…. IT’S WELL a question we could all be asking. What, indeed, is goin’ on? Society riven; the ‘rona running riot; politicians brazenly self-serving and at new peaks of mendacity.
And it’s with a characteristic precognition that Cabaret Voltaire have just dropped a track full of that South Yorkshire industrial-era monochrome, the title repeating as a barely comprehending, dispossessed vocal hook – even a little post-punk funk, just a shaft of soul horns light through those grime-scaled skylights floors above, while you groove down here in the shadows amid the discarded shapes and the jettisoned junk of the early 21st century.
It’s the final single drop from the Cabs, now the sole preserve of Richard H Kirk, ahead of the long overdue long-playing postcard from Low and Nether Edges, Shadow Of Fear. It’s been 26 (!) years since the last one.
Expect Shadow Of Fear to usher all kinds of the best sonic developments into the Cabs’ sonic nets: techno, dub, house, kosmische, but all filtered and drop-forged into that characteristic, possessed, esoteric Cabaret Voltaire shape.
Richard is one records as saying: “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.
“The mission statement from the off was no nostalgia. Normal rules do not apply. Something for the 21st century. No old material.”
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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