The Erasure/Depeche Mode and Blancmange Legends Reinvent Post-Punk and Pop Classics on Self-Titled Debut, Out May 29 via London Records
It started with "Rock On." Not a new song — David Essex's 1973 original, one of the most peculiar hits in pop history: no guitar, no keyboards, just an electrostatic void of space, echo, and Herbie Flowers' double-tracked bass. Vince Clarke heard it and couldn't let it go. That fascination is what eventually pulled together Doublespeak — the new project from Vince Clarke (Erasure, Depeche Mode), Neil Arthur (Blancmange), and producer Benge.
Their debut cover of that song is out now. Their self-titled debut album — seven years in the making — arrives May 29 via London Records, and it's already pulled attention from Pitchfork, Stereogum, MOJO, The Quietus, NME and The Line of Best Fit.
The concept is deceptively simple: take songs that defined their musical education — some rare, some massive — and transpose them into analogue electronics, with Neil Arthur's uncommonly empathic vocals as the human anchor. The tracklist is a shadow autobiography: Fad Gadget, Young Marble Giants, ABBA, The Carpenters, David Essex, The Magnetic Fields, Thomas Leer and Robert Rental. Post-punk obscurities brought into the light. Pop radio monsters taken back underground.
Clarke says of the Essex cover: "'Rock On' was such a weird, interesting production. There was nothing like that on the radio back then. Still isn't. So, we thought, we have to have a go at this."
Benge adds: "Neil's vocal on this is just amazing."
This is not a nostalgia project. These are three musicians who have collectively shaped the sound of British synth-pop and electronic music for four decades, treating the songs that shaped them with the same adventurousness those songs originally had. Seven years is a long time to get something right. Doublespeak sounds like they got it right.