Recoil (band)

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Recoil
Alan Wilder, circa 2006
Background information
Origin	Sussex, England
Genre(s)	Electronica Avant-garde
Years active	1986–present
Label(s)	Mute Records
Website	www.recoil.co.uk
Members
Alan Wilder

Recoil is the current musical project of former Depeche Mode member Alan Wilder. Essentially a solo venture, Recoil began whilst Wilder was still in Depeche Mode, as an outlet for his experimental, less pop-oriented compositions. Once he announced his departure from the group in 1995, Recoil was transformed from a small side-project, into Wilder's primary musical enterprise.

Recoil effectively began in 1986, when Daniel Miller (record producer and founder of Mute Records) heard some of Alan Wilder's demo recordings, which he had made on a 4-track cassette machine. These recordings were substantially different to anything Depeche Mode had released — whilst they were still created using synthesizers and sampling, they featured little of Depeche Mode's catchy pop songwriting, instead opting for an experimental, John Cage-esque style. Due to the primitive and decidedly uncommercial nature of these pieces, Wilder and the record label decided to release the album inconspicuously, naming it 1+2. It eventually came out in mid-1986, not long after the release of Depeche Mode's well-received Black Celebration.

In January 1988, during the middle of Depeche Mode's hugely successful "Tour for the Masses", Mute released the second Recoil album — Hydrology. This followed in a similar vein to the previous Recoil record, consisting of entirely instrumental, synthesized landscapes. Unfortunately, due to Wilder's busy touring schedule, he was unable to effectively promote the record.

Recoil's first single was from his third album Bloodline, a cover of the Sensational Alex Harvey Band's "Faith Healer", with Douglas McCarthy from Nitzer Ebb on vocals. McCarthy would later reappear for two songs on the next album, Unsound Methods, including the single "Stalker". 1997's Unsound Methods was the first release after Wilder's decision to leave Depeche Mode. The fifth album, Liquid was released in 2000.

Although there has been no releases since 2001, the project has not died. He did however ventilate dissatisfaction with the policy at Mute Records in an interview in Side-Line magazine dating from 2004^[1]. In late 2006, Alan appeared on a web greeting confirming a Summer 2007 target date for the next Recoil album.

2007 also saw the re-release of Bloodline (originally released in 1991) and Hydrology Plus 1+2 (originally released in 1988)^[2].