Cabaret Voltaire were an experimental music band which formed in Sheffield, England in 1973. They originally consisted of Stephen Mallinder (vocals, bass), Richard H. Kirk (guitar, keyboards, sound manipulation) and Chris Watson (sound manipulation, tapes, keyboards). Watson left the group in 1983 and the band continued as a duo until their disbandment in 1994.
Hailing from
Sheffield,
England,
Stephen Mallinder &
Richard H. Kirk were the backbone of
Cabaret Voltaire, and creators of many of the techniques that fueled the
industrial and electronic genres for years. From the droning
noise-punk of
Nag Nag Nag to the sublime
dance-pop of
Easy Life, with
industrial funk hits like
Sensoria in between, the Cabs' career spanned 2 decades.
Many recent/current electronic artists owe a great deal of debt to Cabaret Voltaire's experimental beginnings, in particular Richard H Kirk's paranoid otherworldly samples, fused with gritty dark looped percussion. Kirk also had several solo outings, with his
Sweet Exorcist incarnation opening the doors for Warp Records, in their "bleep" days that were the harbinger for the sonic experimentation of
Aphex Twin,
Autechre,
Black Dog and more.
The late 80s and early 90s saw Cabaret Voltaire take an increasingly pop-oriented bent in their music, but many tracks like
Easy Life and later,
Colours fused hooks with all the excitement of the burgeoning rave scene in the UK.
As well as working on his own aural experiments, original band member
Chris Watson now works as a well-respected sound recordist, developing some innovative techniques for Natural History radio and TV, most recently (2006) for the BBC's Galapagos series.
Cabaret Voltaire