Cabaret Voltaire – Shadow Of Fear (Album – Mute)
Genre/Influences: Electronic, Experimental, Cinematographic, Ambient.
Format: Digital, CD, Vinyl, Cassette.
Background/Info: Cabaret Voltaire is back with the first new studio album since “The Conversation” (1994). Richard H. Kirk remains the single member of the legendary Sheffield (UK) formation. Cabaret Voltaire belongs to the pioneers of Electronic music and remained an influential project throughout the years while Richard H. Kirk focused on other music projects
Content: Cabaret Voltaire’s new opus sounds diversified, mixing good-old sound treatments and arrangements with new ideas. Richard H. Kirk can look back to a serious discography; he experimented with multiple styles and influences and that comes through at this album. The tracklist has been progressively built up from accessible Experimental cuts driven by slow beats towards more danceable cuts, which you can hear in the final part of the work. From Electro-Wave to funky sequences and from Electro-Ambient to Trance passages, this work covers an impressive sonic canvas. The vocals have been replaced by spoken samplings.
+ + + : The name Cabaret Voltaire was directly taken from the legendary place where the artistic movement called ‘Dadaism’ was created. It was a kind of anarchistic arts movement without that much restrictions or rules. And that’s precisely what I experienced listening to “Shadow Of Fear”. Richard H. Kirk is just doing his thing; it remains Cabaret Voltaire for the great effects, fragmented samplings and some of the bass lines, but some songs are also harder and more danceable. “Vasto” is an absolute masterpiece driven by transcendental sequences. It’s the kind of song confirming the genius of Richard H. Kirk who remains a visionary artist. I also have to mention “Universal Energy”, which progressively builds up to a total climax.
– – – : The first part of the album is not as exciting although revealing great sound treatments and impressive effects. This is not a new “The Crackdown” or “Micro-Phonies”, but just a cool album you have to place in the right context; we’re no longer in the 80s, this is 2020!
Conclusion: Speaking for myself I consider Cabaret Voltaire as one of the most creative and visionary Electronic bands in history. This project always has had something unmatched, which is again confirmed with the new work!
Best songs: “Vasto”, “Universal Energy”, “Papa Nine Zero delta United”, “The Power Of Their Knowledge”.
Rate: (8).
Artist: www.facebook.com/CabaretVoltaireOfficial
Label: www.mute.com / www.facebook.com/muterecords Read the news on ‘Shadow Of Fear’.
About Cabaret Voltaire
Cabaret Voltaire formed in Sheffield, UK, in 1973, among the earliest British acts working with electronics, tape manipulation and sampling. Founding members Richard H. Kirk, Chris Watson and Stephen Mallinder recorded at their own Western Works studio; Watson left in 1981, and Mallinder departed after 1994’s “The Conversation”, the last album before the group went inactive for two decades.
Kirk revived Cabaret Voltaire as a solo vehicle in 2014, debuting the new incarnation at the Berlin Atonal festival and developing further material for live performance across subsequent European shows. “Shadow Of Fear”, recorded at Western Works and released via Mute on 20 November 2020, is the first Cabaret Voltaire studio album in over 20 years.
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I have been working for over 30 years with Side-line as the main reviewer. My taste is eclectic, uncoventional and I prefer to look for the pearls, even if the bands are completely unknown, thus staying loyal to the Side-Line philosophy of nurturing new talents.
