Depeche Mode: taken from the french Dépêche mode, meaning “hurried fashion” or “fashion dispatch”.

Key Personnel:

Martin Gore – Guitar/Synth/Vocals/Songwriter
Dave Gahan – Vocalist
Andrew Fletcher – Keyboards
Alan Wilder – Keyboards (1981-1995)
Vince Clarke – Keyboard/Songwriter (1980-1981)

Brian Griffin – Photographer/Art Director (1980-1986)
Barney Bubbles – Designer (1980-1981)
Martyn Atkins – Designer (1981-1987)

Speak & Spell (1981)

DM’s debut album is remarakably different to those that followed and features…

A few weeks ago I posted about an emerging trend I observed about heads appearing as the focus of album covers in 2010.

Last night I noticed that Warp records have an emerging design trend of their own – the use of circles on their upcoming releases. This is made all the more…

Inspired by a mutual love of the BBC Radiophonic Workshop, cosmic horror, library records, English surrealism, and arts & crafts psychedelia, boutique record label Ghost Box was founded in 2003 by designer Julian House and musician Jim Jupp.

To simply refer to it as a record label doesn’t quite do it…

The 7″ single is one of the great casualties of the digital revolution. Despite the fact that vinyl has recently made a comeback in retail markets, the 7″ has become largely forgotten, outside of collector circles and bedroom labels.

Recently I came across a box of assorted singles, and pulled…

*(sorry trees)
Vince Frost

A chronicle of Frost’s journey from London to Sydney, and from Pentagram associate to international design icon. This is a fantastic book with the right balance of eye-candy and information, exploring case studies spanning from the mid 90’s to the present day. Simply one of the best and most…

Three days between posts feels like an eternity for this young blog. I’d love to say that the radio silence has been due to some exotic adventure or fantastic event, but unfortunately there are no such stories to regale you with. I’ve simply been doing all the things you do…

Massive Attack’s second album, Protection, arrived in 1994 – 3 years after their debut Blue Lines. In the same year Nine Inch Nails unleashed The Downward Spiral, Blur released Parklife, Nas dropped the seminal hip hop album Illmatic and Green Day & Offspring saw records breakthrough to the mainstream. 1994…

In the lead-up to their first new album in 7 years (Heligoland: February 8th) I’m going to be taking a look back at the evolution of the music and art of Massive Attack, one of my favourite bands.

Massive Attack formed in Bristol UK in 1988, by Robert Del Naja (3D)…