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Cabaret Voltaire

From HitStory, the pop encyclopedia of School of Rock · Artist

Cabaret Voltaire is an English group from Sheffield, founded in 1973 by Stephen Mallinder, Richard H. Kirk and Chris Watson. The name comes from the Zürich café where the Dada movement began in the early twentieth century. Watson, a telephone engineer by trade, experimented with electronics to make music without musical instruments. He was inspired by Brian Eno and, together with Kirk, built tape loops and sound collages. Kirk added clarinet and guitar. At the end of 1973 Mallinder joined on vocals and bass guitar.

Music and breakthrough

The early music consisted of home-made electronics, tape recorders and performance in the spirit of Dada, and helped to shape the industrial music of the mid-1970s. The band found its audience in the post-punk era, when they often performed together with Joy Division. That sound can be heard on albums such as Mix-Up in 1979, The Voice of America in 1980 and Red Mecca in 1981. After Watson left in 1981, Mallinder and Kirk carried on as a duo until 1994. They gradually adopted elements of synth-pop, techno, house and funk, including on Micro-Phonies in 1984, Code in 1987 and Plasticity in 1992. From 2009 until his death in 2021 Kirk gave the name new life as a solo project.

Influence

Cabaret Voltaire is regarded as one of the most innovative and influential electronic groups of its time. They showed that a synthesizer and a tape recorder can also be a band.

Listening

Listening tip. Listen to a track from Red Mecca or Micro-Phonies. Notice the electronic sounds and the rhythm, and hear how distorted voice and raw synthesizers create a cold, menacing atmosphere.

Discography

Studio albums

Mentioned in other articles

See also

Categories: ArtistsIndustrial