It's Grim Up North
September 21, 2021 8:05 AM Subscribe
Richard H. Kirk of Sheffield electronic band Cabaret Voltaire died today.
Harsh, industrial, bleak, uncompromising.
Now we've got the obligatory adjectives out of the way here's some music.
Sluggin' for Jesus (1980)
Red Mask (1981)
Sensoria (1984 - the 12" mix which is by far the best version)
Magic (1990 from the album Groovy, Laid-back and Nasty, made with Marshall Jefferson)
Vast amounts of solo work as well
Sandoz (1992)
Harsh, industrial, bleak, uncompromising.
Now we've got the obligatory adjectives out of the way here's some music.
Sluggin' for Jesus (1980)
Red Mask (1981)
Sensoria (1984 - the 12" mix which is by far the best version)
Magic (1990 from the album Groovy, Laid-back and Nasty, made with Marshall Jefferson)
Vast amounts of solo work as well
Sandoz (1992)
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I'm a newly minted Sheffielder so thanks for informing me of this piece of the city's cultural history!
posted by Balthamos at 8:12 AM on September 21, 2021 [1 favorite]
I'm a newly minted Sheffielder so thanks for informing me of this piece of the city's cultural history!
posted by Balthamos at 8:12 AM on September 21, 2021 [1 favorite]
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posted by Going To Maine at 8:39 AM on September 21, 2021
posted by Going To Maine at 8:39 AM on September 21, 2021
So many highlights I’d love to share, but I’ll never forget hearing “Crackdown” in a grimy London highrise, looking down on the city at night. Perfect combination of place and soundtrack…
posted by saintjoe at 8:49 AM on September 21, 2021 [4 favorites]
posted by saintjoe at 8:49 AM on September 21, 2021 [4 favorites]
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posted by SystematicAbuse at 8:53 AM on September 21, 2021
posted by SystematicAbuse at 8:53 AM on September 21, 2021
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I first discovered RHK in the late 90s through CV's later, ambient/house/techno albums International Language and Plasticity, which definitely depart from the "harsh" sound of the earlier industrial stuff. Over the years I've given IL perhaps more listening time than any other album I own (or at least in the top five); I just think these two albums hold up so, so well. Later on I came to appreciate the alien, clangy earlier material too (Mix-Up, Red Mecca, and 2x45 are excellent). But the more laid back ambient techno pieces are sentimental favorites, to me. Another good solo album is The Number of Magic. And, he was doing interesting stuff right to the end, which I need to catch up on. A huge loss.
posted by demonic winged headgear at 9:15 AM on September 21, 2021 [2 favorites]
I first discovered RHK in the late 90s through CV's later, ambient/house/techno albums International Language and Plasticity, which definitely depart from the "harsh" sound of the earlier industrial stuff. Over the years I've given IL perhaps more listening time than any other album I own (or at least in the top five); I just think these two albums hold up so, so well. Later on I came to appreciate the alien, clangy earlier material too (Mix-Up, Red Mecca, and 2x45 are excellent). But the more laid back ambient techno pieces are sentimental favorites, to me. Another good solo album is The Number of Magic. And, he was doing interesting stuff right to the end, which I need to catch up on. A huge loss.
posted by demonic winged headgear at 9:15 AM on September 21, 2021 [2 favorites]
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posted by miles per flower at 9:25 AM on September 21, 2021
posted by miles per flower at 9:25 AM on September 21, 2021
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The Covenant, The Sword, and the Arm of the Lord will always be my fave CV album, one of those records that instantly connects me to a specific time and place (teenage intensity, nighttime in the city, bad drugs, exhilirating life) the second the needle hits the first groove. I was surprised when the latest record Shadow of Funk dropped, not having followed their recent work, and it definitely has some great singles. England has lost a great musician and brave cultural pioneer today, for sure.
posted by Ten Cold Hot Dogs at 9:53 AM on September 21, 2021 [2 favorites]
The Covenant, The Sword, and the Arm of the Lord will always be my fave CV album, one of those records that instantly connects me to a specific time and place (teenage intensity, nighttime in the city, bad drugs, exhilirating life) the second the needle hits the first groove. I was surprised when the latest record Shadow of Funk dropped, not having followed their recent work, and it definitely has some great singles. England has lost a great musician and brave cultural pioneer today, for sure.
posted by Ten Cold Hot Dogs at 9:53 AM on September 21, 2021 [2 favorites]
Wow, this is unexpected to me. Really, really loved CV in the 80's. In the 90's Richard seemed to release an album a month and lots of them of decent quality. Earlier this year the "Electronic Sound" magazine did a good overview of his career including all his aliases and releases.
I hope this doesn't come over as disrespectful in this thread but Stephen Mallinder's new band "Wrangler" is very good and a must for CV fans.
RIP Richard.
posted by Kosmob0t at 11:49 AM on September 21, 2021 [2 favorites]
I hope this doesn't come over as disrespectful in this thread but Stephen Mallinder's new band "Wrangler" is very good and a must for CV fans.
RIP Richard.
posted by Kosmob0t at 11:49 AM on September 21, 2021 [2 favorites]
Well this sucks. I really liked CV back in the day.
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posted by Thorzdad at 1:00 PM on September 21, 2021
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posted by Thorzdad at 1:00 PM on September 21, 2021
The breadth of CV's work is really remarkable. They were unafraid to take challenges. And their video Sensoria really captures a moment in time: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=c2vCpT1H7u0.
posted by schmudde at 1:06 PM on September 21, 2021 [3 favorites]
posted by schmudde at 1:06 PM on September 21, 2021 [3 favorites]
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posted by 5_13_23_42_69_666 at 1:38 PM on September 21, 2021
posted by 5_13_23_42_69_666 at 1:38 PM on September 21, 2021
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posted by doctornemo at 1:43 PM on September 21, 2021
posted by doctornemo at 1:43 PM on September 21, 2021
I only know Sensoria (7-inch, slyt) but holy hell did I watch the fuck out of that video when I was a teen. I caught it on VHS, off a music video show on a local UHF dial station. Everything about it fascinated me, from that freaky, upside-down-y camera move, to the horror movie preacher with the little girl, to the guys in the band with their cool jackets and eyeliner. Back then even the stop-motion dancing looked eerie and cutting-edge, instead of endearingly cheesy. I grew up stranded in Long Beach, pre- and post-everything, and in that context this clip seemed... otherworldly. How had something this weird and great slipped through all the filters?
I never followed up on Cabaret Voltaire. I have a hunch I won't like their other stuff nearly as much, and I kind of like having Sensoria as this perfectly strange little one-off.
Today was the first time I ever saw the video in a resolution high enough to make out that when the preacher and the kid come to that fork in the road, the street sign says EVIL one way and GOOD the other. And then the preacher smiles like the devil himself.
posted by Ursula Hitler at 5:26 PM on September 21, 2021 [2 favorites]
I never followed up on Cabaret Voltaire. I have a hunch I won't like their other stuff nearly as much, and I kind of like having Sensoria as this perfectly strange little one-off.
Today was the first time I ever saw the video in a resolution high enough to make out that when the preacher and the kid come to that fork in the road, the street sign says EVIL one way and GOOD the other. And then the preacher smiles like the devil himself.
posted by Ursula Hitler at 5:26 PM on September 21, 2021 [2 favorites]
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Cab-Volt as we called them back in the day were one of those outfits that I felt didn't get better as they moved along. Or as a friend used to say, "I find I lose interest in these noisy groups once they figure out how to actually play their instruments." Or as I look at it now. There was a certain tension that got lost once the means of production got easier.
Anyway, I recently picked up a used vinyl copy of Red Mecca for dead cheap and listened to it for the first time in decades. It's great. Better than I remember it. Absolutely captures its time, with A Thousand Ways my personal fave. Trance music for aging industrial machines and those who live in their shadow.
posted by philip-random at 6:21 PM on September 21, 2021 [1 favorite]
Cab-Volt as we called them back in the day were one of those outfits that I felt didn't get better as they moved along. Or as a friend used to say, "I find I lose interest in these noisy groups once they figure out how to actually play their instruments." Or as I look at it now. There was a certain tension that got lost once the means of production got easier.
Anyway, I recently picked up a used vinyl copy of Red Mecca for dead cheap and listened to it for the first time in decades. It's great. Better than I remember it. Absolutely captures its time, with A Thousand Ways my personal fave. Trance music for aging industrial machines and those who live in their shadow.
posted by philip-random at 6:21 PM on September 21, 2021 [1 favorite]
Nag Nag Nag was an epic track on Wanna Buy a Bridge?
posted by ovvl at 6:21 PM on September 21, 2021 [1 favorite]
posted by ovvl at 6:21 PM on September 21, 2021 [1 favorite]
Cabaret Voltaire / Richard H Kirk on Synth Britannia
posted by philip-random at 6:22 PM on September 21, 2021
posted by philip-random at 6:22 PM on September 21, 2021
Electronic Eye, Closed Circuit - Bush Channel Stepper
I used to have the boxed vinyl set of Closed Circuit and I think about it often, like a lost friend or family member. That track is one of my favorite of all time.
posted by loquacious at 6:56 PM on September 21, 2021
I used to have the boxed vinyl set of Closed Circuit and I think about it often, like a lost friend or family member. That track is one of my favorite of all time.
posted by loquacious at 6:56 PM on September 21, 2021
Cab-Volt as we called them back in the day were one of those outfits that I felt didn't get better as they moved along.
Agreed. They became much less interesting when they stopped being scary. I still have fond memories of a friend's older brother excitedly playing us Red Mecca when I was fifteen and having my horizons expanded though. The same guy introduced us to PIL's Metal Box as well.
Fun history - Kirk was an early supporter and producer of terrible industro-funk band Chakk. Chakk got an enormous advance for their debut album (which bombed) and plowed that money into a then state of the art studio in Sheffield (they made terrible music but were good people).
The studio, and it's associated label and record shop, were called FON (Fuck Off Nazis) and in the late eighties some of the record shop employees set up their own label - that's Warp Records, one of whose early releases was a Kirk side project.
posted by thatwhichfalls at 10:38 PM on September 21, 2021 [4 favorites]
Agreed. They became much less interesting when they stopped being scary. I still have fond memories of a friend's older brother excitedly playing us Red Mecca when I was fifteen and having my horizons expanded though. The same guy introduced us to PIL's Metal Box as well.
Fun history - Kirk was an early supporter and producer of terrible industro-funk band Chakk. Chakk got an enormous advance for their debut album (which bombed) and plowed that money into a then state of the art studio in Sheffield (they made terrible music but were good people).
The studio, and it's associated label and record shop, were called FON (Fuck Off Nazis) and in the late eighties some of the record shop employees set up their own label - that's Warp Records, one of whose early releases was a Kirk side project.
posted by thatwhichfalls at 10:38 PM on September 21, 2021 [4 favorites]
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I thought Shadow of Fear was a great return to form. I still play Red Mecca, The Covenant, 2x45, and Drinking Gasoline regularly. In fact, I think I'll rewatch Gasoline in your Eye tonight. I used to put that on the telly at parties, with the sound off.
RIP RHK
posted by fregoli at 3:29 AM on September 22, 2021 [1 favorite]
I thought Shadow of Fear was a great return to form. I still play Red Mecca, The Covenant, 2x45, and Drinking Gasoline regularly. In fact, I think I'll rewatch Gasoline in your Eye tonight. I used to put that on the telly at parties, with the sound off.
RIP RHK
posted by fregoli at 3:29 AM on September 22, 2021 [1 favorite]
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posted by snuffleupagus at 8:07 AM on September 21, 2021