Review: When Cabaret Voltaire returned to the release schedule in 2020 as the one-man Richard H Kirk show, fans were relieved to find that mind-bending meld of 1970s Kosmische, techno, dub, house and space-age experimental electro was as pure as it ever has been - the results being a typically fresh and forward-thinking record the man in question summed up as "no nostalgia... normal rules do not apply. Something for the 21st Century. No old material."
Less than six months later and the big CV has more next level business to offer us, coming in the form of Shadow of Funk, a new EP that offers something of a counterpoint or extension to last year's full-length, Shadow of Fear. Based on 'Billion Dollar' alone - an acid-driven big, dark room banger that closes this EP -this release looks set to make an equally heavy impact, but as with anything this man touches, the joy is in discovery. So, let's leave it at that.
Honourable, Dead Or Alive, When Following The Revolutionary Road (Arduous March version) (4:06)
Honourable, Dead Or Alive, When Following The Revolutionary Road (single Hearted Unity version) (3:21)
We Will Go To Mount Paektu (3:39)
Arirang (live At Kum song music School, Pyongyang) (2:19)
Honourable, Dead Or Alive, When Following The Revolutionary Road (live At Kum song music School, Pyongyang) (2:30)
We Will Go To Mount Paektu (live At Ponghwa Theatre, Pyongyang) (3:36)
Review: Laibach's new EP is made up of "unpublished tracks from the repertoire of the band's 2015 performances in North Korea". "Honourable, Dead Or Alive, "When Following The Revolutionary Road" are based on an aria from a North Korean opera written and produced under the watchful eye of Kim Jong Il, but Laibach's interpretation was deemed too complicated hence stricken from their show. It's presented here, however, with two takes on North Korean pop hit "We Will Go to Mount Paektu" along with folk song "Arirang" to make for a wonderfully exotic release.
Review: Ever-changing Slovenian collective Laibach seems to have mellowed with age, with the band's inherent desire to court controversy (see their 2015 performances in North Korea for a relatively recently example) currently curtailed. Love Is Still Alive, which marks their first new music since the release of last year's well-received album Wir Sind das Volk, is actually an "extension" of the music they wrote to soundtrack the 2019 film 'Iron Sky -The Coming Race'. It is, they say, a "trip through space music genres of recent decades" (albeit with bonus nods to country, pop and so on) that loosely tells the story of a spaceship full of post-apocalyptic survivors making their way across the solar system. It's a lot of fun, all told, with the band expertly showcasing the breadth of their musical knowledge as well as skip-fulls of imagination.
Review: If you still haven't clocked on to Liars, they're a bunch of seriously hip dudes form Brooklyn who've been making music since the turn of the century. Having always stuck close to London's now-mythical Mute imprint, 2014 has been a busy year for them, one which has seen them release their sixth album for the label, the aptly named Mess. If that wasn't enough, this latest EP is a rip-roaring remix affair of the LP's "Pro Anti Anti" track, which sees both a varied and truly talented bunch of artists having a go and re-jigging their noisy strand of art-rock into unrecognisable shapes and forms. The original itself is a cross between The Strokes on a serious dose of downers and Cabaret Voltaire's chest-bursting power electronics, and while Daniel Miller's remix doesn't steer too far away form the original, Factory Floor come up with a jittering, broken techno version. Truss adds in a much-needed helping of bleeps and cavernous kick drums on top of the original's wailing vocals, while Nest Of Teens stand out thanks to a marvellous reinterpretation of Liars' bassline. Beauts, the lot of 'em.
Review: A Certain Ratio's core trio of drummer Donald Johnson, bassist/vocalist Jez Kerr, and multi-instrumentalist Martin Moscrop make ACR Loco a perfectly fluid and funk album. In fact, on this, their first album in more than ten years, the Manchester post-punk outfit are as funky as they have ever been. Their tried and tested sound gets nicely updated with modern beat driven sounds and plenty of redefines to today's political strife in the lyrics. There are plenty of smooth and cool synth led grooves like 'Get A Grip' and messages of unity on 'Family' that we can all relate to.
This Situation (feat Robert Aiki Aubrey Lowe) (8:15)
As You Dream (feat Michael Gira) (4:15)
Review: If it's been a while since Adult's last album, there's a very good explanation. Back in 2014, they successfully applied for an arts grant to turn their studio into a kind of drop-in centre for some of their musical heroes. Since then, a vast roll-call of electronic music talents old and new have spent three weeks living, collaborating and recording with Adult in Detroit. The results are showcased on Detroit House Guests. Combining their usual EBM, industrial, electro and experimental influences with those of their selected guests - Nitzer Ebb's Douglas J. McCarthy, noted experimentalist Robert Aiki Aubrey Lowe and Swans man Michael Gira included - it's an album that feels like a wholehearted celebration of the power of artistic collaboration.
Review: If it's been a while since Adult's last album, there's a very good explanation. Back in 2014, they successfully applied for an arts grant to turn their studio into a kind of drop-in centre for some of their musical heroes. Since then, a vast roll-call of electronic music talents old and new have spent three weeks living, collaborating and recording with Adult in Detroit. The results are showcased on Detroit House Guests. Combining their usual EBM, industrial, electro and experimental influences with those of their selected guests - Nitzer Ebb's Douglas J. McCarthy, noted experimentalist Robert Aiki Aubrey Lowe and Swans man Michael Gira included - it's an album that feels like a wholehearted celebration of the power of artistic collaboration.
Review: London's legendary Mute institution goes back to its roots and digs up some of the best work by one of the UK's finest Cabaret Voltaire. These guys don't really need an introduction give the fact that they're pretty much responsible for the rise of post-punk right through to the birth of techno. It was about time a new compilation of their stuff was released, especially one as brutally on-point as this one! All the classics such as "Nag Nag Nag", "Kneel To The Boss" and "On Every Other Street" are one here but the more obscure rarities that were previously only available on 7" are the real winners. "Just Fascination", for example, is one you'll certainly want on a longer, re-mastered cut! Downright essential!
Review: In 1979, Cabaret Voltaire - then consisting of all three founder members, Richard H. Kirk, Stephen Mallinder and Chris Watson - recorded a soundtrack for an experimental film "for two projectors" by Babeth Mondini. 40 years on, that soundtrack has finally been given a release. It's similar in tone to some of the Sheffield experimentalists' other soundtrack work from the period, offering discordant, unsettling and otherworldly sound collages that fuse heavily modified and processed instrumental parts (guitar, bass, drums, clarinet, saxophone) with tape loops, sampled dialogue and the band's ever-present electronic tones. Whether you're an obsessive Cabs fan or not, it's well worth a listen. This is, after all, a slice of previously hidden musical history.
Review: In 1979, Cabaret Voltaire - then consisting of all three founder members, Richard H. Kirk, Stephen Mallinder and Chris Watson - recorded a soundtrack for an experimental film "for two projectors" by Babeth Mondini. 40 years on, that soundtrack has finally been given a release. It's similar in tone to some of the Sheffield experimentalists' other soundtrack work from the period, offering discordant, unsettling and otherworldly sound collages that fuse heavily modified and processed instrumental parts (guitar, bass, drums, clarinet, saxophone) with tape loops, sampled dialogue and the band's ever-present electronic tones. Whether you're an obsessive Cabs fan or not, it's well worth a listen. This is, after all, a slice of previously hidden musical history.
Dream Sequence Number Three (short version) (2:38)
Reverse (Piece One) (2:39)
Stolen From Spectra (4:01)
Shes Black (part 1) (2:47)
Jive (4:15)
The Single (3:43)
Speed Kills (2:04)
Fascist Police State (0:30)
Synthi AKS (Piece Three) (1:47)
Data Processing Instructions (4:54)
Fuse Mountain (4:17)
Calling Moscow (4:28)
Dream Sequence Number Two (Ethel's Voice) (5:22)
The Attic Tapes (3:56)
Treated Speech (3:59)
Dream Sequence Number Three (long version) (7:01)
Henderson Reversed (Piece Two) (7:40)
Bed Time Stories (6:12)
Loves In Vein (3:27)
Do The Mussolini (Head Kick) (They Kill Him dub) (3:31)
Shes Black (part 2) (2:47)
Its Not Music (4:38)
Slo Change (5:25)
Original Voice Of America (3:43)
Heaven & Hell (5:40)
Do The Mussolini (Head Kick) (3:17)
Here She Comes Now (4:12)
Capsules (5:14)
Oh Roger (4:44)
Havoc (3:05)
Talkover (3:17)
No Escape (3:59)
Photophobia (6:02)
The Set Up (5:57)
A Minute Is A Life Time (5:48)
Baader Meinhof (3:23)
Nag Nag Nag (5:03)
Its About Now (2:07)
Review: Richard H. Kirk never throws anything away, or at least any audio recordings from the dim and distant past. It's why he's been able to compile this epic, seven-disc box set full of recordings made by the original Cabaret Voltaire line up of him, Stephen Mallinder and Chris Watson between 1974 and '78. While there are original "attic demos" of some of their most famous early cuts - "Do The Mussolini", "Baader Meinhof", "Nag Nag Nag" etc. - the most revelatory material is the fearlessly obtuse experimental fare that has previously never seen the light of day. The perfect Christmas gift for the industrial music lover in your life!
B-STOCK: Creasing to corner of outer sleeve with split on spine, but otherwise in working order
Do The Mussolini (Headkick)
The Set Up
Nag Nag Nag
On Every Other Street
Silent Command
Kneel To The Boss
Seconds Too Late
Landslide
Breathe Deep
Just Fascination (7" version)
Crackdown (radio edit 83)
The Dream Ticket (7" version)
Sensoria (7" version)
James Brown (7" version)
Kino (7" version)
Big Funk (7" version)
I Want You (7" version)
Warm
Review: ***B-STOCK: Creasing to corner of outer sleeve with split on spine, but otherwise in working order***
London's legendary Mute institution goes back to its roots and digs up some of the best work by one of the UK's finest Cabaret Voltaire. These guys don't really need an introduction give the fact that they're pretty much responsible for the rise of post-punk right through to the birth of techno. It was about time a new compilation of their stuff was released, especially one as brutally on-point as this one! All the classics such as "Nag Nag Nag", "Kneel To The Boss" and "On Every Other Street" are one here but the more obscure rarities that were previously only available on 7" are the real winners. "Just Fascination", for example, is one you'll certainly want on a longer, re-mastered cut! Downright essential!
Review: RECOMMENDED
When electronic hero Richard H. Kirk returned in 2020 under the Cabaret Voltaire moniker - changing band to solo project for the first record in 26 years, Shadow of Fear - it couldn't have been more apt. Known for exploring darker and more visceral ends of synthdom, the musical boundary-pusher delivered a record that was alarming, challenging and completely unique, confirming that old habits really do die hard.
12 months or so later and the world is still trapped in the chaotic mess it was when that LP dropped, but Kirk has clearly opted to explore new ideas and break yet more new ground. Dekadrone lives up to its name, offering four lengthy movements that showcase the effectiveness of refrains and the musicality that can be created, or found, in extended notes and ongoing atmospheres. Another work of staggering genius.
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