Every Other Sound Has Been Recreated Lovingly From Scratch

Cabaret Voltaire performed a five-song session for KEXP on 3rd May, posted earlier this week. 

Sometimes I see a combination of words that seem almost inconceivable. Cabaret Voltaire? In 2026?! On KEXP?!!

Yet, it's real, it's here, and it's fantastic. 

The post-session interview with Stephen Mallinder is also fascinating, the origins of Cabaret Voltaire, tributes to Richard H. Kirk and Chris Watson (the latter unable to join CV in the US), recreating songs from the vast catalogue with Benge aka Ben Edwards, and taking the music on the road one last time, with Eric Random and (for the US dates) Tara Busch.

I'll be discovering all this for myself in the autumn when I see Cabaret Voltaire at the Forum in Bath. In the meantime, this is 38 (and a half) minutes very well spent.

1) 24-24

2) Landslide

3) Spies In The Wires

4) Nag Nag Nag

5) Sensoria

Making The Impossible Possible

Cabaret Voltaire played at the FORGE Warehouse in Sheffield on Saturday (25th), a reunion and live performance that was such an unlikely prospect that any thought of such a thing would previously have been dismissed as a fever dream.

And yet...the prospect of seeing two 70-year old men on a stage, playing music that never was - and was never intended to be - populist, yet has made such an indelible mark on electronic music, is enough to send people into a heightened state of emotion.

It's an intriguing concept. Founder member Chris Watson left in 1981, balancing a continued interest in music with a parallel career in television. Stephen Mallinder continued into the 1990s, before solely focusing on solo and other musical projects.

The absence of fellow founder Richard H. Kirk is inescapable. Richard tragically passed on 21st September 2021 (which I wrote about at the time), having resurrected the Cabaret Voltaire for remixes in the late 2000s and then more fully for live performances in 2014-15 and three albums and EP in 2020-21.

As people questioned whether RHK solo was Cabaret Voltaire, there will be purists today who have said that Stephen and Chris together isn't truly Cabaret Voltaire. Bollocks, I say.

This is no money-making nostalgic cash-in: this is two artists celebrating their friend, and a band that they started half a century ago, playing music that was revolutionary and game-changing on so many levels. And still sounds provocative and exciting today.

I had no reasonable chance of getting to Sheffield or seeing Cabaret Voltaire at any of shows in Glasgow, Manchester, Birmingham and London in November. However, I would have loved to have been there, just to see, hear and experience the music that I was introduced to by my brother in the mid-80s and which has been a constant ever since.

Thankfully, Ian Corbridge was in the audience on Saturday night and captured nearly half of the set on his phone. "I hold my phone just in front of my chest as I am always conscious of people behind me." Ian reassures us and it has to be said that the sound and audio quality is amazing compared to the tinny, blurry crap that you frequently get uploaded to YT.

I'm not sure how long these will remain available, but I've inserted the eight songs into their relevant setlist position below.

You can also read a great review of the Sheffield show by Daniel Dylan Wray over at The Quietus.

In a post that's all about the impossible becoming possible, in checking the info on the upcoming short tour of the UK, I was delighted to discover that Cabaret Voltaire is returning a further 11 UK dates in October 2026, supported by the wonderful Gazelle Twin and including a gig at The Forum in Bath. Tickets are on sale Friday (31st) and I will be trying my darndest to get some.

Cabaret Voltaire @ the FORGE Warehouse in Sheffield, Saturday 25th October 2025

Personnel: Stephen Mallinder, Chris Watson, Eric Random, Oliver Harrap (standing in for Ben 'Benge' Edwards, who was poorly)

1) 24/24

2) Animation

  

3) Why Kill Time (When You Can Kill Yourself)

4) Tinsley Viaduct (Chris Watson music from Inside The Circle Of Fire)

5) The Set Up

6) Landslide 

7) Allen Ginsberg: Howl (intro excerpt) / 

    Crackdown

8) Spies In The Wires

9) Just Fascination

10) Taxi Music

11) Yashar

12) Sex Money Freaks

13) Easy Life

14) Do Right

Encore:

15) Nag Nag Nag

16) Sensoria 

There's Still 70 Billion People In There

Side 2 of a Cabaret Voltaire mixtape, compiled by my brother in September 1990.

 

A comment by Alex from the Bamboo Temple Garden blog on discovering Side 1, which I originally posted on 2nd February 2022, reminded me that I hadn't actually got around to posting the other side. 20, 250 hours (give or take an hour here or there) may possibly be the longest gap to complete a mixtape posting yet, so I hope it was worth the wait...!

 

Given the year that it was recorded, no surprise that this side leans heavily towards the Groovy, Laidback And Nasty album and singles, released earlier in 1990. A controversial album in that some felt that the Cabs had sold out by echoing the house and techno acts that they had inspired, rather than continuing to innovate. Others bemoaned that the music already sounded dated and too poppy. 

 

I liked the album, singles and remixes. Getting names such as Marshall Jefferson, Ten City, FON Force, Paul Oakenfold, Derrick May involved brought a different, more commercial flavour but as the Cabs' own Western Works mixes proved, Stephen Mallinder and Richard H. Kirk knew exactly what they were doing. Yes, more of it's time that other releases before and after perhaps, but what a time.

This side also features some stone cold classic singles in the seismic 12" remix of Crackdown, the sinister Seconds Too Late and another reason why 1979 was such a brilliant year for music with the scuzzy electro-post-punk of Nag Nag Nag.

Why was one of many previously unreleased tracks that finally saw the light of day in 1990 when Mute's subsidiary label The Grey Area started releasing Cabaret Voltaire's early back catalogue. Why appeared on the excellent 2CD compilation Listen Up With Cabaret Voltaire. Whilst there's absolutely no information about the recording of the track, the seemingly chronological sequencing of tracks with rarities released on NME cover-mounted cassettes and the like suggests that Why may have been recorded circa 1984-1987. It's a great 'lost' track.

Speaking of lost tracks, the original cassette ended with a abruptly cut off 'edit' of The Arm Of The Lord from 1985. As with a similar track tacked onto the end of Side 1, I suspect that this was only included as 'filler' to pad out the C90 side. Much as I like it, as endings go, it doesn't surpass Nag Nag Nag. So, I've cut it here, also providing a more harmonious running time with the previous side.

 

1) Runaway (Album Version By Cabaret Voltaire & Fon Force) (ft. Ten City) (1990)

2) Life Slips By (Album Version By Cabaret Voltaire & Adrian Sherwood) (1987)

3) Why (????)

4) Seconds Too Late (1980)

5) Crackdown (12" Remix By Cabaret Voltaire & John Luongo) (1983)

6) Keep On (Clubbing) (Remix By Phil Harding) (1990)

7) Fluid (Single Version) (1990)

8) Nag Nag Nag (Single Version) (1979)

1979: Nag Nag Nag EP: 8

1980: Seconds Too Late EP: 4

1983: Crackdown/Just Fascination EP: 5

1987: Code: 2

1990: Easy Life EP: 7

1990: Groovy, Laidback And Nasty: 1

1990: Keep On EP: 6

1990: Listen Up With Cabaret Voltaire: 3

 

Side Two (45:21) (KF) (Mega)

Side One here

 

For further Cabaret Voltaire fun, why not Freak Yourself here and here? 

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

Freak Yourself

Side 2 of a Cabaret Voltaire mixtape, compiled 5th June 2003. 

 

It's hard to believe that the sounds on this selection are from 30-40 years ago; even the mixtape itself is nearly two decades old, which blows my mind. Richard H. Kirk and Stephen Mallinder were always ploughing a futuristic furrow and even though there were some criticisms that their 1990s material had started to echo contemporary music where it once inspired, I don't agree. There was - and is - always something new to discover in their music that set them apart from other artists and it's something I continue to find on each return visit.

 

Around the early 2000s, I was beginning to move away from vinyl purchases and mixtapes and into internet downloads (initially with a super slow dial-up connection!) and burning CD-Rs. I was still buying CDs though and I think this mixtape was indebted to the slew of Cabaret Voltaire compilations that appeared in 2001, namely Cabaret Voltaire Remixed, The Original Sound Of Sheffield '83-'87 and Conform To Deform '82 / '90. Archive which pretty much covered all of the 12" singles, B-sides and rarities from their time on Virgin and EMI.

 

The version of Keep On which opens the selection originally appeared on the limited edition remix 12" and wrongly labelled as the Sweet Exorcist Mix by Cabaret Voltaire and Parrot. It's also not to be confused with the Western Works remix which appeared on the CD single.

 

There's an overlap with two tracks featured on the previous Cabaret Voltaire mixtape I posted in February: Just Fascination and inadvertently I Want You, having previously swapped out the album version for the 12" mix to make up for a cassette running time shortfall. This is obviously a thing with Cabs mixtapes as this side also comes in at a snip under 44 minutes; I decided not to tinker with the track listing this time.

Don't Drive Fast is taken from another essential compilation, Listen Up With Cabaret Voltaire, collecting rare and unreleased tracks from 1978 to 1981. 

 

Kino was remixed four times in 1992; this version only appeared on the 12" and CD singles accompanying the Technology: Western Re-Works 1992 album. The version number assumes that the original 1985 12" mix is #1 and 1992 album re-work is #2.

I Think appeared on Cabaret Voltaire's final album as a duo, 1994's ambient excursion The Conversation. There seems to be some debate about Mallinder's involvement in this and whether it was largely a Richard H. Kirk solo project. Either way, it's a good album, echoes of what has gone before and a peek into what would come next.

Richard H. Kirk revived Cabaret Voltaire in 2009, initially for remixes and production work and then a series of albums and EPs released in 2020 and 2021 before his untimely passing in September last year. 

 

Stephen Mallinder has been extremely prolific in recent years, including collaborations with Ben Edwards aka Benge, Julie Campbell aka Lonelady and Steve Cobby (Fila Brazillia). Mallinder also released his first solo album in over 35 years in 2019, Um Dada, and follows this up in July with tick tick tick ... Both are available on Bandcamp, online retail outlets and hopefully your friendly neighbourhood record shop.

 

1) Keep On (Universe Works Mix aka Sweet Exorcist Mix By Cabaret Voltaire) (1990)

2) Just Fascination (12" Remix By Cabaret Voltaire & John Luongo) (1982)

3) Don't Drive Fast (1981)

4) Kino 5 (Western Re-Work 1992 By Cabaret Voltaire) (1992)

5) I Want You (12" Mix By Cabaret Voltaire) (1985)

6) I Think (Album Version By Cabaret Voltaire) (1994)

 

Side Two (43:58) (KF) (Mega)

Today's photo was taken in Gloucester city centre, standing inside and looking up within the Kyneburgh Tower, better known locally as the CD Rack or the Kebab Stick. It was named and shamed by The Guardian in 2015 as one of the six worst works of British public art. What do they know? Standing inside it reminded me of the opening titles of Doctor Who (Tom Baker era, naturally).

There's 70 Billion People In There

Side 1 of a Cabaret Voltaire mixtape, compiled by my brother in September 1990 as a going away gift just before I went off to Australia for a year, 19 years old, naive and fearless... well, that last bit wasn't quite true. If I thought too long about it, I was bricking it at the prospect of going to the other side of the world solo and essentially making it up as I went along. But I also sensed it would be a once in a lifetime opportunity and I didn't want to pass it up. One of the best decisions I ever made...even more incredible, given some of the poor choices I'd made in the previous couple of years...!

I digress. My brother is a huge Cabaret Voltaire fan, so I listened to a lot of their music blasting from the bedroom next door when we both lived at home and subsequently in his bedsit in Bristol's Stokes Croft area in the latter part of the 1980s. To be honest, I liked Cabaret Voltaire but I'd always gravitated towards their more poppy (if that's the right word for it) or dancefloor oriented material. This is probably reflected in the choice of tracks on this mixtape.

I was blown away by the Yashar 12" (my brother had the original Factory release, of course), both of the John Robie mixes cropping up on mixtapes of my own around that time. I remember getting the coach driver to stick a couple of my cassettes on during a Biology field trip to the Forest of Dean, which will have included Yashar, largely to the indifference of my schoolmates. 

I've tweaked today's selection slightly. Side 1 originally closed with Landslide from 1981's Red Mecca. As with many mixtapes I made or received, there'd often be a 2 minute 'filler' track to pad out a side of a cassette. Good though the track is, I suspect this was the case with Landslide, so I've dropped it and closed with Sensoria instead. To balance the running time, I've also swapped the album version of I Want You for the 12" Mix. 

The mixtape title, as I learned relatively recently, is a mishearing of the vocal sample used on Yashar. The correct wording is, "There's 70 billion people of Earth, where are they hiding?", taken from a 1964 episode of American TV series, The Outer Limits. The episode in question is Demon With A Glass Hand, episode 5 of season 2, written by Harlan Ellison and with the sampled phrase voiced by Robert Culp. Cabaret Voltaire revisited this episode for samples on other tracks on the albums The Voice Of America (1980) and Plasticity (1992).

1) Automotivation (1985)

2) Hypnotised (D.M.D.O.R. Mix By Daniel Miller) (ft. Ten City) (1989)

3) I Want You (12" Mix) (1985)

4) No Escape (Cover of The Seeds) (1979)

5) Yashar (John Robie Mix 2) (1982)

6) White Car (Album Version By Cabaret Voltaire & Adrian Sherwood) (1987)

7) Just Fascination (12" Remix By Cabaret Voltaire & John Luongo) (1982)

8) Sensoria (Album Version By Cabaret Voltaire & Flood) (1984)

 

1979: Mix-Up: 4 

1983: Crackdown/Just Fascination EP: 7

1982: Yashar EP: 5

1984: Micro-Phonies: 8

1985: Gasoline In Your Eye (VHS): 1

1985: I Want You EP: 3 

1987: Code: 6

1989: Hypnotised EP: 2

 

Side One (45:15) (KF) (Mega)

Scratch The Surface

Celebrating Richard H. Kirk, 21st March 1956 to 21st September 2021.

I was devastated to read that Richard H. Kirk died yesterday at the age of 65. His achievements with Cabaret Voltaire alone secure a place in music history, and his prodigious output as a solo artist, aliases including Sandoz, collaborations such as Sweet Exorcist (with Richard Barratt) and many, many remixes kept him at the cutting edge of electronic music. 

Richard H. Kirk re-established Cabaret Voltaire as a solo venture in the late Noughties with remix albums/EPs for Kora and The Tivoli and, in 2020, released the first Cabs album in 26 years with Shadow Of Fear. 

A couple of drone albums and an EP followed this year, proof if needed that Richard H. Kirk was creatively in rude health. 

I can't express how much his music has meant to me and this hastily compiled selection doesn't even begin to scratch the surface.

 

1) The Arm Of The Lord: Cabaret Voltaire (1985)

2) Diskono (Alternate): Cabaret Voltaire (1982)

3) In Slumber (Richard H. Kirk Mix): Anne Garner (2005)

4) Brain, Whisper, Head, Hate Is Noise (Remix By RHK aka Richard H. Kirk): Buck-Tick (1994)

5) Yashar (John Robie Mix 2): Cabaret Voltaire (1982)

6) Tripping On Your Love (Sweet Exorcist Mix By Richard H. Kirk & Richard Barratt): Bananarama (1990)

7) Shadow Of Funk (Edit): Cabaret Voltaire (2021)

8) Do Right (Album Version): Cabaret Voltaire (1984)

9) Kino 5 (C/V Western Re-Work: 92): Cabaret Voltaire (1992)

10) Geezer (Sweet Exorcist Remix By Richard H. Kirk & Richard Barratt): Ultramarine (1992)

11) Cockpit Country: Sandoz (1998)

12) Baader Meinhof: Cabaret Voltaire (1979)

13) Nag Nag Nag (Single Version): Cabaret Voltaire (1979)

1979: A Factory Sample EP: 12

1979: Nag Nag Nag EP: 13

1982: Yashar EP: 5

1984: Micro-Phonies: 8

1985: The Covenant, The Sword And The Arm Of The Lord: 1

1990: Tripping On Your Love EP: 6

1992: I Want You / Kino (Altern 8 Remixes/C/V Western Re-Works: 92 EP: 9

1992: Nightfall In Sweetleaf EP: 10

1994: シェイプレス: 4

1998: Sandoz In Dub: Chant To Jah: 11

2001: Conform To Deform '82-'90: The Virgin/EMI Years Archive: 2

2005: Re-Making The Pearl: 3

2021: Shadow Of Funk EP: 7

 

Scratch The Surface (1:09:07) (GD) (M)