CULTCHA Clash Outer National Record Review:
Cabaret Voltaire - Shadow Of Fear (2020 Mute)
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| Cabaret Voltaire - Shadow Of Fear (Mute) This one has been out for several months now but I'm just getting around to writing about it. Get it digitally from CabaretVoltaire.Bandcamp.com/album/shadow-of-fear And on LP or CD from Mute mute.com/mute/new-album-shadow-of-fear-out-now Originating from Sheffield, England in 1973, Cabaret Voltaire have been hugely influential in the world of electronic music. Their early days were experiments with guitar, vocals, electronics and loops, with influences as disparate as King Tubby, Captain Beefheart, Miles Davis and Can, as well as the Dada movement and William S. Burroughs' "cut-up" techniques. Although relatively obscure, along with Throbbing Gristle and their Industrial Records label, and other contemporaries, like Clock DVA, they laid the groundwork for the sounds of dance music for the next several decades to come. In the early eighties Christopher Watson parted ways with the group (to eventually form The Hafler Trio), leaving Richard H. Kirk and Stephen Mallinder to produce a string of genre-defining albums and singles throughout the eighties and early nineties. This is the first Cabaret Voltaire studio LP release since 1994's The Conversation (Apollo), on which founding member, Richard H. Kirk was the sole member of the group, the same is true for this one. Without Mallinder, who took care of the vocals, the tunes are instrumental except for vocal samples, usually stark and foreboding soundbites of a dystopian, authoritarian state. The tracks were put together by Kirk, originally for live performances but adapted for an LP format. This album sounds 100% like a C.V. album, to me... The variety of rhythms drive every track to the last beat, nothing boring about this one. From the digital dancehall vibe of the opening track, "Be Free" to the layered horns and funk groove of the nod to Marvin Gaye, "What's Goin' On," I can play the album all the way through without an urge to skip one tune. Electronic Sound Magazine released an accompanying 7" single featuring Daniel Miller edits of "Vasto" and "The Power (Of Their Knowledge)" which is limited but worth grabbing if you can get your hands on one. The Mute EP, Shadow Of Funk, will be out later this month as a companion piece featuring three more new songs, including "Billion Dollar," check it out below. |
