Recoil

Alan Wilder launched Recoil as a solo outlet in 1986. A keyboardist, songwriter, arranger, and producer, he spent well over a decade as a central figure in Depeche Mode during the group’s peak commercial period. Recoil initially served as a vehicle for extended, experimental electronic compositions, yet Wilder later shifted toward more concise, dramatic pieces—commonly running about six minutes—that regularly featured spoken-word performers, guest singers, and influences drawn from blues, gospel, dub, film scores, and hip-hop. Although his work resisted easy categorization, the brooding, intense character of much of the material after 1992’s Bloodline prompted comparisons to Massive Attack and Moby, even though those artists drew heavily from Wilder’s earlier contributions to Depeche Mode.

A late-1970s position as tape operator and occasional session keyboardist at London’s DJM Studios opened the door to short-lived groups such as Dragons, Dafne & the Tenderspots, Real to Real, and the Hitmen. Wilder’s most prominent session credit from this era was his playing on the Korgis’ 1979 U.K. number-13 hit “If I Had You.” That journeyman phase concluded when he answered a Melody Maker advertisement placed by an established band seeking a synthesizer player. After two auditions he joined Depeche Mode, effectively replacing the departed Vince Clarke. At first his role centered on live performances; his studio debut arrived with the January 1983 single Get the Balance Right!, whose B-side “The Great Outdoors!”—an instrumental he co-wrote with Martin Gore—served as entrance music for some shows supporting A Broken Frame, the band’s second album recorded without Clarke or Wilder.

Wilder’s growing creative input paralleled Depeche Mode’s move toward a darker, more intricate sound and rising popularity. From 1983’s Construction Time onward, every studio album made during his tenure achieved gold or platinum status in multiple territories, with 1990’s Violator reaching triple-platinum certification in the U.S. alone. On 1 June 1995, after the release of Songs of Faith and Devotion and an exhausting tour, Wilder declared his departure, freeing him to focus fully on Recoil, a project that had already surfaced intermittently since the mid-1980s.

Like Depeche Mode, Recoil recorded for Daniel Miller’s Mute label. The first release, 1986’s 1+2, comprised two sparse, extended electronic pieces totaling 33 minutes. Hydrology, issued in 1988, contained three tracks built around another pair of lengthy, suite-like works; the CD edition appended the complete 1+2. Released after Violator, 1992’s Bloodline included vocals from Moby, Diamanda Galas, Curve’s Toni Halliday, and Douglas McCarthy—returning a favor for Wilder’s production work on Nitzer Ebb’s Ebbhead—while a sample of Bukka White underpinned the track “Electro Blues for Bukka White.” Unsound Methods, the first Recoil album issued after Wilder left Depeche Mode, appeared in 1997. In addition to McCarthy’s return, the record introduced new voices including spoken-word artist Maggie Estep and former Miranda Sex Garden member Hepzibah Sessa, who later married Wilder.

Two further Recoil albums followed in the next decade. 2000’s Liquid represented Wilder’s most visceral work to that point and a refinement of the preceding releases, while 2007’s comparatively atmospheric Subhuman limited vocal contributions to two artists: blues musician Joe Richardson, who also supplied guitar and harmonica, and singer-songwriter Carla Trevaskis. The 2010 anthology Selected preceded a 52-city tour framed as an art installation rather than conventional concerts. Wilder subsequently remixed Depeche Mode’s “In Chains,” assembled the Blu-Ray release A Strange Hour in Budapest, and acted as executive producer of The Spirit of Talk Talk, a two-disc tribute to the synth-pop and post-rock innovators. That 2012 collection featured his contributions on “Dum Dum Girl,” performed with Shara Worden (My Brightest Diamond), and “Inheritance,” recorded with Linton Kwesi Johnson and Paul Marshall.