Martin Gore The Third Chimpanzee 12" Vinyl EP (Azure Blue Vinyl)

Mute are excited to announce the release of Martin Gore's EP The Third Chimpanzee on January 29. It will be available on limited azure blue vinyl packaged in a debossed sleeve with an art print. The release comes shortly after Depeche Mode was inducted into the Rock & Roll Hall of Fame.

According to Martin Gore: "The first track I recorded had a sound that wasn't human. It sounded primate-like. I decided to name it 'Howler,' after a monkey. Then, when it came time to name the EP, I remembered reading the book The Rise and Fall of the Third Chimpanzee. It all made sense to call it that, as the EP was made by one of the third chimpanzees."

The Third Chimpanzee is his darkest - and strongest - solo work yet. The five instrumentals, all of them named after different primates, have the overdriven sting of vintage industrial, with bone-shuddering bass and the nastiest synth eruptions that he has elicited since Depeche Mode's 1997 album Ultra. The mood is feral and erotic yet curiously comfortable, as if Gore discovered his old bondage gear in the back of a closet and found that it still fits... on The Third Chimpanzee Gore sounds refreshingly inspired.