Pitchfork Forkcast: New Music: Dave Gahan: "Deeper and Deeper (Juan Maclean Club Mix)" [Stream]

New Music: Dave Gahan: "Deeper and Deeper (Juan Maclean Club Mix)" [Stream]

On former Depeche Mode singer Dave Gahan's recently released Hourglass, "Deeper and Deeper" is where the gloves come off (if not the ProTools). Gahan embraces the part of psycho predator, growling like he's gotta have it and taking a much-appreciated risk by hamming it up in the role so thoroughly. DFA dance maven the Juan Maclean-- whose previous band Six Finger Satellite made a welcome, nightmarish return of their own earlier this year-- uses Gahan's studio-scrubbed snarls as a starting point to thrust himself into a menacing techno epic. The original's OK, but the remix works best when Maclean gets beyond his source material almost entirely.

The first few minutes of the nearly eight-minute track stick a couple of verses from Gahan over a clicking, echoey synth drone, heavy beat, and occasional bongos or tablas. The line that emerges the most here is "I want your love", and this ambiguous declaration-- compared with the overly spelled-out freakiness of "you know I like it when you put up a fight"-- gives it more and deeper resonance. Then about halfway through, pretty much everything but a Star Trek-alarm synth and some electronic percussion cuts out. From there, Maclean goes harder than before, synths squiggling beautifully overhead, deeper and deeper into whatever's going on in his head. And when he's done, baby, he's done.

Stream:> Dave Gahan: "Deeper and Deeper (Juan Maclean Club Mix)"
[original track from Hourglass; out now on Mute]