Depeche Clones Week – Cause & Effect

Note: Okay, I’m stretching it a bit on this one. When I conceived “Depeche Clones Week”, I had three bands in particular in mind and set about writing all three articles before posting the first. Once I had finished the third, I discovered to my horror that the CD was actually released in 1990, thereby making it ineligible to be “Lost in the 80s”. I could have sworn it was released in 1989…argh. So, I was faced with a choice – scrap the entire article and post or just throw it up with the assumption that even though the original release came out in 1990 (not the re-release on Zoo, which came out in 1992), the album must have been recorded in – tah dah! – 1989.

Guess which I chose?

Formed in Sacramento, the duo of Robert Rowe and Sean Rowley known as Cause & Effect started off on Nastymix Records, home to Sir Mix-a-Lot of all people (not entirely surprising – Mix’s later collabs with the Presidents of the United States showed his love for alternative rock). Two years after its initial indie release, Cause & Effect’s first album was re-released by major label Zoo, but not without some re-sequencing, remixing and renaming, the formerly self-titled debut now being called “Another Minute”.

Before they got picked up by Zoo, Cause & Effect broke thru the dance charts with “What Do You See” and my favorite, “You Think You Know Her”. Later, with major label muscle behind them, “You Think…” actually became a Top 40 hit and “Another Minute” hit the Hot 100. I’m sort of partial to the original indie versions myself, so that’s what I’ve posted.

Things looked bright for Cause & Effect, until tragedy stuck during a 1992 tour. Just before a show, Rowley died from heart failure brought on by an asthma attack. After some time and retooling, Rowe, along with a couple new band mates carried on, releasing “Trip” in 1994 and scoring another Hot 100 hit with “It’s Over Now.” A couple of releases have trickled out since.

…and so ends Depeche Clones Week. I hope fans of the bands featured take it in the lighthearted nature it was intended. And if anyone doubts the Mode-like similarities of the bands featured, allow me to present this unaltered screen shot from Amazon taken earlier this week:

I’m not sayin’, I’m just sayin’ is all.

”You Think You Know Her” peaked at #38 on the Billboard Hot 100 and at #8 on the Dance Club Play Charts.
“Another Minute” peaked at #75 on the Hot 100 and at #31 on the Dance Club Play Charts.

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