Cabaret Voltaire – Conform To Deform '82 / '90. Archive;

This review will kind of be adding to what Crijevo mentioned below me, although my complaints are a bit different. The 'dropout' on Diskono (alternate) is VERY minor and likely just an issue with the source material. Imperceptible on speakers and audibly harmless on headphones. The rest of the tracks are fine (Heck, "Theme from Doublevision" on the 2013 remaster of The Crackdown does the same thing. I'm pretty sure it's just the source material, both tracks were recorded around the same time). What's nice is that this compilation wasn't super compressed/brickwalled like other releases of the early '00s.

My personal complaints are on the ordering of material and what they chose to include/exclude. As another commenter mentioned, there is no "Intro" or "Outro" from Gasoline in Your Eye, despite the inclusion of "Diffusion," "Slow Boat to Thassos," and "Automotivation 2" (the original "Automotivation" is on the Listen Up compilation). Those are the sole tracks from that film that have yet to be upgraded from VHS quality (but maybe they were lost, who knows). Why was "Ghost Talk" included though, when it was/is already available on a CD copy of the Drinking Gasoline EP? (Kind of a similar issue to "Kino" being on "The Original Sound of Sheffield" comp, but that made more sense as it technically had a 7" promotional mix). Anyways, it's not an alternate mix or anything, so they literally just threw in an 8min track, already available through other means, that could've been dedicated to the previously mentioned missing Gasoline tracks or even another Groovy, Laidback, and Nasty mix.

GLN isn't my favorite Cabs release, but I appreciate the attempt at archival of some of its material in 2001. However, even when compiling all the remixes from this release and 'Remixed,' there are still GLN-era tracks/remixes missing from a CD release. B-Sides "Fluid" and "Positive ID" are both stuck on vinyl as far as I know, for example. Still, only two GLN remixes were included here, and Disc 2 could've still fit 1, maybe 2 more tracks with a 1h10m length total (Disc 1 is 1h12m, so still possible room for one on there).

A name like '82/'90 would almost suggest things are in archival order, but they're quite scattered. Starts at '82, goes to '87, '85, '86, '84, etc. I think things would have flowed better, even from a listening standpoint, if ordered by year/album/soundtrack release. Why are all the Gasoline soundtrack entries on Disc 1 except "Diffusion," for example? It doesn't even really fit the 'Conform to Deform' title, even if the name is supposedly an easter egg to the Some Bizarre label.

I love the inclusion of unreleased 12" versions of "Code" and (especially!) "The Web." The alternate mixes of "Diskono," "Shakedown," and "The Web" are each great in their own right. Even Disc 3, being a GLN tour concert, is cool to hear when there is already enough live archives of Cabs stuff from 1980-1986. There's this concert, then the 'Live in London' one from 1992... and what else? I hope there are still live recordings from the '90s that have yet to be released by somebody, because it's such an underrated era for the duo.

I don't think the unreleased tracks alone are worthy of the heftier price tag this one typically sells for. But, if you're like me, you'll probably want to save money by getting this anyways instead of the now grossly inflated #8385 Collected Works. There are still a couple mixes #8385 has an edge over this box with (including the Earthshaker 'soundtrack'), but that one is still technically incomplete without a working download code. So, either way, I think this bundle is better for your wallet if you want the B-Sides AND additional tracks unavailable on the newer release.

A nice addition to Cabaret Voltaire's list of compilations out there, some might say - but from a closer look, nothing that special, and sadly not without technical fault. To start with, there's a strange (digital?) dropout at the very beginning of the first disc - "Diskono (Alternate Version)" suddenly cuts a millisecond not long after it kicks off, which immediately leaves bitter taste in the mouth before getting into it even started. For many years now, the quality of CD releases (box-sets especially) continues to degrade due to a customary problem of clumsy supervision, that is in the end affecting the buying public who justifiably expect decent digital treatment, especially when it comes to value for money.

And then there's the contents itself - surely there are moments on this collection not to be missed but "Conform to Deform" is audibly a missed opportunity just the same, making excuses with the choice of repeated material (read - remixes and dub versions) included on the two thirds of the box-set. The remaining, third segment is reserved for the selection of the group's late 80s live material, established firmly in the house camp, which for better (or worse) marks the core duo's smart move and honest intention to explore the genre in their own right.

While the regular variant "The Best Of - The Original Sound Of Sheffield" cleverly relies on the Virgin/Parlophone-era 12" mixes in a nice consistent overview, "Conform To Deform" is a deceptive mess not intended to relate to that regular compilation's A-side material. Thus it is too bad that "Conform To Deform" didn't reach further into the vault for the more obscure Cabaret Voltaire material that was always known to be plenty out there.

Instead, try "Technology", "Listen Up With", "Radiation", "Methodology", and "The Living Legends". These were constructed with more attention to a certain chronology, the obscurity factor and enthusiasm. "Conform To Deform" sadly leaves the impression it was heading more in the direction of an inevitable cash cow.

This release is a nice treat for Cabaret Voltaire fans who want more of the Drinking Gasoline era. The live disc is a nice curiousity because it demonstrates their ability to play live house music. By the way, I had to buy this release 3 times. I kept exchaning it because "Disconon" (alternate mix) has a skip. I think it was recorded that way because every CD player I played on it would skip at that point and the CDs looked totally fine.