Cabaret Voltaire

I'm still on a CV trip. Got around to listening to the 3rd CD of the "Conform To Deform" 3-CD set, this one being an Edinburgh gig from 1990 and I was really impressed. Most live gigs are either a bit too rough or a bit too rote and controlled, I think, but they pulled it off with grace. And it's interesting how tuneful the vocals suddenly got on their material then.

"Seconds Too Late"

"Don't Argue" (Sherwood mix)

And a lot of Hai!.

I thought you knew your Cabaret Voltaire!

sorry.

favorites?

Is that the version of Don't Argue with the women singing "no no no no no, better watch yourself boy?" If so, put that on my list.

My faves:

Breathe Deep
Yashar (John Robie Re-production)
Invocation
Diskono
A Thousand Ways
Red Mask
Motion Rotation
Animation
Talk Over
The Set Up
Silent Command
Nag Nag Nag
Jazz The Glass
KNEEL TO THE BOSS!!!!
Sensoria
Trust in the Lord

for starters...

and I really love Richard H. Kirk's Virtual State, which doesn't get enough love.

I thought you knew your Cabaret Voltaire!

Uh, Ian was right. It's Eastern Mantra, not Easter. Looks like you and I both should brush up on our Cabs, Dan! :)

As for faves, I'd probably pick Code, Sex Money Freaks, Just Fascination, and Shakedown. But there are so damn many others, too!

the second time.

the first time was what we call a "typo".

The Living Legends is just a shit-hot compilation all around, even if I've heard half of it before. Much better collection of songs than that Original Sound of Sheffield 78-82 thing.

"Jazz The Glass" is about twice as good as I thought they were even capable of.

"A Thousand Ways" is also very good.

Anyone tried any Kirk stuff? Did he have solo stuff out then? I'm becoming such a fiend I'm even thinking of getting the silly Methodology mid-70's stuff, which I know I won't like most of, but that song "The Single" is so hilarious. I don't know how they even managed to record that without falling into fits of laughter in the process!

http://www.thegreedyeye.com/

His first release was Disposable Half Truths in 1980, was that on Industrial? Did Industrial still exist, I think he had something on Industrial. I've never heard this.

Then in 83 he put out Time High Fiction, which has similar art processing to the Crackdown but it more raw and experimental if I remember. It's supposed to come with a second record featuring 2 20 minutes songs but my copy had 2 copies of the LP! This is prob. the same time the Crackdown came out with the bonus ep(which, if you're unfortunate enough to have only found the single vinyl Crackdown, you need to get, because it is AWESOME.)

In 1986 he put out two records, one I have on vinyl, the other I downloaded. Ugly Spirit is raw, low-fi, industrial, perhaps closest to the Crepuscule period stuff. Black Jesus Voice however is a totally killer electro record. Great avant-hip-hop/breakdance stuff.

His next stuff would be the Sweet Exorcist records, which is listed on that site as a collaboration. I forget with home. Pretty essential early UK Bleep techno.

1993 I was a freshman in college and he started going crazy. First with 2 great techno CDs. I don't know which one was first. Sandoz was initially his "ethno-techno" project, songs built around african samples and such, and I remember loving the Digital Lifeforms CD, though I lost it ages ago. It's been reissued w/ bonus stuff. Then his first release as Kirk since 86 was his entry into the Warp Artificial Intelligence series, Virtual State. It fits in nicely with the surrounding records of the series, Aphex Twin as Polygon Window, Black Dog Productions, B12 etc. It's an exceptionally warm and beautiful techno record, when the idea of techno as music not made for dancing was an exciting idea. One of my favorite records of the period.

Around that time, he was using the Cabaret Voltaire name for mostly really long sample based ambient stuff that I never got that into. Then he started releasing stuff under a million names and I lost track. Recently he got more into some hard digital dub kinds of stuff, some of which sounded way cool. Nick Gutterbreakz writes about him a lot:

http://gutterbreakz.blogspot.com/

check the archives.

I have the 3CD cabs disk, but not the solo Kirk one, Earlier/Later.

And I was truly transported into an alternate reality. BEYOND anything Cabaret Voltaire have ever done. Beyond anything Cabaret Voltaire-related, even. I felt like I had been drafted into the movie "2001" and time was moving backwards at a very fast rate. This was NOT Kansas anymore, ladies and gentlemen.

I love that sped-up sample of the woman's voice, too where she keeps saying, in chipmunk fashion "no fucking chance at all...no fucking chance at all..." That is hilarious.

where are they hiding?

Love to know the origin of this sample - always puzzled me, as there aren't 70 billion people anywhere.

Oh, sorry, they're ants.

almost makes me regret getting rid of 'groovy laid back and nasty'. almost.

xpost : it has been years since i was in the mood for their funk, but today its not going to be anything else but - i just know it...

http://www.dustscience.com/FrontPage/RichardHKirk-FearProject.php

yummy yummy

look carefully at the proposed line up :

http://www.thestar.co.uk/rotherham/Antiracism-rock-festival.4279091.jp

steve mallinder has been back in the uk now for a while so obviously things are back on track.

!!!

i have been advised that this is not confirmed, and that in the past promoters have advertised a solo set by RHK as being a CV show.
still, seeing as Stephen is uk based there is at least a possiblilty that this is ferreal.

One of the top 5 best bands ever? I mean who the fuck cares about Kraftwerk when you've got Sensoria? Even as it is, only a tiny miniscule of their brilliance, and yet it's still probably the best music video ever made:

(The Mind Boggles)
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=RkfzXq0tA3c

did I mention I'm more goth than you?

Well, I reckon I'm goth enough . . anyway, forgotten just how great 'Sensoria' sounds - played the 12" for weeks after it came out. It's a disgrace that I don't own all of the Cabs work on any modern format.

Consider me agog for any news on a reunion.

Re Disposable Half-Truths: Someone at the Princeton Record Exchange talked me into buying that cassette when I was 15. I had heard "Nag3" on Wanna Buy A Bridge? but had no conception of "industrial" music beyond that.

Fuck. Scariest music I ever heard up to that point (excluding "Revolution 9"). I remember listening to it on my Walkman as my parents drove us home through the Mercer County burbs, all the while that chant of "no fucking chance at all...no fucking chance at all..." echoing in my brain.

Bimble is most assuredly not more goth than me as real goths were disgusted with sell-out Sensoria and won't suffer any Cabs later than the Fools Game/Eddie's Out 12".

basically, if you can understand what Mallinder's saying and you still like it, you gotta turn in yr goth card

I like the early-middle period Cabaret Voltaire. Still dark and weird, but getting a little pop. Kinda like the UK electronic version of Chrome. For some reason I put them along the same lines.

I can definitely hear parallels with Chrome

Aw yeah. Kiss my assz bitchez.

Cheers to Mike A. for mentioning "Disposable Half Truths".
You're going to make me pull that out now. And add it to my iPod.

Burt, I sent you an email the other day. Check yer spam folder if you don't see it.

i like three mantras and red mecca and that's all i ever felt the need for (except for 24x5 but I listen to that less, in fact, never)

I think I had a problem with looped matter-of-fact phrases over noisy backup. Something about the repetition seemed ominous and creepy to me.

Love this band.

they just announced some west coast US/canada dates for May on their IG page

and east coast dates to be announced

just got my tix for the LA date

and ticketmaster, as ever, can get fkd

https://dangerousminds.net/comments/we_use_the_music_as_an_exorcism/

!!!

h/t to JCLC

Tickets available for Washington DC 9/23 at the Howard Theater

I can't really accept Cabaret Voltaire without Richard H. Kirk tbh.

I couldn't really accept CV when it was just RHK. Saw them in Manchester last year with Eric Random on guitar and they were excellent.

I cant really accept Cabaret Voltaire without Hugo Ball.

any combo of these guys is alright with me. looking forward to it considering I never at any point I would see them.

Eric Random, Haydn Boyes-Weston, Alan Fish and Six Sed Red to tour as Cabaret Noltaire.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=4FjUIIUVVus

boo, SF show has moved from the Warfield to the Regency, easily the worst similarly sized venue in the city.

https://parade.com/news/legendary-british-band-cabaret-voltaire-play-first-north-american-dates-in-30-years-on-final-tour

Aww man,no dc tour

they are: september 23 at the Howard Theater

Oh cool

For some reason it was not well announced? and I really dislike how the Jammin’ Java empire does it’s email announcements

or “Union Stage Presents” to be precise

the new live album is pretty mighty fine.
far better than the live album that was part of the 'conform to deform' boxset.

good to hear, I need to check it out

another aspect i love, is how TDR have remained part of the inner circle,
even for this post RHK release.
i realise the glory years were all about the brilliance of neville brody, but since then, TDR have given RHK/CV some cracking coverart.

Well the SF show last night was a fine treat for sure. (And I was up front on the railing so honestly the sound worked for me!)

https://cdn.bsky.app/img/feed_fullsize/plain/did:plc:kqdyhnklmmv34nmml6btyqv6/bafkreich5xn73vtpkod7kkdibaq74xj7tfwoynxmmib3ha5l4hyoky5pk4

https://cdn.bsky.app/img/feed_fullsize/plain/did:plc:kqdyhnklmmv34nmml6btyqv6/bafkreif5ispumkfuzds5wuqyv5ugf3gbu273teicvicr54ylqeg52screi

The other members there are Tara Busch from I Speak Machine pulling double duty after a great opening set, Benge on the percussion and semi-band-vet Eric Random on keyboards and guitar.

they were great in LA too, love that they played “easy life”

They come to the East coast in the autumn and I get nervous about bands from abroad being let into the USSA

oh man this was great

I missed what happened with Chris Watson, is he unable to tour? I think he's still a band member

I missed a bit of the show as a friend had a medical issue and had to be taken to the hospital. I thought the sound was good! Another friend joked that the show was like a highschool reunion… I saw a bunch of people I hadn’t seen in years.

a bit here

https://www.bbc.co.uk/sounds/play/m002wf0b

they talk about the gigs and growing up in Sheffield with libraries and cheap public transport

starts about 36 minutes in