Cabaret Voltaire

(NB this was a band whom I worshipped in high school, so the standard exceptions apply, etc)

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.

lol I did not spell that right AT ALL

In case you're wondering...

https://64.media.tumblr.com/tumblr_lw2kduusdT1qedb29o1_1280.jpg

i believe that tik tok with red mecca is what is called a 'joke'

tom d : yeah, sorry, i have no idea what thats referring to ..

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Or_So_It_Seems

ta for the pointer.
never heard of that, life pre internet.

xxxp booooo I want to believe

as per earlier.
i loved the CODE era.
some of the 12" versions of that era were so good.
this is a perfect example where they got it spot on re major label big budget vs old school CV juddering synths + vocals

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=I3CM2zaQMho

from the comments on that tweet someone has done a mashup of Nag Nag Nag + All Too Well by Taylor Swift https://www.dailyreckless.com/2023/07/12/cabaret-voltaylor/

thats rather good.

my fave CODE era remix is this one where François Kevorkian and Adrian Sherwood collide and head off into outer space xtc (around the 4 minute mark is where it really takes off, or rather spaces right out). The original promo had an added sample from 'Blue Velvet' of Dennis Hopper shouting Don't You Fucking Look At Me! but i guess EMI's legal dept made them drop that.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=fax2gN6ADP0

Cabaret Voltayre

xp daaaaaaamn

my fave CODE era remix is this one where François Kevorkian and Adrian Sherwood collide and head off into outer space xtc (around the 4 minute mark is where it really takes off, or rather spaces right out). The original promo had an added sample from 'Blue Velvet' of Dennis Hopper shouting Don't You Fucking Look At Me! but i guess EMI's legal dept made them drop that.

i knew it was going to be that mix.
of course it's £££ on discogs via the cd single, and unavailable via digital outlets.
there have been rumours re a proper reissue of CODE.
i'm hoping for a proper expanded edition with all the remixes ..

That's a great mix! I'm one of the "Virgin era is prime" fans (Drinking Gasoline!), but I've never spent the time on the post Arm of the Lord era that I really should.

CODE is great of course (biassed me !? surely not),
Groovy Laid Back is different, and not a CV album that gets a lot of love, however, the CV remixes of the GLB&N tracks that came with the extra 12" are much better (all of them are included on the brilliant 'Remixed' compilation).
The Conversation is ambient-techno with very little involvement from SM, but very good if you like that kind of thing.
And that's where i stepped away until the recent 'revival' of the name, which was effectively RHK in solo mode.

Here's the mix with the sample:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=LLtA1R2DUfU

yeah, i thought i had a mix with the sample on it.
that mix is also included on the Remixed compilation.
'Remixed' + 'The Original Sound of Sheffield 83-87' : both are brilliant entry points to this era.

I really like some of the post code pre ambient club tracks that really just sound like solo sandoz sweet exorcist Kirk tracks with the occasional interjection from Mal saying something like “Colours…colors”

Cabaret Voltaire's Postcode: NG7 7EW

dont get me wrong, i absolutely love RHK 'solo' stuff.
but for some reason i gave up re CV after 'The Conversation'.
suspect it was mainly due to the scarcity of finding the cd editions, and now they are £££.

i did manage to find this in the bins once though, which is basically an album and includes his SE cohort Parrot :

https://www.discogs.com/release/34719-Cabaret-Voltaire-Percussion-Force

Cabaret Voltaire's Postcode: NG7 7EW

lol.

Here's the mix with the sample:

ah! memory mix-up!

by the way noted poster JCLC posted this amazing Crackdown-era Dutch radio set on FB:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ZCJGRGQ8uq0

that set is so good!

but for some reason i gave up re CV after 'The Conversation'.
suspect it was mainly due to the scarcity of finding the cd editions, and now they are £££.

the only ones after that are the modern albums, are those actually OOP? I see them on vinyl all the time

(those albuums don't do a whole lot for me, I think I gave shadow of fear and dekadrone each one listen)

but for some reason i gave up re CV after 'The Conversation'.
suspect it was mainly due to the scarcity of finding the cd editions, and now they are £££.

the only ones after that are the modern albums, are those actually OOP? I see them on vinyl all the time

― I? not I! He! He! HIM! (akm)

ooops. i got the chronology incorrect.

i missed out on 'body and soul', 'plasticity', and 'international language' as i never saw them out in the real world, but i did pick up 'the conversation'.

as for the recent albums, i really loved 'shadow of fear', and the 'shadow of funk' ep.
i got the two drone albums of course, but its not often i'm in the mood for them.
actually the best CV like release for me by RHK, was his last 'solo' album, Dasein.

Mallinder's recent solo album (not Wrangler) is really excellent.

Dasein is great.

Am i correct in thinking those early 90s albums (which are not that compelling) are more or less Kirk solo albums? If so, was there some falling out between Mallinder and Kirk?

i think Plasticity is pretty good but does feel more like a RHK solo album, despite some Mallinder involvement.

suspect i would love all of the RHK/CV releases now given how much i have succumbed to the RHK solo thing.
also, there are the 2 CV releases that seem to have been forgotten about.
once RHK had the name, he made 2 remix albums using the CV brand.
tDR did the art, and amrik 'fon records' rai sorted out the logistics.
personally, i love both remix albums as they definitely have the CV sound via the juddering synths.

https://www.discogs.com/master/244139-Kora-Cabaret-Voltaire-Kora-Kora-Kora-The-Cabaret-Voltaire-Versions

https://www.discogs.com/release/2306312-The-Tivoli-Vs-Cabaret-Voltaire-National-Service-Rewind