''MG'' is the second solo studio album by English musician and
Depeche Mode member
Martin Gore
Martin Lee Gore (born 23 July 1961) is an English songwriter, musician, singer, record producer and DJ. He is one of the founding members of the electronic rock band Depeche Mode and is the band's main songwriter. He is the band's guitarist a ...
, and the first to include self-penned material rather than cover-versions. It was released on 27 April 2015 by
Mute Records and consists of sixteen
electronic
Electronic may refer to:
*Electronics, the science of how to control electric energy in semiconductor
* ''Electronics'' (magazine), a defunct American trade journal
*Electronic storage, the storage of data using an electronic device
*Electronic co ...
instrumentals. A music video for "Europa Hymn", directed by M-I-E and incorporating illustrations by Jan L. Trigg, was released to
YouTube
YouTube is a global online video sharing and social media platform headquartered in San Bruno, California. It was launched on February 14, 2005, by Steve Chen, Chad Hurley, and Jawed Karim. It is owned by Google, and is the second mo ...
in February 2015.
Reception
At
Metacritic
Metacritic is a website that aggregates reviews of films, TV shows, music albums, video games and formerly, books. For each product, the scores from each review are averaged (a weighted average). Metacritic was created by Jason Dietz, Marc ...
, which assigns a normalised rating out of 100 to reviews from mainstream critics, ''MG'' received an average score of 70, based on 12 reviews, indicating "generally favorable reviews".
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Track listing
''MG Remix'' EP
Martin Gore announced a remix EP, available on double 12” vinyl and digital download via Mute. The EP includes remixes by Andy Stott, Virgil Enzinger and Christoffer Berg, alongside two previously unreleased tracks. In association with BitTorrent, Gore also launched a remix competition for the track “Featherlight”. The winning remix is included on the digital release of Gore's EP.
''MG'', released on Mute in April 2015 marks the first solo instrumental album from Depeche Mode's Martin Gore. Described by ''Pitchfork
A pitchfork (also a hay fork) is an agricultural tool with a long handle and two to five tines used to lift and pitch or throw loose material, such as hay, straw, manure, or leaves.
The term is also applied colloquially, but inaccurately, to ...
'' as “a careful sculpting of electricity and air”, the album creates an absorbing and emotional sonic landscape. The deadline for submission was August 21, with a winning remix announced August 31.
Studio equipment
According to interviews with Martin Gore published in ''Electronic Musician'' (July 2015), ''Keyboard Magazine'' (July 2015) as well as video-interview on his official website, Gore mentioned some instruments (mainly synthesizers, modular synthesizer systems, drum machines) and other equipment he used in the album recording:
* Eurorack
Eurorack is a modular synthesizer format originally specified in 1995 by Doepfer Musikelektronik. It has since grown in popularity, and as of 2022 has become a dominant hardware modular synthesizer format, with over 15,000 modules available from ...
modular system
* Elka Synthex
The Elka Synthex is a polyphonic analog synthesizer produced by Italian music instrument manufacturer Elka from 1981 to 1985.
Overview
The Synthex was conceived and developed by independent Italian designer Mario Maggi, who then gained the finan ...
* Gleeman Pentaphonic
* 88 DOTCOM system
* Aries modular system
* Digisound 80 modular system
* Synton Fenix
* ARP 2600
The ARP 2600 is a semi-modular analog subtractive audio synthesizer produced by ARP Instruments, Inc.
History
Developed by a design team headed by ARP namesake Allen R. Pearlman and engineer Dennis Colin, the ARP 2600 was introduced in 1971 ...
* ARP Solina String Ensemble
* Arturia MiniBrute
* Elektron Analog Four
* Elektron Analog Rytm
* Dewanatron Swarmatron
* Octave Plateau Voyetra Eight polyphonic synthesizer module
* Moog Minimoog Voyager
* Moog Memorymoog
* Tiptop Audio Trigger Riot
* Noise Engineering Zularic Repetitor drum module
* Solid State Logic
Solid State Logic (SSL) is a British company based in Begbroke, Oxfordshire, England that designs and markets audio mixing consoles, signal processors, and other audio technologies for the post-production, video production, broadcast, sound re ...
mixing console
* Apple Logic Pro
Logic Pro is a digital audio workstation (DAW) and MIDI sequencer software application for the macOS platform. It was originally created in the early 1990s as Notator Logic, or Logic, by German software developer C-Lab which later went by Em ...
(DAW)
and other equipment.
Personnel
Credits adapted from the liner notes of ''MG''.
* Martin Gore
Martin Lee Gore (born 23 July 1961) is an English songwriter, musician, singer, record producer and DJ. He is one of the founding members of the electronic rock band Depeche Mode and is the band's main songwriter. He is the band's guitarist a ...
– art direction, design, production
* Q – mixing ; additional programming
* Will Hinton II – studio assistance
* Stefan Betke – mastering
* Jonathan Kessler – management
* Paul A. Taylor – art direction
* Jan L. Trigg – illustration
Charts
References
External links
Album information from the official Martin Gore website
{{Authority control
2015 albums
Instrumental albums
Martin Gore albums
Mute Records albums