…just because…
This is back when Mal was still thumpin’ the live bass. The sound of their live performance was always mesmerizing…
Just Fascination
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=-Z9BEUL005Q&feature=related
I Want You
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=B-c_1RjwI1U&feature=related
1002
I must delve deeper into Cabaret Voltaire, only have surface knowledge. That performance of ‘Just Fascination’ is quite good, feels similar to ‘Headfuck’ (the drums anyway). Any direction as to what their essential material is?
Essential CV albums, in my opinion, from each of their ‘phases’:
Experimental/post-punk/noise era (1976-1982):
The Voice Of America (1980)
Industrial/funk/80’s club era:
The Crackdown (1983) (features Just Fascination)
Microphonies (1984) (features Sensoria, a semi-popular club hit)
House/Trance/Jungle/Minimalist Techno era:
The Conversation (1994)
1002
Time to dig. Thanks.
I’d also add “Mix Up”, it sounds like the bridge from punk to industrial and nothing else I’ve heard has quite the same feel.
‘Red Mecca’ and ‘Voice Of America’ spent alot of time on my stereo back in the '90s.
Must dig out those records again sometime soon as it’s been ages.
A lot of their stuff is out of print, so if you’re interested, I could throw sampler together and upload it somewhere for you to grab, wouldn’t be a problem at all for me.
Code (1987) is another one of my favorites. CV fans either love or hate that one, because it’s a very polished record that could almost be called their ‘crossover’ album. The industrial funk sound is still there, the mood is dark, but the melodies and hooks are quite poppy, and they did release a couple of singles from that one - Don’t Argue, and Here To Go. I love the album, but can see why some CV fans would hate it.
The other guys mentioned Mix-Up and Red Mecca, and those are equally recommended from the early experimental era, I just picked Voice Of America for the sake of picking one. Their early material is challenging to listen to, but it’s also very fascinating, and innovative.
1002
Cool, I think I’ll stop by either ‘Voice of America’ or ‘Mix Up’ soon, the last few songs on ‘The Crackdown’ sound cool, reminds me of Eno/Byrne: ‘My Life…’
Tenohtwo, if it is no hassle to throw a sampler up somewhere, that would be much appreciated.
No hassle at all, I will upload a sampler this evening, and will let you know when it’s up.
1002
“Just Fascination” is still my fave by the Cabs. Granted, I’ve not heard tons of their stuff, but what I have heard is good.
… Save the latter-day stuff, though. Too… not there… for me, I guess.
Tenoh;
I’m an enormous CV fan and I honestly consider Code their weakest effort. It didn’t have the funkified electro-paranoia edge of their earlier 80s stuff but it also didn’t have the heavy house influence of Groovy and the later Kirk-oriented material.
If I may, let me expand on your list a bit with a few additions:
Experimental era:
-Living Legands. A nice overview of the earlier stuff
Industrial era:
-Radiation 84-88 (aka “The BBC Recordings”) a semi-unplugged collection of live material (Peel sessions etc). It has some STUNNING tracks on there, including a fantastic version of “Hey Hey” from Code and some rarities such as “You Like to Torment Me” and “Doom Zoom”.
Also, I’d split up their “techno” period into two camps: the techno era (“Groovy” in 1990 up through “Colours” in 1991 and “Technology” in 1992) that still had Mal on vox.
Of those, I am fond of “Percussion Force” and “Body & Soul”, though “Groovy…” is still a guilty pleasure of mine.
Then I’d set their their more experimental ambient/trance stuff in a separate category, of which International Language is PROBABLY my favorite of the trilogy, but you really cannot go wrong with any of them. And yes, the Conversation is a true masterpiece.
If you have to have a single career-spanning collection, then Conform to Deform is probably the best effort, and it’s still fairly available since it just came out 6 years or so ago. It’s basically 2 discs of rarities/remixes then a 3rd disc of live material from 1990 (which is worth the purchase of the entire set just for itself).
In all fairness, the entire CV catalog deserves a full remastering/rerelease. It’ll never happen, though. I have managed to track down every album on CD other than “Code” and a substantial chunk of vinyl too. And that’s nothing compared to trying to acquire RHK’s non-CV output over the past 3 decades!
Mick, here is a 14-track overview of CV’s career. This was VERY difficult to compile without leaving out tons of great tracks, but will at least guide you in the right direction. If you want to hear more from a particular era, let me know. Enjoy!
[url “http://www.mediafire.com/?jynd05fdzey”]CV Sampler
Track listing:
01 1978 Extended Play EP - The Set Up
02 1979 Nag Nag Nag 12" - Nag Nag Nag
03 1979 Mix Up - On Every Other Street
04 1980 The Voice Of America - Obsession
05 1981 Red Mecca - Sly Doubt
06 1982 2 x 45 EP - Yashar
07 1983 The Crackdown - Over and Over
08 1984 Micro-Phonies - Sensoria (12" Mix)
09 1985 Drinking Gasoline - Sleepwalking
10 1985 The Covenant, The Sword, and The Arm Of The Lord - Kickback
11 1987 Code - Don’t Argue
12 1990 Groovy, Laidback and Nasty - Hypnotised
13 1991 Body and Soul - No Resistance
14 1994 The Conversation - Brutal But Clean
1002
Excellent. Thanks a million, Tenoh
This is an excellent collection 1002! I’ve got most of it but made a playlist using your order and it flows really well and shows off the wide variety of style that CV has. What impresses me too is that through all this variety an internal consistency also shines through. That is very impressive!
Thanks! It was tough narrowing this down, just to get the download size reduced (it’s a 125 MB file). I was closing in on 30 songs. I originally picked two songs from each release, and included songs from some of the other LPs and EPs. There’s some glaring omissions on this comp, which only emphasise how much great material these guys have.
My favorite CV period is definitely 82-87, followed by the early stuff (which actually goes back to 1974). When ‘Groovy, Laidback and Nasty’ was released, I thought it was some sort of joke (cheesey title and artwork), though I did somehow like the Hypnotised 12". I lost touch with them after Body and Soul, as I just wasn’t a big techno/house music fan in those days. Only recently, I’ve come around to listening to The Conversation - which is very good - and I actually don’t own International Language…I think that’s the only album of theirs I’m missing.
1002
In re: CODE, that really is probably their most controversial album in that it’s the one there is the most disagreement about. Personally I love it, I think Cabs did a pop album without losing the strange paranoid vibe they had going (it had Bud Dwyer samples for God’s sake). It also allowed Mallinder to stretch his vocal skills, something like “White Car”, which I love, would have been inconceivable in the “Mix Up” days. He further stretches this in “Groovy” but frankly I don’t think that the vocal production is quite as good on that one.
I hated Groovy when it came out. I bought it last year and have done a 180 on it, I adore it now. “Rescue Me” is now one of my top 10 Cabs tracks. “Body & Soul” has never done it for me, but I haven’t listened to it for a decade or more so my mind might have changed. I remember quite liking “Colours” back in the day, I wonder how that holds up.
Mick, here is a 14-track overview of CV’s career. This was VERY difficult to compile without leaving out tons of great tracks, but will at least guide you in the right direction. If you want to hear more from a particular era, let me know. Enjoy!
[url “http://www.mediafire.com/?jynd05fdzey”]CV Sampler
Track listing:
01 1978 Extended Play EP - The Set Up
02 1979 Nag Nag Nag 12" - Nag Nag Nag
03 1979 Mix Up - On Every Other Street
04 1980 The Voice Of America - Obsession
05 1981 Red Mecca - Sly Doubt
06 1982 2 x 45 EP - Yashar
07 1983 The Crackdown - Over and Over
08 1984 Micro-Phonies - Sensoria (12" Mix)
09 1985 Drinking Gasoline - Sleepwalking
10 1985 The Covenant, The Sword, and The Arm Of The Lord - Kickback
11 1987 Code - Don’t Argue
12 1990 Groovy, Laidback and Nasty - Hypnotised
13 1991 Body and Soul - No Resistance
14 1994 The Conversation - Brutal But Clean
1002
Thanks. Listening now.
I am into some of their stuff but I only have ‘Live at the Hacienda’ which is a bit repetitive and not spectacular.
I’m curious where you guys would fit that into their catalog? I definitely hear the funk in it…
Since there seem to be some Cabaret Voltaire fans on here, maybe somebody can clear this up.
Back in the late '80s/early '90s there was a sort of darkwave group called Revolutionary Army of the Infant Jesus. http://www.myspace.com/revolutionaryarmyoftheinfantjesus. Supposedly they were from Liverpool, and were Christian, but past that I’ve found no real information.
On discogs.com there’s a listing for a Revolutionary Army of the Infant Jesus as a pseudonym for Richard Kirk.
It looks like Kirk’s RAIJ was a one off, but you never know. Has anybody heard of a connection between these two projects?
Just read an interesting interview with Richard H. Kirk from November of ’09, and he mentions an upcoming DVD release of the rare Gasoline In Your Eye video:
“The stuff we used to show live was the stuff that I’d done but in terms of the promos we worked with Peter Care whom I’m working with again on a project. He moved to Los Angeles 20 years ago and he’s been based out there. He did all the famous ones like ‘Don’t Argue’, ‘Sensoria’ and ‘I Want You’. And then we worked together on a project called ‘Gasoline in Your Eye’ which was a long-form video release. That’s probably going to be re-issued in DVD form later in the year. It would be nice to get that back out there as the visual side of what Cabaret Voltaire did has always been very important to me.”
I hope that is still in the works. The whole interview is here:
http://www.pennyblackmusic.co.uk/MagSitePages/Article.aspx?id=4964
1002