After splitting from Depeche Mode in 1995, Alan Wilder focused his full attention on Recoil, his side-project going back to the mid-1980s. In 1997, the same year DM released "Ultra," Wilder released the fourth Recoil studio album, "Unsound Methods." Free to explore the electronic soundscape, Wilder enlisted several vocalists to tackle the electronic/trip-hop material, including Douglas McCarthy from Nitzer Ebb and NYC spoken word artist Maggie Estep. The result is both of the time and ahead of its time, fitting in nicely with the mid-90s trip-hop sounds of Massive Attack, Sneaker Pimps, and Portishead, while also foreshadowing the more experimental and cinematic sounds of James Lavelle's Unkle.