep it from being simply annoying or boring. B
Vincent Clarke and Martyn Ware: Spectrum Pursuit Vehicle (2001) -- Clarke and Ware return, just using their names this time instead of using the "Experiment" name, Vince going by "Vincent" once again (as he did in the previous album's liner notes) to be extra pretentious. Where Pretentious had music that, while certainly made to be background music, was more or less listenable, this one is more pure mood music, with synthesizers droning on slower and longer and more repetitively. There are also an ample amount of sound effects, things like birds and babbling brooks, that fans of that kind of thing (sometimes me) will love. Pick whichever one you're more in the mood for. Or just grab your Erasure and Human League albums and dance. B
Copyright (c) Feb 2006 by Rusty Likes Music