Depeche Mode to release all ‘Strange/Strange Too’ videos on DVD & Blu-Ray

This has been a long time in the waiting. Depeche Mode and Anton Corbijn‘s iconic film collection “Strange/Strange Too” are to be released for the first time ever on DVD & Blu-Ray. The release will be available via Sony Music Entertainment on Friday, December 8. In the USA, Canada and Mexico the title will be released through Warner Music Group. Previously available as individual titles in VHS and Laserdisc formats (now out-of-print and highly collectible), “Strange” (1988) and “Strange Too” (1990) are now available for the first-time as a single collection.

The material on the set has been freshly restored from the original Super 8 sources and will include 11 music videos and 6 previously unreleased outtake ‘Vignettes’. When assembling the final edits for “Strange” and “Strange Too”, Corbijn created a visual running order where the individual music videos are perceived as one continuous film, with additional interstitial content not seen in the original clips.

The digipak release will come with a 16-page concertina booklet featuring photographs and new liner notes penned by Anton Corbijn

Will the grainy quality of the videos be lost?

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Sony Music Entertainment will release Depeche Mode’s Strange/Strange Too (a much sought-after collection of music videos directed and filmed in Super 8 by Anton Corbijn) on Friday, December 8. Strange/Strange Too will be released through SME worldwide, excluding USA, Canada and Mexico (where the title will be released through Warner Music Group).

For those who fear that the grainy quality of the videos will be lost, don’t worry, the physical nature of Super 8 film means that the stock’s rough and grainy quality becomes part of the finished film’s inherent aesthetic. The film restoration itself underwent a rigorous process over the course of several years with the participation of personnel involved in making the original films including Anton Corbijn. Because this Blu-Ray/DVD release was created from the original Super 8 film stock, the final result may seemingly lack the visual clarity that modern viewers associate with contemporary HD 4k reproduction. In some occasions where the original footage had deteriorated too much, the next best source was used.

First released in 1988 as “Strange – A Black and White Mode by Anton Corbijn,”, “Strange” featured the first five Depeche Mode music clips directed by Anton Corbijn, who shot them mostly in black and white Super 8. “Strange” included the three main singles from “Music for the Masses”, the final “Black Celebration” single (“A Question of Time”) and “Pimpf,” the instrumental closing “Music for the Masses”.

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Released in 1990, “Strange Too” (aka “Strange Too – Another Violation by Anton Corbijn”) was shot in full-color and has the bonus videos for “Halo”and “Clean” next to “Personal Jesus”, “Policy Of Truth”, “Enjoy The Silence” and “World in My Eyes”.

Anton Corbijn commented as follows on this release: “To be seen as ‘strange’ in a creative field is no bad thing as it probably means ‘different’ which I find is a very positive description of one’s struggle to be just that. The idea to make this into a connected series of little films and fake interviews came late into the process of shooting these,” wrote Corbijn. “I was shooting all the films myself on black/white Super 8 film. We put all this together on a shoestring budget; those were that kind of days. We have to look at these films in the light of us being young; we were experimenting and I am happy we were given that space at the time by Daniel Miller.”

“Strange/Strange Too” track lists

STRANGE

1. A Question Of Time
2. Strangelove
3. Never Let Me Down Again
4. Behind The Wheel
5. Pimpf

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Outtake vignettes:

1. Strangelove
2. Behind The Wheel
3. Behind The Wheel (Shep Pettibone Mix)

STRANGE TOO

1. Personal Jesus
2. Policy Of Truth
3. Enjoy The Silence
4. Clean
5. Halo
6. World in My Eyes

Outtake vignettes:

1. Personal Jesus (Acoustic)
2. Policy Of Truth
3. Policy Of Truth (Trancentral Mix)

Bernard - Side-Line Staff Chief editor

Bernard Van Isacker is the Chief Editor of Side-Line Magazine. With a career spanning more than two decades, Van Isacker has established himself as a respected figure in the darkwave scene.

See Full Bio

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