Dragnets Will Pull You In, Tell You That You're Deep In Sin

March 20, 2018 7:26 AM

In keeping with their namesake, the early work of Cabaret Voltaire consisted primarily of Dada-influenced performance art and experimentation with tape machines, helping to pioneer industrial music in the mid-1970s. Finding an audience during the post-punk era, they integrated their experimentalist sensibilities with dance, new wave, and pop styles. Micro-Phonies, their 1984 album continued their journey from Dadaists to Dance Floor.

Do Right
The Operative
Digital Rasta
Spies in the Wires
Theme From Earthshaker
James Brown
Slammer
Blue Heat
Sensoria (12" Version)
Sensoria (7" Version)

Full Album

A continuation of their more danceable style started with The Crackdown, Micro-Phonies was popular enough to get the band’s subway poster on Ferris Bueller’s bedroom wall.

posted by Major Matt Mason Dixon (12 comments total)

The video for the 7” Semsoria is one of the first ones played on The Max Headroom Show* so is a fond memory.

(You can just buy the album though, which makes this post feel a little iffy. )

*different from the US show.
posted by Artw at 7:45 AM on March 20, 2018

This post is incomplete without a link to the Sensoria video.

(grumbles about not having uploaded the higher-quality version he's had sitting on his hard drive forever)
posted by neckro23 at 7:57 AM on March 20, 2018 [2 favorites]

Hey Neckro23, did you see the 7" version I linked above?
It's got the Sensoria video in a much better quality, I think. Granted it's been edited down, but it's nice to see Richard and Mal in focus and in front of the camera.
posted by Major Matt Mason Dixon at 8:03 AM on March 20, 2018

The title of this post can be sung as a Flying Burrito Brothers song
posted by NoMich at 8:27 AM on March 20, 2018 [2 favorites]

I saw them (well Kirk) last May at the Wave Gotik Treffen Festival and the show was definitely back to the performance art roots.
posted by cirhosis at 9:01 AM on March 20, 2018 [2 favorites]

Cabaret Voltaire are one of those bands that were well a decade ahead of their time. Sensoria is one my top songs list, if I ever cared to do such a thing.
posted by lmfsilva at 9:56 AM on March 20, 2018

I was stationed in the UK from 1983 through 1986 and managed to see the Cabs right before I left.
My only regret is that I only saw them once.
posted by Major Matt Mason Dixon at 11:45 AM on March 20, 2018

They switched over to house with albums like Colors and Groovy, Laid Back and Nasty before heading into ambient techno with The Conversation. Micro-phonies was their first dance oriented album but Code (Produced by On-U Sound guy Adrian Sherwood) should not be missed.
posted by lester at 1:13 PM on March 20, 2018

Factory Records put out a vhs tape around the same time that had a version of Yashar on it that blew my mind.
posted by Mr. Yuck at 5:11 PM on March 20, 2018

Nostalgic! Cabaret Voltaire's "Plasticity" and Front242's "Front By Front" were my first two industrial albums, and they were completely mindblowing to me after years of not being all that interested in music apart from liking Pink Floyd and the occasional Rush or Black Sabbath album.
posted by rifflesby at 11:38 PM on March 20, 2018 [1 favorite]

Be sure to check out the Made In Sheffield documentary that came out a while back, which covers the history of the scene that produced CV (and Pulp and Human League, etc.).
posted by rhizome at 10:49 AM on March 21, 2018 [1 favorite]

I'll always be more into Chris Watson era Cabs, but The Covenant, the Sword and the Arm of the Lord was always my favorite of this period.

And speaking of Cabaret Voltaire, The Arm of the Lord, and Metafilter: this AskMe question led to me looking up Mallinder's current e-mail to see if he knew the answer to a question about a sample on that album (he didn't, but he was very nice).
posted by Lentrohamsanin at 11:04 AM on March 21, 2018