Cabaret Voltaire (musical group) – Wikipedia

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Cabaret Voltaire It was a British musical group of avant -garde experimental electronic music, originally from Sheffield, founded in the early seventies.
The group is among the New Wave artists.

The birth of the band [ change | Modifica Wikitesto ]

The Cabaret Voltaire (from which the group takes its name), founded in Zurich in 1916 by the theater director Hugo Ball with a group of German artists, was the cradle of Dadaism, a break movement and renewal of traditional artistic logic. In this place, Russian and French art exhibitions were held, dances, poetic readings, executions of African music; Many provocative shows and, sometimes, desecrating that turned into authentic cultural “events”.
Almost sixty years later, in Sheffield (England), three university students passionate about funk, electronics and concrete music dreamed of transforming everything that had happened in the Dadaistica of Zurich into music. Thus was born the band: Stephen Malinder (bass/vocals), Richard H. Kirk (guitar) and Christ Watson (nastrium manipulation). In 1973 the three founded i Cabaret Voltaire , a group that was very important in the evolution of the industrial from there to come.

The goal of the three is to describe in music the urban landscape of Sheffield thirty years after the war, still transfigured by bombs and urban segments. In the first performances, the trio presents itself with Synth, rhythm generators, winds, sounds recorded and manipulated through tape-recorder. “Our project – says Richard H. Kirk – was born from boredom, from the lack of a future and the need to create problems”. The first rods of the trio, often produced by Industrial Records, merge electronics, funk, psychedelia and concrete music, accentuating the strangest aspects of each of them. The experiments with synthesizers combine with psychedelia, typical of Pink Floyd, and with exotic sounds, especially Asian (for example, the individual Nag nag nag and the “distorted” reinterpretation of Here She Comes Now of Velvet Underground).

With the arrival of punk 77 in 1977, their sounds, together with those of the industrial scene, find greater acceptance by the public, and the fanzine of Sheffield Gunrubber included them among the local punk bands.

The first record contract [ change | Modifica Wikitesto ]

The band gets a record contract with the Rough Trade, with which he composes the trilogy: Mix-Up (1978), Voice Of America (1980) and Red Mecca (1981).

Mix-Up (1978) [ change | Modifica Wikitesto ]

The band arrives at the 33 lap format with Mix-Up (1978). The album is a mixture of funk and electronic music, disturbed by sprays, rifles, metal clangs, claustrophobic pulsations. All this is also very bleak and chilling (it can be seen in songs like Heaven And Hell ed Expect Nothing ); The listener is dragged into a “chaotic spiral” that attracts and distracts the listener from the music. The song Kirlian Photograph , very beautiful, it is largely made up of bass and noises above it. The voice is also treated and filtered electronically. The result is an original hybrid between industrial music, dance and a very dark punk. The disc entered some British rankings and won international criticism.

Live At the Y.M.C.A (1979) [ change | Modifica Wikitesto ]

In 1979 the trio released the first live album: Live At The Y.M.C.A. , which includes some individuals: Nag nag nag and the reinterpretation of Velvet Underground Here She Comes Now . Live also documents the impact of their performances in the world.

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Three Mantras It is Voice of America (1980) [ change | Modifica Wikitesto ]

The subsequent EP, that is Three Mantras (1980), is the first incursion of the band in Arab and Indian sounds that ideally combine in the sign of the “mantra”, Asia and Europe ( Western Mantra ed Eastern Mantra ).
The other EP of the same year, or Voice Of America , on the other hand, is a very noisy and confused album (it can be recognized in pieces like Voice Of America It is Damage Is Done ), which, however, unlikely to the ecstatic and appreciated Kneel to the Boss .

3 twilight tracks It is Red Mecca (1981) [ change | Modifica Wikitesto ]

L’P Twilight tracks (1981), transformed their dark atmosphere into a more dance atmosphere: famous is Sluggin’ fer Jesus (Part One) Which, despite being dance, maintains a hypnotic background.
But it is with the album Red Mecca (1981) that the Cabaret Voltaire manage to show the meaning of their career; The album is a violent and abrasive work, which uses the distorted sounds of the chrome but increases an increasingly dance rhythm. Their music comes to a more well -kept and rhythmic sound, abandoning their old atmospheres. On a monotonous and incessant rhythmic backdrop, thus follow a continuous flow of sound events, between guitar spherodes, synthetic melodies and metal clangs. Thus songs for dark discos are born, such as Red Mask , Sly Doubt , A Touch of Evil .
The latter, moreover, was a reinterpretation of the theme of Henry Mancini for the Orson Welles film of the same name.

2 x 45 (1982) [ change | Modifica Wikitesto ]

The double ep 2 x 45 (1982) He arrives at a more acoustic rock and introduces tools such as saxophone and clarinet, with interesting episodes such as Protection , the eastern Lascin It is Get Out of My Face . The disc marks the farewell to the Chris Watson group who, being disagreed with Kirk and Malinder on the road to follow, decides to join the Trio Hafler project.

Crackdown (1983) [ change | Modifica Wikitesto ]

In 1983 the band signed a contract with the bizarre, with which he will develop a trilogy composed of Crackdown (1983), Micro-phonies It is The Covenant, The Sword And The Arm Of The Lord (1985).
Their style moves away almost definitively from the electronic industrial and is getting closer to the dance. Crackdown (1983) shows all this, with suggestive and dark songs like 24-24 It is Just Fascination , in which a carettivating pop melody stands out. Once again in advance of the times, the Cabaret Voltaire arrive at a style that will become the base of the techno and house bands of the nineties. At the same time, however, the synthetic polyritms of Crackdown They let the first signs of that techno-pop glimpse that in subsequent records will become more and more ways, and which will then be abandoned in the late eighties with the arrival of House Music.

Micro-phonies , The Covenant, The Sword And The Arm Of The Lord (1985) [ change | Modifica Wikitesto ]

The next one Micro-phonies the rhythms are even more accentuated, which lap the pure techno in individuals Sensoria It is James Brown . The Covenant, The Sword And The Arm Of The Lord (1985), from the name of a US neonazine organization, completes the trilogy Bizarre , marking a further regression towards an easy-to-listen Dance-Music: I Want You , Motion Rotation It is Kickback , music that make their music abandon from many fans who loved their first sounds.

The decadence of the band: period 1986-1987 (“second phase”) [ change | Modifica Wikitesto ]

The captivating electro-pisse is also revealed in the EP Drain Train of 1986 (especially with The Whole Thing It is Electro-Motive ) and in the next album, Code , made in 1987 for the EMI label, in collaboration with Bill Laswell and Adrian Sherwood. Chock full of scipite melodies without any experimental intent, the disc marks the lowest point of the descendant parable that began with Micro-phonies . Even the individual extracts, Don’t argue It is Here to Go , are not very successful. This phase of their career is archived with little honor with the name of “second phase”.

Groovy Laidback and Nasty (1990) and the transformation into a House group (“third phase”) [ change | Modifica Wikitesto ]

Cabaret Voltaire find themselves three years later in Chicago where, in the company of Marshall Jefferson, they conceive the project of the new album. It is the beginning of the “third phase”: that house. Groovy Laidback and Nasty It comes out in 1990; The album is a sort of “recycling” of the House sounds already discovered: in Searchin ‘ we find the disc-soul, in Runaway we can hear rap and in Keep On Synth Pop. But these songs leave no sign; The disc is redeemed by the “classics” Easy Life , Magic , a only instrumental song, and the individual Hypnotized .

Colours It is Body And Soul (1991) [ change | Modifica Wikitesto ]

In 1991 the EP arrives Colours , sort of sound puzzles that testifies to the production process of their music, followed by Body And Soul (1991), in which the band leaves traditional tools to make room only for electronic keyboards.

Period 1992-1994 [ change | Modifica Wikitesto ]

Between 1992 and 1994, under the Instinct label, a new trilogy comes out which will definitely turn towards the ambient-house. The first album, Plasticity (1992), almost entirely instrumental, echoes above all the electronic minimalism of Kraftwerk, but also uses ambient and new age sound (for example in songs Deep Time It is Soul Vine ). The next one International Language (1993), once again only instrumental, takes refuge in an easy listening electronics (they are examples Everything Is True , Radical Chic , Afterglow ). Conversation (1994) concludes the trilogy with the long suite Project 80 .

The separation of the group [ change | Modifica Wikitesto ]

Since 1994 practically the Cabaret Voltaire ceases to exist: Kirk continues his career as a soloist also dedicating himself to the parallel Sandoz and Electronic Eye projects, while Malinder moves to Australia.
The classic period of the Cabaret Voltaire will be synthesized in the anthology The Golden Moments (1987). The Living Legends (1990) includes individuals up to that moment. Listen Up (1990) collects unpublished and rarity of the first period. The Original Sound Of Sheffield ’78/’82 (2002) instead celebrates the first period of the group’s activity, which ended in 1982 with divorce from the Rough Trade. The collaborations with clock DVA is also noteworthy, Box It is Antigroup .
“We have never had a real commercial success. – says Richard H. Kirk – some of our intuitions have however had a certain diffusion, and have influenced several people, also in the visual arts field.” You can’t blame him. Pioneers of industrial rock, techno precursors, visionary avant -garde of pop, the Cabaret Voltaire are one of the most influential formations of the British New Wave. Their noisy intuitions gave the all the industrial scene (from the ministry to the Nine Inch Nails), while their Dance Polyrithms were the launching pad for excellent Synth Pop bands such as Depeche Mode and New Order.

During the month of November 2020, Kirk announces on Number The future exit of two drone music albums published with the abbreviation Cabaret Voltaire. The two albums, entitled Decadrone It is Bn9drone , are published during the first half of 2021. [first]

Study (album and ep) [ change | Modifica Wikitesto ]

Live [ change | Modifica Wikitesto ]

Collections [ change | Modifica Wikitesto ]

  1. ^ Andrea Prevignano, Cabaret Voltaire Dekadrone/Bn9drone , in Noise , April 2021.
  • Simon Reynolds, Post-punk: 1978-1984 , Milan, Isbn Edizioni, 2006, ISBN 88-7638-045-0.
  • V. Vale, Andrea Juno, Industrial culture manual , edited by Paolo Bandera, Shake Edizioni, 1998, ISBN 88-86926-40-5.

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