Los Angeles- based French electronic dream pop band M83’s track ‘Gone‘ was featured on the latest episode of USA network’s Mr. Robot last week (Season 1, Episode 8 – “eps1.7_wh1ter0se.m4v”), and it seems to have grabbed the attention of fans. Not surprising, as M83 does produce some pretty unusual work. Epic even, you could say, if you like that overused word.
In reality, M83’s ‘Gone’ is an interesting track, as it’s an instrumental piece that’s laid over one continuous musical note, which plays throughout the song as more and more tracks are laid on top of it. The whole thing culminates in an extravaganza of building sound and massive reverb. Friends tell me it’s the perfect piece to get high to.
‘Gone‘ is from M83’s second studio album Dead Seas, Red Cities & Lost Ghosts, which was released in 2003.
As for M83, they are originally from Antibes, France and started out as a duo headed up by musician Anthony Gonzalez. Nowadays, however, M83 is mainly Anthony Gonzalez, who collaborates with his brother Yann and various friends to produce the quintessential M83 sound.
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M83 has six albums out; the last one Hurry Up We’re Dreaming released in 2011.
You may also, however, be familiar with M83’s music from a different source — the soundtrack to the 2013 movie Oblivion starring Tom Cruise and Morgan Freeman. The director, Joseph Kosinski, said he chose M83 to write the music for the film as he thought what they produced was “fresh and original”, and highly emotional, which he saw as a perfect fit for the film.
Listen to M83’s ‘Gone‘ from Mr. Robot in the Spotify plugin below. I also recommend listening to the album this track came from — Dead Seas, Red Cities & Lost Ghosts — in its entirety while you’re doing that. It is superb.