Cabaret Voltaire

has anyone heard the Sandoz stuff? i listened briefly to the latest one (on SoulJazz) in the rekkid store and thought it was pretty hip (real dubbed out stuff). is it worth searching down?

the steven mallinder solo record is quite sparse and nice. i don't much like his stuff now (he lives in perth!)

ugh, more soon, i have to dress my kid...

covenant sword and the arm of the lord, the singles on rough trade, the bbc radio sessions, crackdown, micro-phonies, yashar (tho not the new mixes), sensoria, crepescule tracks, actually, there's loads of good uns

One of Richard H. Kirk's projects with DJ Parrot, under the name 'Sweet Exorcist', is quite special. A merging of two very unusual talents. Look hard for an ep called 'Clonk's Coming' on Warp.

I liked Hypnotised off Groovy Laidback and Nasty when it came out. I remember A Guy Called Gerald did a remix of it.

Going from Sheffield to Perth is kind of an extreme life change I would think.

Recordings not on Rough Trade or Some Bizzare, I don't care for. I can't dance, not in time with the music, anyway.

and colin: he was once a kind of hero of mine so i don't want to say to much about mallinder i'm just not excited by the records.

(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...

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

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=bkSzmBX9Nw8

Mal looking great at 71!

today over on IG Eddy Temple Morris posted one of his very enjoyable love-in videos.
normally they are all about big beat/bloghouse styled stuff as per his xfm era radio shows.
today much to my surprise todays post was about Sensoria.
he mentioned how the whole 'do right, go to church, always work' samples were from a KKK film/video.
i have hammered that track since its release and i had never even tried to find out where that sample came from (life before the internet !), so it was a bit of a 'things you were shockingly old when you learned' moment.

and yeah, 71 year old mal .. just wow.

Saw them last night in Boston, apparently they've never played here before! They were fantastic. It really was a unique experience. They blended elements from across their history and sort of reinterpreted their songs. For example, they closed with the immortal "Sensoria" but added a scratchy guitar that you'd find on their earlier noisier songs. It really worked!

Does anyone want a ticket to see them in New York Friday. I can’t make it :(

the reworked versions sound immense on the live album that is from this tour.

Toronto was outstanding as well. Hadn't looked at the setlists since May, so it was a nice surprise to hear a certain addition to the encore.

The blink-and-miss shot of the Sheffield street sign (Chicago) during "Easy Life" was a nice touch.

On that note, couldn't quite discern what Mal said to the crowd about "your neighbo(u)rs" but it was no doubt appropriate.

Toronto was outstanding as well. Hadn't looked at the setlists since May, so it was a nice surprise to hear a certain addition to the encore.

"Partially Submerged" or "Extract from Soundtrack of 'Chance Vs. Causality'"?

A Sunday Night in Biot

"Pour Some Sugar on Me"

thx mark e

https://cabaretvoltaire.bandcamp.com/album/but-what-time-is-it-really

listening now

incredible to hear the Crackdown-era tracks with Chris Watson's input

Watson's playing again? I thought he wasn't involved with the tour? Or he worked on the reworks but isn't touring?

he played on the UK tour last year that the release above is a recording of

(sorry, I was talking abt the release mark e mentioned, not the current tour)

saw both Chicago shows. so good! so much super old stuff -- more than I'd expected, anyway -- it was really a wonderful show and I'm so glad I saw it...the last time I saw them was the Crackdown tour.

Saw the DC show

I enjoyed it although some songs felt more nostalgic than timeless.

i was there too, hope you weren’t the person I spilled my beer on

Ha! No, not me . We’ll have to have an ilm fap some time where you can tell how you did that

Saw nyc last night. Sadly Eric Random was really sick and couldn’t make it so Cass McCombs had 4 hours to learn the material and step in in guitar and Mal apologized for any missing sequencer parts Random would trigger. Said if we notice something missing it was up to us to sing it out.

Cass did fantastic, nailed the sound, didn’t feel like it was lacking at all. Show sounded great. Got a tahirt. The 80s goth contingent was out in force so it was nice not being the oldest person again.

The idea that they played songs like Kirlian Photograph in concert back then is quite something (to me at least), sounds great too.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=akG3iKrFBFE

One of the greatest guitar sounds ever.

https://toneglow.substack.com/p/tone-glow-241-cabaret-voltaire

Mallinder interview where he praises Kirk's guitar sound, and talks about many of the Black music genres he Mallinder has loved over the years

I was really into D Train, Peech Boys, The Gap Band, and Roger Troutman so it was a really big thing when Grandmaster Flash came out. We were connected with [producers] Arthur Baker and John Robie who did “Planet Rock” and “Looking for the Perfect Beat.” We worked with John for “Don’t Argue” and I did a track with Bambaataa [“Radical Music: Revolutionary Dance” (1988)]. We were really into all that early stuff, like Mantronix, almost to our detriment. When club music exploded, people in England—like the NME—were saying, “You should be working with English people like Happy Mondays and The Stone Roses! Why are you working with people from Chicago and Detroit?” But we grew up on that! We grew up on Black American music—Richard and I were young soul boys. What’s the first band I ever saw? Booker T. & the M.G.’s. I remember seeing Steve Cropper. I shook hands with Martha Reeves when she was on stage, and this was when I was 14 or 15 years old. We grew up on Funkadelic and George Clinton, y’know? We were aware of how that technology was being used in Black electronic music on songs like “Atomic Dog” (1982). When someone like Schoolly D popped up it was like, okay, I get this.

In Sheffield tonight for the final, final show. (which according to the Quietus interview last week might not end up being but is supposed to be).

suspect my social media feeds tomorrow will be full off shame inducing chaos given i never got to see this last uk jaunt (budget/lack of interested friends etc etc).
that said, the new 'live' album kinda helps as it has the nu-era variants that i can play at wall shaking levels as and when.
now if only mute could get the 3cd code reissue sorted.
delayed until the end of november at least.