Swedish cult act Cultivated Bimbo revisits the past on 'Prequel' album

When in 1991 the Depeche Mode tribute album “I Sometimes Wish I Was Famous: A Swedish Tribute to Depeche Mode”, the very first Depeche Mode tribute album ever, was released via the Swedish label Energy Rekords, many non-Scandinavian electronic music fans suddenly got acces to a series of good Swedish bands they had never heard of before, except for Cat Rapes Dog who were by then already distributed by the now defunct KK Records. Bands like S.P.O.C.K., Scapa Flow, Elegant Machinery, Page, Pouppée Fabrikk, Inside Treatment, etc. had gotten quite a big platform (the compilation sold over 70.000 copies if memory serves us right) to represent their sound.

Another band was also present on that compilation, the Uppsala-based duo Cultivated Bimbo with their cover of “New Life”. The band debuted with their 12″ “Configuration 1” on the classic label Electronic Beat Association which later became part of Energy Rekords. Cultivated Bimbo alwasy has been quite an unpredictable band with a sounds constantly changing: they started out as a synthpop / industrial duo but switched to hip hop, rap and even metal and hardcore. The first EPs “Configuration 1 + 2” (1991) were typical synthpop / EBM while the first album “Tunes From A High Wire” (1991) was more industrial. But one year later when the EP “Blasting In Progress” (1992) was released they had switched to hip-hop a direction continued on the full length “Your Useful Guide To Life” (1993). From “98.66” (1994) on they went for a metal sound and on their last album “Album. 1995.” (1995) we got a mix of straight rock / hardcore / rap.

Unpredictable, we told you. And there’s more, on the above picture you see Joacim Thenander (Wallin at the time) and Heidi Martens. Heidi sang on the 2 Depeche Mode covers the band recorded (“New Life” and “Something To Do”). She was however never a member of the band. Ö-dahl simply couldn’t join the photo session, so Heidi was dressed in toilet paper to cover her up.

The past revisited on new album

But the band is back now with the album “Prequel” (limited to 500 copies). For the occasion Joacim Thenander (who is nowadays also the band Maschine Brennt) has taken 12 classic tracks and totally remade and reshaped them to fit into a more of a 2020 standard.

Included on the this release you’ll find new versions of “Impulzus”, “Slaugher House”, “Brutalize”, “Walking on Acid”, “Pain”, “Corruption”, “Horst”, “Brain Diggers”, “Assassin”, “Take No.5”, “Fascisma” and “Mr Rubber”.

Here’s a teaser for the album:

And here’s the track “Corruption” in its original version as the older readers will remember.

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