Cabaret Voltaire – The Voice Of America

This and Mix Up are a near perfect audio equivalent to the writings of Burroughs. Paranoid, dark and essential.

Whenever I felt like pis*ing off my ultra conservative stepfather, this album was my weapon of choice. He hated it :)
I, on the other hand, recognise it for the masterpiece it is. Turn up the volume! It sounds great
5/5

Best Cabs album in my very humble opinion. Hell, Messages Received is almost pop !
Sounds great to me. It was never going to be an audiophile experience was it ?
This is entertainment!

Possibly my favourite Watson era Cabs LP. So much going on here that pushed boundaries in music. Raw at times but stunning in its ability to utilise electronics and forge a completely unrelenting new path (for its time) that is hard to match in recent decades.

If you want the auditory equivalent of a boot stamping on the face of humanity for all of eternity, then look no further to this Album.

Pioneer of the industrial scene, Cabaret Voltaire was influenced by the dada movement which is where it got its name. Master of magnetic tape manipulations, CV is one of the bands who invented the industrial esthetic. In 1978, the band signed a deal with the British label 'Rough Trade' and started its record production. The eponymous piece starts with a speech taken from a documentary on Woodstock in which a cop explains to his henchmen how to contain the hippy crowd. It goes on with electronic rhythm and sounds that take us into a sci-fi movie. The atmosphere is metallic, stifling and brilliant. 'Premonition' starts with an earsplitting noise. Multiple sounds appear to give us the impression of being inside of a factory. The rhythm is regular and sharp like a ruthless mechanic. There is not much to understand in the artificial voices that emerge but it doesn’t seem to augur well. 'This is entertainment' starts with a deafening electronic sound and moves on with an electronic beat which is fast, crude and brutal. The first time I heard it, in 1981, I had the impression of entering into another dimension. This shows how revolutionary this esthetic was at the time. 'Obsession' starts with an effective bass riff to which is added a superb rhythm and a distant guitar, all these elements perfectly evoking the theme of the piece. In 'News from nowhere', the band plays with the sounds like if it was adjusting colors on a TV and this could make you sick. 'Message is received' starts with an electronic percussion that bursts in slow-motion. The rhythm gets in and then we dive into one of the best moments of this opaque record. The musical ideas tighten up and the sound gets sharper. The mix between the machine and the modified human voice is sublime. The groove is perfectly mastered and we end up being hypnotized in this electronic trance.

© Alain Cliche 2016

Ama$on is selling a CD dated September 17, 2013 on label "Imports". Anyone know which issue it is - doesn't seem to be cataloged here.

Underrated. I'm not really a big straight-up techno fan, so the shambling tape-op collage feel here suits me just fine -- as it did when it first came out. Recommended for fans of the tapey parts of "this nation's saving grace" by the fall. Considered as a whole it's a very fine piece of work and I don't really find anything else by these guys to measure up.

This is the Cabs' second full-length release that originally appeared in late 1980.

It's a bit of a disjointed affair - some tracks on the album seem curiously thrown together among the more intense electro-warped items. Sonically, although somewhat similar, it doesn't pack the same punch as the all out assaults on 'Mix-Up' but there's this persistent "creepiness" about how some of tracks snake into your ears and gnaw into your cortex with repeated listening.

Check out the opening track 'Voice Of America/Damage Is Done' where a police seargent is instructing his officers on maintaining order during an upcoming music concert. 'Obsession' is a personal favourite. It's a dark, hypnotic track with vocalist Stephen Mallinder repeating "One Obssession...One Obssession" over and over again like a mantra amid the twisting and pulsing synth drum patterns and processed guitars. There's a similar but slightly more accessible approach on the appropriately titled closing track 'This Is Entertainment'.

Other less formed tracks like 'Partially Submerged' and 'Premonition' follow more of a dark ambient nature. Eerie tape loops and pitchbending effects nicely compliment the otherwise highly unusual array of sounds. Fans of Throbbing Gristle's more compositional stuff may find those tracks already quite familliar to their ears.

'Voice Of America' was reissued by the Grey Area of Mute Records on CD and Cassette in 1990 and then, more recently, re-mastered and re-released by Mute in 2002. An interesting progression from 'Mix-Up' and a precursor to what came later. Recommended!