Cabaret Voltaire (band)

Cabaret Voltaire was a British music group from Sheffield, England. Cabaret Voltaire first worked on experimental electronic music, and sound in the early 1970's. However, they started to achieve critical success in the post-punk era, with industrial and techno. The group consisted of Stephen Mallinder , Richard H. Kirk and Chris Watson. Their earliest performances were dadaist-inspired performance art, but they soon moved on to creating punk-influenced experimental music.

History

In 1978, Cabaret Voltaire signed to Rough Trade Records. With Rough Trade they released several highly acclaimed musically experimental singles and EPs, including Extended Play, Nag Nag Nag, Three Mantras and 3 Crepuscule Tracks, and albums such as The Voice of America in 1980 and the widely-hailed Red Mecca in 1981.

In 1983, coinciding with the departure of Watson (who went on to found The Hafler Trio with Andrew M. McKenzie before becoming a BBC sound engineer), Cabaret Voltaire began pioneering the early industrial electronic musical style with the album The Crackdown on Virgin Records. In 1984, the singles "Sensoria" and "James Brown" from the album Micro Phonies (also on Virgin) charted on the independent music charts as well as getting heavy play in the underground dance scene. In 1987, the band released Code, followed by the house-influenced Groovy, Laidback & Nasty in 1990. A series of completely instrumental works under the Cabaret Voltaire name were released on Instinct Records in 1993 and 1994, but appeared to be largely the product of Kirk. However, Mallinder was present and involved in these recordings even if his vocals were absent. The only album where his involvement is questionable is 1994's The Conversation where Kirk is credited with all instruments, programming, arrangements and samples and Mallinder gets only a co-writing credit. The last CV release to feature Mallinder singing is the ethno-techno single, Colours in 1990. Since the mid-late 80s, Kirk has begun a solo career under several names, including Electronic Eye and Sandoz, while Mallinder has relocated to Perth, Australia and records with a collaborator under the name Sassi & Loco and more recently in another collaborative effort the Kuling-Bros. Mallinder also helps run his own Offworld Sounds label and contributed to synths and programming on The Happy Mondays' singer Shaun Ryder's solo album Amateur Night at the Big Top. Hopes of a Cabaret Voltaire reunion were raised when Kirk dropped hints in the late 90s, the most significant being in the notes of a reissue of Radiation, where Kirk says he is working on new CV material due to be released soon. This never happened and now a reunion looks unlikely in the near future. In a special 'Depeche Mode/History of Electro-pop' edition of Q Magazine, Kirk suggests he is still considering resurrecting the CV name but this time he plans to "Get some young people involved" hinting that Mallinder's role in the band may be finished.

Band members

Stephen Mallinder - vocals, bass (1978-1994)
Richard H. Kirk - guitars, keyboards, tapes (1978-1994)
Chris Watson - keyboards, tapes (1978-1983)

Discography

Singles

Talkover/Here She Comes Now/Do The Mussolini/The Set Up (July 1978)
Baader-Meinhof/Sex in Secret on A Factory Sample (January 1979)
Nag Nag Nag (April 1979)
Silent Command/Change Versus Causality (October 1979)
Three Mantras (January 1980)
Seconds Too Late (September 1980)
Sluggin' For Jesus/Your Agent Man (March 1981)
Jazz the Glass/Walls of Jericho (July 1981)
2x45 (October 1981)
Walls of Kyoto/Taxi Music (March 1982)
Crackdown/Just Fascination (December 1982)
The Dream Ticket (September 1983)
Sensoria (March 1984)
James Brown (October 1984)
Drinking Gasoline (January 1985)
I Want You (June 1985)
Shakedown (March 1986)
Don't Argue (February 1987)
Here To Go (September 1987)
Hypnotised (December 1989)
Keep On (June 1990)
Easy Life (October 1990)
Colours (January 1991)
What Is Real (April 1991)
Percussion Force (September 1991)
I Want You/Kino '92 (February 1992)
Nag Nag Nag (October 2002)

Albums

Cabaret Voltaire 1974-1976 (1981 cassette)
Mix-Up (October 1979)
The Voice of America (July 1980)
Live at the Lyceum (1981 cassette)
Red Mecca (August 1981)
The Crackdown (August 1983)
Micro-Phonies (November 1984)
The Covenant, The Sword and The Arm of the Lord (October 1985)
Code (October 1987)
Groovy, Laidback and Nasty (June 1990)
Body and Soul (March 1991)
Plasticity (October 1992)
Technology:Western Re-Works 1992 (June 1992)
International Language (June 1993)
The Conversation (July 1994)

Compilations

A Factory Sample (1978)
C81 (1981)
A Diamond Hidden in the Mouth of a Corpse (1985)
The Best of Volume, Part I (1995)

Side Projects

Acid Horse featuring members of Al Jourgensen, Chris Connelly, Bill Rieflin and Stephen and Richard.
Hafler Trio featuring Chris.
Sweet Exorcist featuring DJ Parrot and Richard.
The Pressure Company featuring Richard.
Xon (band) featuring Richard.

Trivia

In the movie Ferris Bueller's Day Off you can see a Cabaret Voltaire poster in Ferris' room. It is the cover of their 1984 release Micro-Phonies.

The audio samples from Don't Argue come from a 1945 post war American Propaganda film called Your Job in Germany directed by Frank Capra and scripted by Theodor Seuss Geisel aka Dr. Seuss.

Cabaret Voltaire made a habit of using audio samples from a particular source, the Outer Limits episode "Demon With A Glass Hand", including the tracks "Stay Out of It" (Voice of America), "Yashar" (2X45), and twice on one of the last Cab albums, Plasticity: "Soul Vine", and "Soulenoid", which features the complete revelation of Trent's identity, seemingly a final entry in the series.

In 2002 director Eve Wood released the film Made In Sheffield documenting the history of the music scene covering bands such as Cabaret Voltaire, Heaven 17, ABC (band), Clock DVA, Human League, Pulp and more.

In 1987 Firebird released a video game for the Commodore 64 and ZX Spectrum called I-Ball. The Commodore 64 version featured music written by Rob Hubbard based on the Cabaret Voltaire songs "Whip Blow" and "I Want You".

External links

Unofficial Cabaret Voltaire site with extensive discography

Cabaret Voltaire (Band)