SHEFFIELD’S Cabaret Voltaire, poised to release their first new album in more than a quarter-century for Mute next month, have dropped another chill, single-track postcard portent from the electronic edge in “The Power (Of Their Knowledge)”. Take a listen with us.
The new album, Shadow Of Fear, is the Cabs’ first release with Richard H Kirk as sole member, and promises a piper’s dance across techno, dub, house, 1970s’ kosmische and esoterica, all peppered with sheared and warped vocal sampling, doctored into otherwordliness – and all imprinted with the marrow of that stark Steel City aesthetic.
And dark times seem the perfect climate for a dose of the world through Richard’s prism – the world moving closer than ever to Cabaret Voltaire, rather than the other way world. Prescient? Just perhaps.
“The current situation didn’t have much of an influence on what I was doing – all the vocal content was already in place before the panic set in – but maybe due to my nature of being a bit paranoid there are hints in there about stuff going a bit weird and capturing the current state of affairs,” Richard says.
Of course, that darkness isn’t spelt out for you like polemic – Cabaret Voltaire have always worked on deeper levels than that; rather it’s a sudden ice in the veins, a cognizance of a brutality where we (sometimes) convince ourselves there’s sunshine and roses.
“Surrealism has always been really important to Cabaret Voltaire,” says Richard: “And that’s still present too.”
Cabaret Voltaire’s Shadow Of Fear will be released by Mute on digital, cassette, CD and purple vinyl on November 20th; there’s also a variety of merch bundles for your delectation. Place your order here.
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