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Depeche Mode / “Live in Berlin” 5-disc deluxe with 5.1 blu-ray audio

By Paul Sinclair

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Depeche Mode have announced Live In Berlin a live concert performance that will be released across a number of formats via Columbia Records in November.

Directed by longtime visual collaborator Anton Corbijn Live In Berlin features over two hours worth of concert footage. As well as a CD/DVD combo edition, this set is available as an audio-only two-CD version, although a five-disc deluxe edition is probably of most interest because not only does it add a bonus DVD (Alive in Berlin) it comes with a blu-ray audio disc that contains the full 17-track deluxe edition of Delta Machine remixed into hi-res 5.1 surround sound.

Live in Berlin was filmed at the O2 World Berlin on November 25th and 27th, 2013 during the band’s Delta Machine Tour. As the track listings below reveal, as well as playing almost half of the new album, Depeche Mode performed a healthy selection of hits – Policy of Truth, Walking In My Shoes, Enjoy The Silence, Personal Jesus to name but a few.

The deluxe set is 2CD+2DVD+Blu-ray audio. The extra DVD – Alive in Berlin – includes the full live show, inter-spliced with behind-the-scenes footage, multiple interviews with the band and their fans, and a 2-song acoustic session. The packaging is a lift-off lid box that includes five CDs mini-LP style jackets and a 16 page booklet.

Probably worth jumping on the $32 price which is what the deluxe is currently listed at on Amazon US. Even if you only want the 5.1 deluxe Delta Machine, that’s a great price!

Live in Berlin is out on 17 November 2014.

Deluxe Edition – 2CD+2DVD+Delta Machine Blu-ray audio

2CD Audio ‘Soundtrack’

Track Listings

Live In Berlin DVD
Intro
Welcome To My World
Angel
Walking In My Shoes
Precious
Black Celebration
Should Be Higher
Policy Of Truth
The Child Inside
But Not Tonight
Heaven
Soothe My Soul
A Pain That I’m Used To
A Question Of Time
Enjoy The Silence
Personal Jesus
Shake The Disease
Halo
Just Can’t Get Enough
I Feel You
Never Let Me Down Again
Goodbye
Credits

Alive In Berlin DVD
Full live show + 15 interview pieces
Bordello Acoustic Session: Condemnation and Judas

Live In Berlin Soundtrack (2 CDs)

CD1
1. Welcome To My World
2. Angel
3. Walking In My Shoes
4. Precious
5. Black Celebration
6. Should Be Higher
7. Policy Of Truth
8. The Child Inside
9. But Not Tonight
10. Heaven
11. Soothe My Soul

CD2
1. A Pain That I’m Used To
2. Question Of Time
3. Enjoy The Silence
4. Personal Jesus
5. Shake The Disease
6. Halo
7. Just Can’t Get Enough
8. I Feel You
9. Never Let Me Down Again
10. Goodbye

Delta Machine 5.1 Audio (Blu Ray CD – Deluxe Edition only)
1. Welcome To My World
2. Angel
3. Heaven
4. Secret To The End
5. My Little Universe
6. Slow
7. Broken
8. The Child Inside
9. Soft Touch/Raw Nerve
10. Should Be Higher
11. Alone
12. Soothe My Soul
13. Goodbye
14. Long Time Lie
15. Happens All The Time
16. Always
17. All That’s Mine

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40 Comments

40 thoughts on “Depeche Mode / “Live in Berlin” 5-disc deluxe with 5.1 blu-ray audio”

  1. I also do not see the point or value in releasing this in DVD format, specially when it was shot in HD and you can actually get it in HD from iTunes, which is what I will do. Just for clarification, do the interviews and backstage footage get in the way between songs and actually cut into them, just to come back a few minutes later into the same song? The reason I am asking this is because this is the only version that is available in HD from iTunes. Could somebody please let me know? I still remember what a bummer was to get The Last Supper from Black Sabbath and see that they actually did this of putting the interview bits in the middle of a song. Don’t want to go through the same again.

  2. I have a problem with my Blu-Ray audio disc. On my Region 1 player (if that matters), I am unable to pause the disc. I can play, stop, and jump forward and backward to other tracks. Are other people also unable to pause the disc?

    1. Yes, I have the same problem – I am unable to pause the play. It is an absolute nonsense! I can jump the tracks back and forward, or just stop the entire playback – but no way of pausing the stuff. It seems like they are trying to make you listen to the entire album at once, which is tiring, in my opinion.

  5. Got the deluxe edition today, and it is a great disappointment! The DVD’s picture quality is very very poor. On my 47″ plasma screen you can actually see the pixels and the overall picture lacks sharpness, feels like watching a YouTube movie. Apparently Anton Corbijn wanted to have an ‘old’ look and did not allow this title to be released on bluray. This hasn’t stopped DM from releasing this title in HD 1080p on iTunes though. Even for a DVD this is substandard picture quality. Why it includes the same concert twice on a second DVD is also a mystery to me….

    1. I saw a clip of the iTunes “HD” release and it seemed to exhibit the same “graininess” of the DVD that I have here.

      I agree with Steven O’Connor above. I got my copy from Amazon France for just shy of £20 + P+P and I’m happy to pay that for a hi-res 5.1 Blu Ray of Delta Machine. The DVDs and CDs are bonus content :-)

      1. Bluray audio is not the best way to play HD music. The best is SACD, I just don’t understand why so few artists are available on SACD. Super Audio CD is the ultimate best in hires audio, period!

  6. @ Gary C

    Dave’s voice live has not been that great since at least the Exciter tour perhaps even SOFAD. The vocals on Touring The Angel and Tour Of The Universe DVD’s were also really poor. Maybe it was the drugs overdose and / or the stomach operations he had that have done for him. He seems to sing very thin and nasely on tour.

  7. I’ve had a listen, and that voice just isn’t holding up live at all. It is great to hear the Delta songs live, but we’ve heard and they’ve released better live versions of many of the other songs already.
    Gahan is a great performer, but I can only give someone so much slack when their main purpose is singing. As an example, the second verse of Walking In My Shoes is almost unintelligible.
    I’ve been listening to the concert, not watching the DVD incidentally.

  8. hy!
    My Name is Cassiano, from Brazil, the live in berlin not lauching in blu ray video? is inacreditable!!!!!!!!!!!! the formats 2cd.dvd is not blu ray video?

  9. BTW – I like the idea of making sure you can view the whole concert without annoying cut scenes involving interviews. So I’m all for this two DVD idea. I hated the 101 film because of all the intrusive interviews. I’d be happy to watch a cut scene version once, but from then on I want the concert and nothing but. I’ve often felt there ought to be a button option one can click that eliminates intrusive interview cut scenes from these kind of concert videos. I wouldn’t mind such a button for overly chatty singers too! Such as the recent Elbow live. Once is enuff. :)

  10. Amazon price is down to $27.99. Glorious. For me this is a blu-ray 5.1 release with a generous helping of some bonus live stuff.

    BUT – is anyone able to confirm the blu-ray is region free? US blu-rays don’t play in the UK/Oz region.

  13. I know how I feel about it – it sucks! Cold play did it recently with Mylo Xyloto tour DVD. It’s neither a documentary (sorry..), nor a concert. Having been to 2 of the DM 02 shows on this tour I was really looking forward to having the amazing video projections Anton did for the Delta Machine tour included. The chance to see the epic firestarter film of Higher and the gorgeous dogs in Precious would be too good to miss even if not in HD. Sadly it appears from content listings that they have chosen this release to break the mould that has seen them do that with all other concert DVD’s. Bad time to do that lads….

  14. That seems to be a new trick, putting out 2 DVDs, one an unedited concert, and the other a “film” containing interviews between an abbreviated list of songs. Peter Gabriel did the same thing on his Back to Front release. I’m not sure how I feel about it.

  16. Was looking forward to this until I saw that the dvd of concert is to include interviews inbetween the tracks, which just become an annoyance on subsequent viewings. Will give this one a miss.

  18. I guess it depends on how much of a completest you are. I got the remix sets without owning too much of the original stuff, so they were fine by me–I have no need to own ALL of the remixes, since they’re hit and miss as it is. (I also didn’t by the second set until I saw the 3-disc set for $10 on Amazon.) Having bought the U2 remaster sets for just a fraction of “new” material, I guess I don’t see DM as being all that bad by comparison. No Pollyanna here.

    I’ve also bought sets that included DVDs (Achtung Baby, So) which were later released separately on Blu-Ray, and have not bought the BR releases. They might be a bit better, but both of the DVDs looked pretty good to my eyes. And Anton’s stuff has traditionally been pretty grainy (particularly the Devotional one), so it’s possible that a BR would do little to improve the clarity anyway.

  19. DM release (at least) one massive repackaging of older material between every album cycle. Making fans buy three CDs of remixes they already have to get a CDs worth of remixes that aren’t available separately? And you have to buy the full deluxe set to get all of them (and rebuy digitally from three different online distributors to collect all of)? Or there was the iTunes catalog package from the Angel cycle when they make everyone buy *the entire catalog* again to get three albums worth of rarities *in a shit digital resolution* from iTunes (which it is worth noting never got upgraded when iTunes upgraded their digital back catalog to 256ish files).

    No, Depeche beats every one of their fans to death with their back catalog and they are fairly shameless about it. Anyone remember how the blu-ray was distributed for the last live album? You know, the one with the same six hits and new album cuts?

    That said, I bought it. I have always loved DM and since I can afford it, I will probably continue to collect them. But to say they don’t exploit their fans is some serious Pollyanna white-washing.

  20. The Amazon US price is fantastic, but I guess ordering from Italy there will be a lot of additional costs. Any suggestion?
    DM are not getting any better with time, their best years are (unfortunately) behind them. But I don’t think there’s a better performer than Dave Gahan around and their catalogue is amazingly rich of great songs. However I find that older tracks (up to Exciter) were not well transposed in the recent tours; if a song is born with a drum machine and synths (like “Policy Of Truth”) once played with traditional instruments lose a lot of atmosphere.
    But they’re still great!

  22. I am not fan of Exciter, but the last three albums are all top draw for me. Right up there with SOFAD for me. But getting back to this release…

    No HD video = no sale for me!

  23. @ Stephen – you know you are in a very small minority if you think Exicter was DM’s best output of recent years! If ever an album was mis-named the very unexciting Exciter must be it. Surely ML Gore’s weakest set of songs? I would agree with anyone who said DM’s albums have never reached the heights of SOFAD. An aural masterpiece crafted in no small part by Alan Wilder, the departure of whom they have never recovered from (in the studio at least).

    @ Don – agreed Monument is a stunning book

  24. I’m the 3rd biggest DM fan in the world (in my own mind), after those two fellows that wrote that book “Depeche Mode: Monument” (its FANtastic) so its quite unnerving to see this released on DVD only. If this was offered on blu-ray it would be a no brainer, but DVD!? I might understand some concert from 1974 with questionable video and audio quality being presented on DVD, but nowadays who buys DVDs? I don’t buy cassettes anymore either! C’mon DM, get with the program.

  26. I love everything Depeche Mode did up to Music for the Masses. Violator was good but not as good as MftM. The rest of the catalog has seen its ups and downs, with Exciter being the most enjoyable of the newer albums.

    I think the World Violator tour was probably their best, both visually and probably musically. The one problem with every tour since then is a heavy reliance on Violator’s material and a few of the other most popular hits, coupled with a near-total lack of play for any pre-Black Celebration material. You’ll get a surprise or two thrown in, like Fly on the Windscreen or But Not Tonight or Dressed in Black, but watching ‘a concert’ is a lot of work to see ‘a song’. In a word, the playlist for their tours is boring.

    I don’t want to compare them to The Cure, a band who is fairly unique in playing nearly anything and everything from its backcatalog, as The Cure is rather exceptional in this respect. Far from being terrible, Depeche Mode is rather standard with most other bands who feel they must play what everybody knows (because that’s what everyone who’s not a die-hard fan will ask to here). However, if you didn’t come to this concert to hear the Delta Machine material, you might as well be watching One Night in Paris, Touring the Angel, or Tour of the Universe.

    It’s funny, but I feel I’d be more excited if the concert ONLY covered Delta Machine material, and didn’t include the same old hits trotted out again. Or better, if the concert only featured their post-Exciter music.

    The 5.1 album mix looks like a must, though.

  27. No studiosessions, no special on the tour – no real extra tracks (even omitting Behind The Wheel from the 1st night in Berlin), no concert on blu-ray? I simply don’t get it. And the so much talked about and mysterious acousticsession by Martin is just 2 tracks? How special, 2 songs from one album that have been performed on the tour anyway… Sorry, had been looking forward to the release, but this seems really weak to me.

  28. Typical Depeche Mode? It never seemed to me that they’ve gouged their fans. At any rate, yeah, I could quibble about the lack of BR video–it seems silly to include the BR 5.1 mix for a very lackluster album, but not BR video of the very concert that’s the main draw–but I’m excited regardless.

  29. Typical Depeche Mode. The video blu-ray of the show will be sold separately and part of a $100 box set that doesn’t include its lid (sold separately in a forthcoming box set of box set parts).

  31. Excellent news. I’m most happy about Delta Machine finally getting the 5.1 release. I honestly thought it was going to be the end of DM’s awesome 5.1 catalogue. Ordered from the US. Thanks, as usual, for the heads up Paul! :-)

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