This documentary, made by the same bods who did a similar job with Kraftwerk last year, drags itself out of the usual mire of substandard unofficial cut-andpaste, straight to DVD films for a couple of reasons. The quality of the talking heads involved here is better than your run-ofthe- mill, insultingly reductive “I 1982” fodder. Andy McCluskey of OMD, Thomas Dolby and Gary Numan add weight at the beginning, helping to place Depeche Mode firmly in the context of the post-Kraftwerk, post-Tangerine Dream emergent synth-pop movement of the early 80s.
Cynical readers might point out that spending 25 minutes of a 90-minute documentary speaking about bands other than Depeche Mode shows a complete lack of access and good archive material. Well, the former is true (band interviews are available on the DVDs accompanying recent DM album reissues), but there are plenty of promo videos and hundreds of band shots here. Aside from some incisive commentary from critic David Stubbs, however, ultimately it’s hard to see who this is aimed at, because even the most casual of fans already knows this particular story inside out.
