Happy Birthday, Mr. Alan Wilder!
Our Artist of the Month series goes on in June with Mr. Alan Wilder – coincidentally, Mr. Wilder celebrates his 52nd birthday on June 1st. While nobody can dispute the artistic quality of Alan Wilder’s 30-year activity, it is also clear from the word go that Alan Wilder, in his capacity of a classically trained musician, who actively works in both production and remixing, has a potential that amazes and will amaze. Alan Wilder is not only a musician, but also a visionary, with very clear and pertinent ideas about what the music business is, or rather, should be about.
A relevant and dominant piece in the Depeche Mode puzzle, Alan Wilder helped shaping up the Depeche Mode sound since 1982: and there are some who claim his intrepid sound is still resilient in the band’s current output, even if Alan Wilder declined before 2010 being in cahoots with the band with which he parted ways in 1995, mentioning lack of respect and acknowledgement as main reasons for his departure. Depeche Mode was looking in 1982 for ‘no timewasters’, and indeed, Alan Wilder proved to be up to the task – he did not waste anyone’s time and moved on when he felt his creativity was stifled by the band’s direction.
Alan Wilder’s time with Depeche Mode meant, retrospectively, two different things. Staying true to themselves, and standing the test of time, Wilder collaborated on durable titles from the band’s discography, most notably as a musician, arranger and producer. On the other hand, if we are to take Wilder’s own standpoint to its truest, it also meant the uneven, but strong enough concoction of his one-man Recoil. By 1986, when Recoil caught the attention of Mute Records boss Daniel Miller, Alan was still living the Depeche Mode dream, but found ways of artistic expression that he did not know how to fit into the band profile. Further on, and up to 1995, it became obvious to anyone following the phenomenon that Recoil is not just another side project, but an ascending repository of Wilder’s creativity – and he let himself follow that urge.
The fact that Alan Wilder’s qualities as a musician are an enviable asset is also proven by The Cure’s Robert Smith’s invitation to join the Cure on leaving Depeche Mode. While Wilder did not accept the invite, he did go on with his own project, Recoil, a long-living electronic and avant-garde project that he started in 1986 and carries on producing for – a one-man wonder that enthuses, inspires and creates atmosphere. An 8-album, 7-EP and singles and numerous miscellaneous works included on compilations, Recoil is a respected presence on the scene, has club nights and remixes, and even in 2011 keeps a good vibe and trends up. Alan had started Recoil as an outlet for his creativity, and made it obvious with every new release. Recoil highlights include “Faith Healer” and “Bloodline” (from the album “Bloodline”, 1992), “Incubus” and “Luscious Apparatus” (from the album “Unsound Methods”, 1997), as well as “Want” and “Strange Hours” (from the album “Liquid”, 1999). Recently, Alan Wilder embarked on a US and Europe tour called “A Strange Hour with Alan Wilder”, as a series of “Selected Events” that took place throughout March and May 2010, prior to the release of “Selected” and “Want: the Architect Mixes” (both in 2010), the latter being a collaboration with a former Artist of the Month from Viva Music, Daniel Myer.
With Recoil, and additional work with Nitzer Ebb and Curve, Alan Wilder surely knows how to keep himself busy. If you add the so far unconfirmed perspective of new work with Depeche Mode, heavily speculated on after his unexpected appearance on Feb-17, 2010 alongside former band mates at the event held for the Teenage Cancer Trust at Royal Albert Hall, 15 and more years after they disbanded, this could mean a whole new perspective on the history of quality work Alan Wilder provided to the Depeche Mode industry and, why not, an answer to the question that many fans ask themselves, what would have happened to the band, had Alan not left. Not at all coincidentally, his going back on stage with Depeche Mode meant the first-ever rendition in a decade and more of the classical arrangement of “Somebody”, which, in the original layout of the song, means Wilder playing the piano.
If work with his project Recoil is done diligently and seriously, it is also because Alan Wilder has a good understanding of the shifting conditions of the music market, its traps and hidden benefits, as well as the stages artists have to go through so they could take advantage of the unprecedented distribution – a landmark, manifesto-like text to the point being his often quoted piece for Side-Line.com from 2008; in which he talks about the “volume war” and the evils of digital compression. Stating with certainty that seeking artistic forms has nothing to do with embracing the novelty of mp3’s, but rather going back to offer new and tasteful experiences that people can relate to in ways other than the mechanical download, Alan Wilder goes on to say that while indeed mp3’s are wonderful promotional tools that should enhance awareness, they mean nothing when it comes to sustainable sources of income because of their quality, that educates in a misleading way the ear and creates false musical expectations. Just months after Radiohead’s groundbreaking work with the promotion of their free (?) “In Rainbows”, Alan Wilder assessed the music market from the perspective of tolerance to promotion, but also from the perspective of fatigue created by over-promotion, and the ungainly sabotaging of quality for the sake of mass production and distribution.
Alan Wilder is a seductive presence on the music scene of today. One of the instances that get rarer day by day, of a musician who was active in the hip 1980’s and still is in the hipper 2010’s, Wilder is someone you should put high up on your follow list. And while the odds are not totally against his renewal of service with Depeche Mode, it stays as a certainty for all people who know – and by default admire – his work, that whatever he has in store for us, is going to be a quality experience.
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