WashYourHands

Cat Malogen
This bit is tough because it requires whittling down Cabaret Voltaire's vast discography. I feel like Meryl Streep in Sophie's Choice, but the wife and kids are safe in bed and Daddy's free.

CV straddled the 80's like Yorkshire gods. The band have mythical, mystical qualities in that Sheffield has traditionally had a bit of violent banter with its southern neighbours in Nottingham. Sheffield had steel, jobs, a modern post-war city centre you could get to for about 75p return on the train that seemed space-aged compared to old Market Square, but that meant running the gauntlet of the bloody Owl Squad and that other shower of bladed shite at Sheff-Utd. Remember, this was a period when Forest were still the bollocks regionally for fitba. Although these picks traverse time, i've lumped them together for the sake of not forgetting specific gems later and eargasming over Richard H Kirk's contributions to sonic space.

Throbbing Gristle split just on the cusp of my personal awareness of them even existing through the older siblings of friends, which left a bit of a gap, a gap that CV more than filled. Instead of mullets, TOPY sigils and sending in jizz stains for occult workings, CV seemed to be picking apart understandings of Control via a far more nuanced methodology - rhythm heavy grooves overlaid with dissonant, half-heard, barely recognised vocal tamperings and samples. No-one did vocals like the Cabs. No-one. No-one did guitars like the Cabs. Ever. Names like Western Works create a shudder of recognition even today, but for me it's ALL about Richard Kirk's contribution. Don't get me wrong, Chris Watson and S Mallinder are adept hands with field recordings and studio work, but both lacked Kirk's superior vision, intuition and ears. The evidence for this is apparent when you listen to RHK's solo work. It was even possible to put aside the monster show in the north of Ireland while listening to CV, the dreaded Sunday phone calls to my Dad from home informing him of who had been recently shot/blown up/tortured/mutilated/left for dead and for that i'm eternally grateful.

2x45 has two mammoth tracks, Wait and Shuffle + Get Out of My Face. Both are distilled groovers. Both are a soup of layered collages, rippled riffs, wobbling synth "things" and i love, LOVE, the parade Sgt Major screaming over the one tune. Who would do that, make that choice of sample and, more importantly, why? The Voice of America had already set the tone about who the real targets were - Control and all its manifestations. Friends started mentioning William Burroughs, cut-ups, Brion Gysin and anything Burroughs-related became a huge quest in itself. I can't remember whose home i first heard this at, but a lot of good hash was involved aiding and abetting the sonic malaise at hand. It'd be sweet chewing the fat in person here, a turntable at hand and some ridiculously strong rosin to share with you, but here's corporate behemoth youtube waiting to ear rape you with a wanky mandolin themed-ad intruding somewhere along with the picks. Such is life



The Crackdown release. Fewer rough edges, less tweaks on the vocals, not poppier just more refined studio chops and it immediately sounds more 80's today because of it. Due to these production techniques only one track makes it into the list - Just Fascination. That steady 4x4 kick (that floats around the pace of your actual heart beat) seeded something deep in me. I thought it was a bit poncey at first. There was a video that came out at the time, complete with plucked eyebrows and blocky Miami Vice jackets. What the fuck? But, over a month or two, it delved deeper and deeper into my neural networks. That fucking beat was/is so damned hypnotic. The synth/guitar riff harmonics. When i eventually caved in and went out to buy the release with my paper round savings (always bin the papers first), the vinyl had sold out, so i was forced into getting the cassette instead. Wore the bastard thing out practically, with Just Fascination on almost constant repeat. Fiona H didn't stand a chance after this release. There was a bigger, wider, stranger world out there and one its biggest draws came from, of all places, Sheffield


More asap.
 

catalog

Well-known member
i've never really been able to 'get' cabaret voltaire at all. i should really like them, cos they are from up north, and were doing interesting things early, but for some reason it just doesn't work for me. that first tune is OK, sort of reminds me of the pop group, but i massively prefer mark stewart and all associated acts.
 

Leo

Well-known member
CV have their first new album in 25 or so years coming out this fall, be interesting to see where then land on a sound.
 

WashYourHands

Cat Malogen
i've never really been able to 'get' cabaret voltaire at all. i should really like them, cos they are from up north, and were doing interesting things early, but for some reason it just doesn't work for me. that first tune is OK, sort of reminds me of the pop group, but i massively prefer mark stewart and all associated acts.

Old friends squirm at the very mention of CV, so you’re by no means alone. One or two walked away from them when they released Sensoria. What drew me in initially was their oily blend of sinister funk, to boil it down. With hindsight that might seem obvious, but at the time they were a beacon of ideas in an ocean of dross. My older sister would have her crew over to watch Top of the Pops. Jfc. Her gaggle were all Human League fascists and you couldn’t be doing with that.

Parallel listening to anything with any gumption would have been Dead Kennedys, DC hardcore bands and crossover like Corrosion of Conformity. Anyone I knew who played an instrument was fixated on those worlds. Jello Biafra, what a mind that bloke has. The Fall featured just as much. Getting pissed up and necking mushrooms with mates, egging each other on to nail an impersonation of the Mark E Smith snarl. Weird times.
 

version

Well-known member
CV occupy a similar spot in my mental landscape to This Heat and neither have ever really clicked for me. It's this very 80s sounding stuff I thought I'd like but no aspect of which is strong enough to really draw me in. 'Awkward' is probably the first term that comes to mind when I think of them. The elements of their tracks don't quite seem to sit together. They're like Craner's Eurocult films in that I prefer hearing what Craner has to say about them than actually watching them. Same here with WashYourHands discussing them.
 

version

Well-known member
Had no idea, ta for the heads up L.
The LP comes 26 years after the pioneering UK group's last studio album, The Conversation, came out in 1994. Founding member Richard H Kirk, who revived the project as a solo endeavour with a performance at Berlin Atonal 2014, has developed new Cabaret Voltaire material to play live at select shows in the years since, with "the mission statement from the off was no nostalgia. Normal rules do not apply. Something for the 21st Century. No old material."

"It took fucking ages," Kirk says about the album. "One of the problems I've found in the past is getting too close to music. So I would leave things and come back to them. I took a bit more time to look at the bigger picture–I didn't want to just bang something out. It's like testing a piece of machinery and making sure everything is doing its job properly before putting it out into the world."

The resulting record touches on techno, dub, house and 1970s Kosmische, the label says, with recording taking place at the Western Works studio in Sheffield used throughout the band's active years. Kirk's initial plans to upgrade to a digital setup were interrupted by a computer failure, leading to him using the studio's original gear. "Making this album reminded me a bit of the old days with Cabaret Voltaire because there wasn't that much equipment, so you really had to use your imagination," he says.


 

WashYourHands

Cat Malogen
It's Kirk solo too. Wonder why he decided to revive the name.

My day off is now going to be a wormhole of investigation.

The name is a big ticket in itself and a lot of the Intone releases Kirk put out from about 2000 onwards show a drop off in what attracted me to his sounds. His Earlier-Later compilation is really good though. Have a listen to the warped, tape-stretched sounding piano pieces and embrace your inner mullet


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WashYourHands

Cat Malogen
Don’t worry, will definitely get to that.

This might not embed as playable due to YouTube blocking certain links, but it has that blend of rhythm, dissonance and effect usage that keeps me listening

 

WashYourHands

Cat Malogen
A mushroom brew mixed up with squash, bottled and swigged running the roads, then pile back to a mate's thieving milk off doorsteps on the way.

As the carpet swooshed like liquid and the curtains breathed, something like Entering Creation or Synesthesia would come on and you could just disintegrate. Heavy historical tripping bias. Microdots, Walls blotters and Sheffield's finest just the right side of sinister.

There's too many and this could all too easily tangent. Have to add


And another life changer - there's life before and life after Sensoria came out. A real trance track for the times

 

WashYourHands

Cat Malogen
That leaves Kirk's solo work, which has two distinct phases or peaks:

The heavy, abstract, disturbing gear like Disposable Half Truths, Time High, Ugly Spirit (Burroughs checked) and Black Jesus Voice. Not for the faint-hearted.

Various savant-level, ambient-House alias black-belt moves, like Sandoz, Electronic Eye and Sweet Exorcist.

If i can get those down to 3 or 4 hitters it'll be a challenge.
 

version

Well-known member
I listened through Virtual State a couple of times earlier today and thought it was wicked. Swear he's using some of the same gear as Aphex on SAW 85-92. Very similar sounds.
 
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