Depeche Mode: “In Your Room” (Mute) / Thomas Dolby: “Hyperactive!” (EMI)

Reissued ‘Hyperactive’ from 1984 comes with three other classic Dolby numbers including ‘One of our Submarines is Missing”, while ‘In Your Room’ is the latest industrially fashioned ‘bit’ from everyone’s favourite organ-grinders. At times Dolby sounds like a more digitalised Was(Not Was) but back to back, the difference between the old and the new lies in the fact that ‘Master’ Dolby has always been more interested in the perfection of his technique whereas as Les Depeches are always attempting to manfully squeeze some human emotion out through the walls of their machine-based noise. There’s an ease about Dolby’s more cerebral craftsmanship which suggests that in spite of all their good intentions D.M.’s emoting can sometimes sound cluttered and counter-productive. There’s a lot to be said for that Dolby suppression.