Thought maybe I'd start writing an occasional column about How We Got
Here... If anybody likes it let me know. If you don't like it, go away.
CABARET VOLTAIRE - CODE
Well here we have an absolute perfect little moment of classic IDM
history. First off, for all you newbies, Cabaret Voltaire is Richard
H Kirk's "first band". (Just like Paul McCartney used to be in some
other band, the name of which escapes me.)
Code perfectly exemplifies this sort of mini-genre that was floating
around England for a while - white boy electro funk. You've got your
pounding drum machine beats, stuttering percussion & synth blips, fat
analog basses, a little trebly funk guitar for effect and presto. I
tend to think of this album as part of a trilogy of Adrian
Sherwood-produced masterpieces, also including Ministry's "Twitch" and
Mark Stewart's "As The Veneer Of Democracy Begins To Fade". Where
Ministry had teen angst and Stewart had paranoia, CV have a
politically conscious global view to their music. And let's not
forget the middle initial in our benighted acronym - anybody who went
to a club in 1987 and heard "Here To Go" or "Don't Argue" knows what
kind of destruction the Sherwood-beats and Kirk-bleeps could wreak on
a dancefloor. A generation of youth got inspired to pick up a sampler
and twist off some serious noises by CV (Jack Dangers of Meat Beat
Manifesto always used to name-check them as a major influence).
Unfortunately CabVol has deteriorated to little more than another Kirk
"lemmee noodle a little more" side project, and a not terribly
interesting one at that.
To further the tragedy, this album is apparently out of print on CD.
I recommend you scour the cutout bins. This is a chunk of history
here, and it will make you wiggle your bottom to boot. (Also
recommended is "The Covenant, The Sword, And The Arm Of The Lord" but
it's way less funky than Code.)
---jsd
"Sanity is a one trick pony...you only get one trick: rational thinking...
but when you're good and crazy,the sky's the limit!!" - The Tick.