03-05-2012, 22:26
My favourite band are Cabaret Voltaire.
I first heard of them when I was, probably, 16 or 17 because I was a NIN freak and whenever I looked up 'Industrial music', it just had pictures of Throbbing Gristle and Cabaret Voltaire (and sometimes Neubauten).
I remember not knowing much or being able to find out anything about them and that being really frustrating for me. Everyone always cited them as 'an influence' or 'seminal' but their records were NEVER in the shops!
When Mute released a Single collection of their early, Rough Trade stuff, I remember finding it in a second-hand shop and my girlfriend buying it for me because I couldn't put it down (the cover was a great stone-grey, with odd mysterious textures and a totally oblique, cold presentation).
The Singles collection didn't inspire me: Nag Nag Nag, yes, and Yashar, yes and Silent Command were 'nice' and weird and cool, yes. But the whole thing didn't really get me going...I didn't 'get it.'
I ordered, maybe a year later, their 'Red Mecca' album after DJ Mag did a feature on them and recommended it as their best album. I recall being into EBM and KMFDM style industrial and hoping this was an old-skool slab of that kinda stuff. Alas, no, it was murky, cloudy, kraut-inspired post-punk which, again, I didn't get.
This went on for about 5 years...I picked up every bit pokey vinyl and every second-hand unloved CD from this band in an attempt to 'get it'. Eventually, while listening to Microphonies for the 100th time (and being, admittedly, a bit stoned) something just clicked. The way the tracks had little, barely detectable segues, little overlaps and burps of sound...the way every track seemed haunted by some data goblin, some media-panic-rash...the way that the band pretended not to notice, or, were this panic's cheerleader. I remember picking up a magazine cutting I'd collected and reading: "looking at the camera but speaking in tongues" as a description of CV. It was perfect -that was the moment when I sort of realised they were my favourite band and not just that, a kind of profound research project that continues to this day. Despite knowing every damn detail, they're still a mysterious, unfathomable band who continue to amaze and baffle me to this day.
I first heard of them when I was, probably, 16 or 17 because I was a NIN freak and whenever I looked up 'Industrial music', it just had pictures of Throbbing Gristle and Cabaret Voltaire (and sometimes Neubauten).
I remember not knowing much or being able to find out anything about them and that being really frustrating for me. Everyone always cited them as 'an influence' or 'seminal' but their records were NEVER in the shops!
When Mute released a Single collection of their early, Rough Trade stuff, I remember finding it in a second-hand shop and my girlfriend buying it for me because I couldn't put it down (the cover was a great stone-grey, with odd mysterious textures and a totally oblique, cold presentation).
The Singles collection didn't inspire me: Nag Nag Nag, yes, and Yashar, yes and Silent Command were 'nice' and weird and cool, yes. But the whole thing didn't really get me going...I didn't 'get it.'
I ordered, maybe a year later, their 'Red Mecca' album after DJ Mag did a feature on them and recommended it as their best album. I recall being into EBM and KMFDM style industrial and hoping this was an old-skool slab of that kinda stuff. Alas, no, it was murky, cloudy, kraut-inspired post-punk which, again, I didn't get.
This went on for about 5 years...I picked up every bit pokey vinyl and every second-hand unloved CD from this band in an attempt to 'get it'. Eventually, while listening to Microphonies for the 100th time (and being, admittedly, a bit stoned) something just clicked. The way the tracks had little, barely detectable segues, little overlaps and burps of sound...the way every track seemed haunted by some data goblin, some media-panic-rash...the way that the band pretended not to notice, or, were this panic's cheerleader. I remember picking up a magazine cutting I'd collected and reading: "looking at the camera but speaking in tongues" as a description of CV. It was perfect -that was the moment when I sort of realised they were my favourite band and not just that, a kind of profound research project that continues to this day. Despite knowing every damn detail, they're still a mysterious, unfathomable band who continue to amaze and baffle me to this day.
