The Spill Magazine The Spill Magazine
The Spill Magazine The Spill Magazine
The Spill Magazine The Spill Magazine
  • Reviews
    • Album Reviews
    • Features
    • Live Reviews
    • Festivals
  • Portraits
  • Headlines
    • News
    • Contests
    • Events
    • Entertainment Headlines
    • Concert Listings
    • Toronto Concert Venues
  • New Music
    • Premieres
    • Track Of The Day
  • Track Of The Month
  • Books + Movies
  • About
16
new
SPILL FEATURE: FOR BETTER OR FOR WORSE WE LIKE IT REALLY STUPID LOUD – A CONVERSATION WITH OLIVER ACKERMANN OF A PLACE TO BURY STRANGERS
SPILL VIDEO PREMIERE: MARTE EBERSON – “PARADISE”
SPILL MUSIC PREMIERE: SAFARI ROOM – “CUT OUT”
SPILL ALBUM REVIEW: KILYNN LUNSFORD – PROMISCUOUS GENES
SPILL ALBUM REVIEW: FRIENDSHIP – CAVEMAN WAKES UP
SPILL ALBUM REVIEW: NOW – NOW DOES THE TRICK
SPILL ALBUM REVIEW: DAN MANGAN – NATURAL LIGHT
SPILL ALBUM REVIEW: VARIOUS ARTISTS – CHET BAKER RE:IMAGINED
SPILL ALBUM REVIEW: THE DREAM EATERS – THE DREAM EATERS QUARTERLY REPORT: Q125
SPILL MUSIC PREMIERE: SCOTT KLEIN – “HEY LADY”
SPILL FEATURE: CATCHING CLUES OF WHAT I’M HERE FOR – A CONVERSATION WITH AMY MILLAN
SPILL FEATURE: THIS IS THE BEST TOUR WE’VE EVER DONE – A CONVERSATION WITH JACOB CHARLTON OF THORNHILL
SPILL NEW MUSIC: AVA McCOY SHARES NEW SINGLE “MORE THAN A FRIEND” | ‘DRAGONFLY’ OUT MAY 30 VIA ACROPHASE RECORDS
SPILL NEWS: ROCKET SHARE NEW SINGLE “ONE MILLION” & ANNOUNCE DEBUT US HEADLINE TOUR THIS FALL | DEBUT EP ‘VERSIONS OF YOU’ OUT NOW
SPILL NEW MUSIC: LILY MONAGHAN EXPANDS HER RANGE ON LATEST SINGLE “SNOW IN MAY” VIA BLUE WILLOW ENTERTAINMENT
SPILL NEWS: CJ WILEY SHARES ANOTHER LIVE VIDEO FOR “SO BRAND NEW” | DEBUT ALBUM OUT NOW VIA TINY KINGDOM | TOUR DATES CONTINUE
  • Reviews
    • Album Reviews
    • Features
    • Live Reviews
    • Festivals
  • Portraits
  • Headlines
    • News
    • Contests
    • Events
    • Entertainment Headlines
    • Concert Listings
    • Toronto Concert Venues
  • New Music
    • Premieres
    • Track Of The Day
  • Track Of The Month
  • Books + Movies
  • About
  • Spill Menu
    • Reviews
      • Album Reviews
      • Features
      • Live Reviews
      • Festivals
    • Portraits
    • Headlines
      • News
      • Contests
      • Events
      • Entertainment Headlines
      • Concert Listings
      • Toronto Concert Venues
    • New Music
      • Premieres
      • Track Of The Day
    • Track Of The Month
    • Books + Movies
    • About
Album Reviews
267
previous article
SPILL NEW MUSIC: NOPRISM - "PANTHERBEAT"
next article
SPILL ALBUM REVIEW: LITTLE STEVEN AND THE DISCIPLES OF SOUL - MACCA TO MECCA!

SPILL ALBUM REVIEW: MG (MARTIN GORE) – THE THIRD CHIMPANZEE

Martin Gore

MG (Martin Gore)
The Third Chimpanzee
Mute Records

Martin L. Gore is the principal songwriter, a founding member, and occasional lead vocalist of English electronic band Depeche Mode. His solo discography is split between sophisticated electronic art-pop covers or experimental, synthesizer-based instrumentals he composed. The Third Chimpanzee, Gore’s third EP, falls into the latter category.

Confounding those expecting Gore’s trademark gloom, The Third Chimpanzee is a fun listen. Although there’s less variation in this menagerie than in Gore’s soundtracky 2015 album, MG, the EP has a dubby, idiosyncratic feel, like it came together quickly. Some of the slippery, elastic analog synth sounds may seem to be whimsically splashed about, but there’s nothing perfunctory about how the tracks are constructed and produced. This is thinking, rather than dancing music.

Each track is named after a monkey, and viewed through a naturalistic lens, these simians represent aspects of the human condition. “Howler” spends 80% of its day resting, so it embodies laziness. The opening track’s processed, panning guitar squawks and plodding stomp slowly sparks its circuits; an animus awakened from electrical slumber is once again beholden to charged particles. The conservation status of the flamboyant “Mandrill” is listed as Vulnerable, so the inexorable march of its complex, stutter-step rhythm might symbolize our endangered individuality. The highly social “Vervet,” a funky, 4/4 track of percolating synapses, personifies family or communication: music for the masses. The bass swells and gurgled chants of “Capuchin,” with the cap of hair on its head like a friar’s cowl, represents devotion—kinky religious imagery in Gore’s songs for Depeche Mode has paid the rent for decades, after all.

The fragile, fleeting eulogy of “Howler’s End” isolates the first track’s clarion melody. Howlers often end each day with low, guttural vocalizations, warnings so families might avoid one another. Perhaps this is where humans are heading, too.



Artist Links

website_flat_2016 facebook_flat_2016

Item Reviewed

SPILL ALBUM REVIEW: MG (MARTIN GORE) – THE THIRD CHIMPANZEE

Author

Charles T. Stokes

Here's what we think...
Spill Rating
Fan Rating
Rate Here
New Criteria
10
—
7.0
Total Spill Rating
—
Total Fan Rating
You have rated this
Album Reviews
album reviewalbum reviewsdepeche modehowlermandrillmartin goremgmute recordsthe third chimpanzee
album review, album reviews, depeche mode, howler, mandrill, martin gore, mg, mute records, the third chimpanzee
About the Author
Charles T. Stokes
Charles T. Stokes is a nonprofit resource development coordinator and donor researcher based in Denver, USA. He’s also a tennis player and writer looking to make a racket with his own noises. “There are places in the world where one cannot publicly listen to or perform whatever music they choose without fear of harassment or prosecution. The freedom to write about new music is power, a privilege.”
RELATED ARTICLES
album reviewalbum reviewsdepeche mode
 
8.0
Kilynn Lunsford

SPILL ALBUM REVIEW: KILYNN LUNSFORD – PROMISCUOUS GENES

by Ljubinko Zivkovic on May 16, 2025
KILYNN LUNSFORD PROMISCUOUS GENES FEEL IT RECORDS Ok, Kilynn Lunsford might seem an unusual name to some, but there are actually two who are currently making music—neither of the more usual kind. The one we’re talking about here though is [...]
 
9.0
Friendship
5.3

SPILL ALBUM REVIEW: FRIENDSHIP – CAVEMAN WAKES UP

by Ljubinko Zivkovic on May 16, 2025
FRIENDSHIP CAVEMAN WAKES UP MERGE RECORDS There’s this leftfield take on Americana music that has been going on for a while that encompasses quite a number of artists, from Will Oldham and Bill Callahan to the likes of Idaho Pernice [...]
 
8.0
Now

SPILL ALBUM REVIEW: NOW – NOW DOES THE TRICK

by Ljubinko Zivkovic on May 16, 2025
NOW NOW DOES THE TRICK K RECORDS/PERENNIAL RECORDS What could be the key denominator for the artists who record for Olympia Washington’s stalwart recork label, K? Hard to put your finger on it, actually, but a great sense of melody. No matter [...]
 
8.0
Dan Mangan

SPILL ALBUM REVIEW: DAN MANGAN – NATURAL LIGHT

by Bryan Williston on May 16, 2025
DAN MANGAN NATURAL LIGHT ARTS & CRAFTS Dan Mangan’s new album Natural Light is really something. Touted as being a return to his folkie, singer-songwriter roots, it is a work of simple beauty. Recorded with bandmates Jason Haberman, Mike [...]
 
8.0
Chet Baker

SPILL ALBUM REVIEW: VARIOUS ARTISTS – CHET BAKER RE:IMAGINED

by Gerrod Harris on May 16, 2025
VARIOUS ARTISTS CHET BAKER RE:IMAGINED DECCA RECORDS/BLUENOTE RECORDS Chet Baker remains among the most revered American jazz artists of his time. Despite passing in 1988, Baker’s voice and the emotion he could conjure through the trumpet remain [...]

Latest Album Reviews
View All
 
SPILL ALBUM REVIEW: KILYNN LUNSFORD – PROMISCUOUS GENES
8.0
 
SPILL ALBUM REVIEW: FRIENDSHIP – CAVEMAN WAKES UP
9.0
5.3
 
SPILL ALBUM REVIEW: NOW – NOW DOES THE TRICK
8.0
 
SPILL ALBUM REVIEW: DAN MANGAN – NATURAL LIGHT
8.0
 
SPILL ALBUM REVIEW: VARIOUS ARTISTS – CHET BAKER RE:IMAGINED
8.0

STAY UP-TO-DATE
WITH OUR WEEKLY NEWSLETTER!

Tweets by @spillmagazine

SPILL MAGAZINE MENU
  • Home | The Spill Magazine
  • Newsletter
  • Premieres
  • SPILL RETRO REVIEWS
  • Track Of The Month
  • Album Reviews
  • Books + Movies
  • Features
  • Live Reviews
  • Festivals
  • Portraits
  • News
  • Events
  • Entertainment Headlines
  • Concert Listings
  • Toronto Concert Venues
  • About Us
  • Contests
  • New Music
  • Contributors
  • TOTD
  • Privacy Policy
  • The Scene Unseen
  • Newsletter

Copyright © 2024 | The Spill Magazine
All Rights Reserved.

TRENDING RIGHT NOW
   
 
SPILL CONTEST: WIN A PAIR OF TICKETS TO SEE ACTORS AT LEE’S PALACE ON MAY 3!
508
 
SPILL ALBUM REVIEW: BRYAN FERRY & AMELIA BARRATT – LOOSE TALK
475
 
SPILL ALBUM REVIEW: MUMFORD & SONS – RUSHMERE
474
 
SPILL FEATURE: A NEW ERA OF CAR SEAT – A CONVERSATION WITH SETH DALBY, ETHAN IVES & ANDREW KATZ OF CAR SEAT HEADREST
430
 
SPILL ALBUM REVIEW: JETHRO TULL – CURIOUS RUMINANT
398
 
SPILL LIVE REVIEW: FATHER JOHN MISTY w/ DESTROYER @ MASSEY HALL, TORONTO
395
 
SPILL CONTEST: WIN A MEET-AND-GREET PACKAGE TO SEE ALESSIA CARA AT ROY THOMSON HALL ON MAY 15!
391
 
SPILL ALBUM REVIEW: JIMMY PAGE & THE BLACK CROWES – LIVE AT THE GREEK (25th ANNIVERSARY EDITION)
366
 
SPILL VIDEO PREMIERE: SLAMDINISTAS – “WHERE I BELONG”
362
 
SPILL CONTEST: WIN A PAIR OF TICKETS TO SEE EBO TAYLOR AT THE CONCERT HALL ON APRIL 13!
341
 
SPILL FEATURE: IT JUST FEELS LIKE WE’RE A LITTLE MORE IN CHARGE – A CONVERSATION WITH CRISPIAN MILLS OF KULA SHAKER
333
 
SPILL FEATURE: IN THE MEANTIME – A CONVERSATION WITH JONNY CRAGG OF SPACEHOG
316
 
SPILL CONTEST: WIN A PAIR OF TICKETS TO SEE SCOTT PILGRIM VS. THE WORLD ON MARCH 21 AT LEE’S PALACE!
303
ENTERTAINMENT HEADLINES