If there is any song in existence that so utterly and perfectly captures the panic/relief seesaw of feelings of the last ten months, it is surely Depeche Mode’s ‘Black Celebration.’ Not only the do track’s somber sonics incisively soundtrack the universal mood…but also consider the lyrics:

“I look to you
How you carry on
When all hope is gone

Let’s have a black celebration
Black celebration
Tonight

To celebrate the fact
That we’ve seen the back
Of another black day”

After all, how many times in the last ten months has someone said, “At least we’ve lived to see another day?” As if survival itself is now a daily prize that some are awarded and some are not.

But DM’s maestro extraordinaire Martin Gore has also recorded a new track that very much sounds like we feel. To be sure, his latest single ‘Howler’ opens with a creeping, ominous squelch, punctuated with sinister sounding synthesized howls – created a shiver-inducing feeling of suspense and fear. Eventually it gains momentum and becomes like a terrifying, sonic pounding on the door – much like the hourly, daily threat of gruesome death that haunts our current existence.

As it builds to a dramatic finale, there’s a sense of sound as an expression of our most primal responses to our precarious environment. No surprise, as the raw, unadorned composition is taken from his upcoming EP, the provocatively titled The Third Chimpanzee, which is due out via Mute on January 29.

“‘Howler’ was the first track I recorded for the EP,” Gore explains. “I resynthesized some vocals that almost sounded human, but not quite. That’s why I decided to name the track after a monkey. I thought that would be a good theme to carry on with the rest of the tracks.”

By the way, the “third chimpanzee”? It is us…humanity.