Cabaret Voltaire are set to kick off a new series of re-issues, opening with an expansive look at 1981's 'Red Mecca'.
True electronic pioneers, Cabaret Voltaire's back catalogue can be a formidable beast to newcomers. Sprawling across labels, even locating the full, complete collection can be a mission in itself.
Thankfully, Mute are on hand to aid an ongoing re-issue project. The next part of series opens with 1981's 'Red Mecca', an album which found Cabaret Voltaire responding to the rise of both synth-pop and Thatcherism.
Out on July 22nd, this is an expansive look at the band's third album – their final with founder Chris Watson. Recorded at Western Works, Sheffield the material is inspired by everything from Northern Soul to William Burroughs, with CB radio acting as a continual reference point.
It's popularity now dimmed, CB radio was a kind of exceptionally slow version of Twitter coughed up by the 80s. Cabaret Voltaire lynchpin Richard H Kirk: "we were thinking about doing a pirate radio at that time, which never happened, but buried in the sounds before ‘Red Mask’, are clips of CB radio transmissions."
Try out 'Spread The Virus' below.
Re-mastered by Stefan Betke (Pole), 'Red Mecca' will be available from July 22nd. Tracklisting:
Side 1
A Touch Of Evil
Sly Doubt
Landslide
A Thousand Ways
Side 2
Red Mask
Split Second
Feeling
Black Mask
Spread The Virus
A Touch Of Evil (Reprise)
Watch out for a Cabaret Voltaire box set focussing on the band's middle period this Autumn.
