Freak Yourself Once Again

Side 1 of a Cabaret Voltaire cassette compilation, recorded 5th June 2003. 

I posted two sides of separate Cabaret Voltaire mixtapes in fairly quick succession (for me) in early 2022 and haven't revisited either of them since so here's my first attempt to make amends. 

 

Bad Self (Part 1) was originally the B-side of 1984 single James Brown and was one of the tracks from their years on the Virgin label that Cabaret Voltaire revisited and reworked for the 1992 album Technology. Despite the title, I don't think there ever was a Part 2.

 

Big Funk was one of four songs released on the Drinking Gasoline double 12" single in 1985 and one of two which were tacked on as bonus tracks for the CD edition of The Covenant, The Sword And The Arm Of The Lord. 

 

Here To Go was the second single from their eighth studio album, Code, released in 1987. Cabaret Voltaire had moved from Virgin to Parlophone and were shifting towards a more commercial - if not entirely radio-friendly - sound. Adrian Sherwood produced the album and a remix of Here To Go; the one featured here is by another remix/production/DJ legend, François Kevorkian.

 

Hypnotised saw Stephen Mallinder and Richard H. Kirk saw step fully into club culture, drafting in Fon Force to remix and Ten City to provide backing vocals. It provided Cabaret Voltaire with their biggest UK single to date - #66 in November 1989 - and although the subsequent two singles did slightly better - parent album Groovy, Laidback And Nasty didn't trouble the Top 100. Many saw this album as the Cabs going from innovating and inspiring to jumping on the bandwagon. Taken as itself, I think it's a good album and Hypnotised is a cracking single, in all it's various versions.

 

Tough then to place the song next to Sensoria, which is one of the examples of Mallinder and Kirk leading the way. The 12" mashes up the single with Do Right, another track from the Micro-Phonies album, and it really is about as good as Eighties club music could get. Always a popular choice when played at some of the alternative clubs I went to in the late Eighties and early Nineties and still holds up today.

 

The original cassette features the second of two remixes that John Robie made for 1983 single Yashar. I decided to tweak today's selection as featuring it would have meant the third appearance of that particular mix on this blog (albeit one accidentally as I should have included mix #1). In the early 2000s, Richard H. Kirk revisited and reworked several Cabaret Voltaire classics for 12" singles and promotion for various back catalogue compilations. Just Fascination and Nag Nag Nag got the remix treatment, as did Yashar. The latter came out as a 12" single on 9th June 2003, as few days after I'd recorded this very cassette. Along with remixes from The All Seeing I and Alter Ego, RHK delivered his own update, which I've included here.

 

The selection closes with one of my favourite tracks from 1983 album The Crackdown, which was pretty much my first exposure to Cabaret Voltaire, via my brother's copy on cassette. In a blip on their usual UK chart trajectory, the album crashed in at #31 in August 1983, managing a total of five weeks in the Top 100. 

 

Seven songs, spanning 1983 to 2003, revisited two decades on. Damn, that makes me feel old! 

1) Bad Self (Part 1) (Western Re-Work 1992 By Cabaret Voltaire) (1992)

2) Big Funk (Single Version By Cabaret Voltaire) (1985) 

3) Here To Go (Extended Mix By François Kevorkian) (1987)

4) Hypnotised (The Fon Force Mix By Mark Brydon & Robert Gordon) (ft. Ten City) (1990)

5) Sensoria (12" Remix By Cabaret Voltaire & John 'Tokes' Potoker) (1984)

6) Yashar (Man From Basra Rmx By Richard H. Kirk) (2003)

7) Animation (Album Version By Cabaret Voltaire & Flood) (1983)

1983: The Crackdown: 7

1984: Sensoria EP: 5

1985: Drinking Gasoline EP: 2

1987: Here To Go EP: 3

1989: Hypnotised EP: 4

1992: Technology: Western Re-Works 1992: 1

2003: Yashar EP: 6

Side One (46:04) (KF) (Mega)

Side Two here

You can also find Side One of a previous Cabaret Voltaire mixtape here

A Boris You Can Actually Like

I started the draft of today's post several times on the back of the news following the publication of Sue's Gray's report on the government's "lockdown socialising". This version is only 12 pages - we're promised it in full when the police investigations into 12 of the 16 events covered in the report have concluded - but it's a damning indictment of the currently incumbent PM and his cronies. The sheer contempt and complete lack of remorse that he continues to display is galling. His (surely inevitable) political downfall is tempered only by the thought of how much money he stands to make from the consultancy/non-exec director/public speaking racket that awaits former politicians, no matter how incompetent they are. Shame on you and those politicians like you, who smirk whilst being confronted with your lies and obfuscations. Shame on you.

In an attempt to offer some balance, musically if not politically, here's a Boris that doesn't make my hackles rise every time I hear them. Boris Dlugosch has been releasing music for over 25 years now (!) but for me his peaks will always be his collaborations with the ever-incredible Róisín Murphy. In reverse chronological order, with titles that seem spookily apt for the aforementioned Bozo, we have Never Enough from 2013 and Look Around You from 2001. Both pumping, exuberant club tunes but with videos featuring far too little of Ms. Murphy, to be honest.

This is easily remedied by going back to their first collaboration in 1999, Boris' remix of Moloko's Sing It Back which transformed a modestly-successful single into a ubiquitous global smash when re-released. And a video with Róisín Murphy being, well, brilliantly Róisín Murphy.

 

Look Around You (Radio Edit): Boris Dlugosch ft. Róisín Murphy (2013)

Never Enough (Radio Version): Boris Dlugosch ft. Róisín Murphy (2001)

Sing It Back (Boris Musical Mix By Boris Dlugosch & Michael Lange): Moloko (1999)

These Are Dangerous Times For Love

I'm not a particular fan of Culture Club, but I love Boy George. As an artist, he's arguably got better with each passing decade and I've an especial love for his brief diversion as Jesus Loves You. The sole album, The Martyr Mantras, remains much loved at Casa Khayem, and creatively it remains a high water mark. Here are the JLY highlights, condensed into (just over) an hour of loved up lyrics and blissed out beats. Damn, was it really three decades ago?!

 

1) Too Much Love (L.P. Mix By Mark Brydon) (1990)

2) Generations Of Love (Love Dub Mix By Terry Farley & Pete Heller) (ft. MC Kinky) (1990)

3) Sweet Toxic Love (Hootenanny Mix) (1992)

4) Am I Losing Control (Dizzy Tequila Mix By Hans 'Hands On' Grøttheim) (1992)

5) Bow Down Mister (Floating In The Ganges - Grid Mix By Dave Ball & Richard Norris) (1991)

6) Love Hurts (Yes It Doz U Blighter Mix By Bruce Forest) (1991)

7) One On One (Massive Attack Mix) (1990)

8) Love's Gonna Let U Down (Popcorn Mix By Mark Brydon) (1990)

9) After The Love (Prophets Of Doom Mix) (1991)

10) Siempre Te Amare (Mark Brydon Remix) (1990)

11) I Specialize In Loneliness (Album Version By Boy George & John Themis) (1990)

 

These Are Dangerous Times For Love (1:03:51)