Depeche Mode-Devotional (1993)

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General		Extras
Category	Music	Bonus Track-Halo (4:42) and Policy Of Truth (5:08) Featurette-Projections (48:04) Music Video-6 Featurette-MTV Documentary (22:11) Featurette-Anton Talking (8:22) Gallery-Tour Programmes Booklet
Rating
Year Of Production	1993
Running Time	93:59
RSDL / Flipper	RSDL (55:26) Dual Disc Set	Cast & Crew
Start Up	Menu
Region Coding	1,2,3,4,5,6	Directed By	Anton Corbijn
Studio Distributor	Mute Film EMI Music	Starring	Martin Gore David Gahan Andrew Fletcher Alan Wilder
Case	Gatefold
RPI	$29.95	Music	Martin Gore

Video		Audio
Pan & Scan/Full Frame	None	English Dolby Digital 5.1 (448Kb/s) English Linear PCM 48/16 2.0 (1536Kb/s)
Widescreen Aspect Ratio	1.66:1
16x9 Enhancement
Video Format	576i (PAL)
Original Aspect Ratio	1.66:1	Miscellaneous
Jacket Pictures	No
Subtitles	None	Smoking	No
		Annoying Product Placement	No
		Action In or After Credits	No

    Depeche Mode was the brainchild of Vince Clarke, the man behind the technical wizardry...

    Given that I have just reviewed a DVD of the band Erasure, it was perhaps inevitable that the next music DVD through my player for review would be from the band that started the career of Vince Clarke, the creator of Erasure. Depeche Mode was created in 1979 as Composition of Sound by a bunch of school mates (Vince Clarke, Martin Gore and Andrew Fletcher) and was originally a guitar based band. Added a little later was David Gahan to supplant Vince Clarke in lead vocals and synthesisers in place of the guitars. After their initial foray into the music world, the underrated album Speak And Spell, Vince Clarke left the band and was replaced by Alan Wilder. The line up was unchanged until Alan Wilder left the band in 1995, and the rest of the band have continued since.

    What has changed over those years is their music - the originally poppish electronic music has been replaced with a much harder edged style that funnily enough had moved a little way back towards the original guitar based band by this time.

    This presentation was filmed over two concerts (in Barcelona and Frankfurt) during their 1993 concert tour in support of the album Songs of Faith And Devotion. Even if we were not told it was 1993, we would have known after watching the extras. Given that this was a year after the Erasure concert reviewed previously, interesting comparisons can be made between the respective roads taken by the two bands to their success. Depeche Mode's previous album had been the hugely successful Violator, which sold something like six million copies. There was therefore huge expectation for Songs of Faith And Devotion when it emerged three years later. Those expectations were well and truly met in what was to my mind the best album Depeche Mode ever made. With songs such as I Feel You, Condemnation, Judas, In Your Room, One Caress and Walking In My Shoes, this was not only a great album but marked the ultimate evolution of the band in some ways - thereafter the band moved more towards its strength as a synthesiser band.

    The concert presentation also represented something of a high point of the evolution of the band too, and whilst it is not a theatrical concert in the mode of Erasure, it is quite a spectacle with the big split level stage itself and the big projection screens for the video material. Starting with an opening that was a bit over-bloated, this reaches quite a dazzling height that verges on a spectacle that comes very close to the theatrical style that I hate so much in concerts. Still, there is no denying that the music overcomes the at-times overblown antics of David Gahan and this is a thoroughly enjoyable concert indeed.

Video

    The comparison with the earlier Erasure DVD reviewed is something akin to chalk and cheese. It might be just a year younger, but in terms of what we get on screen it is almost light years younger. The transfer is presented in an aspect ratio of 1.66:1, and it is regrettably not 16x9 enhanced. Interestingly the run time for the video is almost spot on with the run time quoted for the Region 1 release of the DVD - almost to the second. Does that mean that this is from an NTSC master or does it mean the Region 1 release is from a PAL master? Given the use of the decidedly European aspect ratio, I am going to guess the latter.

    Aside from the usual disclaimers with respect of concert videos (intense stage lighting, occasional lapses in focus), this is a pretty good transfer all things considered. There is a little low level noise in the background around 24:00 and the video at times gets quite grainy, possibly intentionally, but otherwise the fundamentals are acceptable. Definition is good most of the time, with just the odd lapse here and there - and sometimes the soft focus might well be intentional, so we can hardly blame the DVD for that. Shadow detail is decent enough, although at times you really would like something better.

    The colours are again pretty good all things considered, but there are more problems with oversaturation than I would like. Most of this is due to intense stage lighting (the section between 82:30 and 84:30 being the most affected) but there is a hint of intent as well at times. At times the colours are quite vibrant, but this is hardly consistent with the oversaturation coming to the fore every so often. A bit more depth to colours would of course have been nice.

    There are no obvious or significant MPEG artefacts in the transfer. There are a few film-to-video artefacts floating around in the transfer, notably aliasing in the guitar at 21:15 and in the keyboards at 85:24. In comparison to most concert videos however, this is quite minor stuff. There is nothing much in the way of film artefacts in the transfer, with just a few spots here and there to be noted.

    This is an RSDL formatted DVD with the layer change coming at 55:26. Unusually for a concert video, I did not notice it, which indicates that it was quite well placed and certainly not disruptive to the show.

    There are regrettably no subtitle options on the disc.

Video Ratings Summary

Sharpness
Shadow Detail
Colour
Grain/Pixelization
Film-To-Video Artefacts
Film Artefacts
Overall

Audio

    There are two soundtracks on the DVD, an English Dolby Digital 5.1 soundtrack and an English Linear PCM 48/16 2.0 soundtrack. Inevitably comparisons are made with the Erasure DVD and unfortunately a fair deal of the problem found on that DVD can also be found on this one.

    For those that don't know, the song writing is purely the work of Martin Gore.

    Whilst nowhere near as bad as the Erasure DVD, the surround sound six channel effort is still hardly a corker. Once again there seems to be absolutely nothing of any consequence in the rear channels at all, leaving only the front surrounds with any work to do. The mix is a little better here but it is still a little more congested than I would have expected, especially when compared to the uncompressed two channel soundtrack. The bass is a little too overemphasised in the mix and at times the keyboards battle to be heard. The vocals are reasonably well handled in the mix, but are still not as bright and clear as I would like. Overall, the sound is lacking distinction and certainly lacks sufficient definition.

    The uncompressed Linear PCM soundtrack is a vastly better sounding effort, being really clear and open. The balance is better so that everything sounds much more natural and believable. In particular, you can actually hear David Gahan's vocals, which really helps things enormously, as well as the keyboards. There even seems to be a bit of bass activity at times. Detail is very good and this ends up being a tremendously enjoyable listening experience.

Audio Ratings Summary

Dialogue
Audio Sync
Clicks/Pops/Dropouts
Surround Channel Use
Subwoofer
Overall

    Whilst there is an extensive collection of extras in this two disc package, there was little that really enthused me that much.

Menus

    Functional enough but nothing to get the blood racing, lacking even any audio enhancement.

Bonus Tracks - Halo (4:42) and Policy Of Truth (5:08)

    Maybe it is just me but it seems a bit of a pointless exercise to excise tracks from the concert film itself and then add them on as bonus tracks on the same DVD. Why not just leave them in the concert film where they first appeared? Or if that destroys the original concept of the film, how about using the available technology to include them as an option in the main film? As you may have surmised, the two bonus tracks are the only extras on the first DVD, which features the concert film. The presentation is identical to the film itself, right down to audio choices, and of the same technical quality as the film itself. Nice enough but why not just have them as part of the concert? Any other tracks that might have been excised from the actual concert that we know of?

Featurette - Projections (48:04)

    The live projections used during eight songs in the concert are here presented in their entirety for your 'enjoyment'. They play with the audio from the concert which really begs the question that surely the most appropriate way of including these in the DVD package would have been as an alternate angle during the concert itself. Makes more sense to me than this presentation, which is the same as for the main film in terms of audio and video. To be honest, they are pretty boring and I doubt that you would want to see them more than once anyway. The projection for Never Let Me Down Again is missing a fair chunk at the start so all we get to see is a note saying that imagery will appear eventually. Technically there is not much awry with them otherwise.

Music Videos (6)

    The videos on offer all come from Songs Of Faith And Devotion: I Feel You (4:31), Walking In My Shoes (4:59), Condemnation (Paris Mix) (3:14), In Your Room (4:49), One Caress (US Video) (3:38) and Condemnation (Live) (3:56). The latter is a bit of a gyp anyway as it is the video from the concert we saw on Disc One! The two versions of Condemnation are presented in an aspect ratio of 1.66:1 that is not 16x9 enhanced, whilst the rest are all in Full Frame format. The audio option is in all cases Linear PCM 48/16 2.0. There is nothing wrong with the audio but the video side of things displays various problems including a fair bit of grain at times and cross colouration in a couple of the videos. Nonetheless it was good to see them again, since it has been a decade since I last saw them.

Featurette - MTV Documentary (22:11)

    Dating from 1993, this is a reasonable enough effort as far as MTV standards go (you might guess that I am not a great fan of MTV). It does offer some interesting insight into the band and how they work(ed). It is presented in an aspect ratio of 1.66:1, it is not 16x9 enhanced and the audio is decent enough Linear PCM 48/16 2.0. Technically there is little to complain about here and after the music videos is about the most interesting extra on the DVD.

Featurette - Anton Talking (8:22)

    Made in 2004 it seems, this is a retrospective look back at the design and implementation of the film and the stage show from the man who did it back in 1993. A bit dry in the presentation and it covers some fairly obvious ground that we sort of gathered from the concert video itself. The presentation is Full Frame format and the sound is again Linear PCM 48/16 2.0. There is a bit of aliasing going on at times but otherwise nothing to disrupt the featurette.

Gallery - Tour Programmes

    Anton Corbijn made mention of these in the previous featurette and showed some of the programmes. What we have here is a complete animated display of the two programmes. An interesting presentation the likes of which I have not seen before, but otherwise not of any great importance in the overall scheme of things.

Booklet

    Not much on offer in this with just a few photographs with a one page discography at the back. Hardly a wondrous thing at all and a sadly missed opportunity to really do something worthwhile.

    From the available reviews I have located for the Region 1 release there would appear to be no differences between the Region 1 and Region 4 releases - even down to the exact same running times it would seem. Given the region coding of the Region 4 release, it is presumed that the Region 2 release would also be the same as what we have. Accordingly, there is nothing to prefer any one release over the other.

    Once of my very favourite bands, I have to confess that I quite enjoyed Devotional - it is certainly one of the better quality concerts that I have seen on video in the past twelve months. Things would have been much improved with a better sounding six channel soundtrack, but the Linear PCM two channel soundtrack is excellent and to some extent offsets the blight of the six channel soundtrack. I cannot say that much in the extras package was really worthwhile, with only the music videos - all for tracks off the Songs Of Faith And Devotion album - really being of great interest.

    One bummer of the whole package is the gatefold packaging - which I readily admit to being not a fan of. In this case, the gatefold simply will not stay square so when inserted into the slip cover it actually pokes out. The slip cover itself already shows signs of wear and tear - the glue holding it all together already giving up the ghost, the cover slightly crushed and corners already being dog-eared. I simply don't understand why distributors insist on using such cheap looking packaging.

Video
Audio
Extras
Plot
Overall