Cabaret Voltaire

[13]

The Cab's early tape-loop material hasn't clicked with me yet, but I am really into their later "electro-industrial" (for lack of better term...) albums. Especially The Crackdown, The Covenant, The Sword And The Arm Of The Lord, and the excellent compilation Eight Crepuscule Tracks. Any fans?

[burdizzo]

For me, their best material was on ''Mix Up'', which was also put out as a nice tape by The Grey Area w/ ''Live At The Lyceum'' on the other side. Fitted well, as it was from the same era - late '70s. There was a compilation called ''The Living Legends'' which was pretty good too, as far as I remember. But ''Mix Up'' is the one to try, if you haven't already.
As for the electro stuff - I liked ''The Crackdown'', but the rest you can keep.

[Zeno Marx]

On some level, I like everything up through Red Mecca 1981, which strikes me as the second of two transitional albums.  Then, for me, the albums get really patchy up through The Covenant 1985.  I'm an album person, so I don't bother with anything after Red Mecca. 

Cabaret Voltaire - Methodology '74-'78 Attic Tapes - a great collection of edits and ideas -  if something between P16.D4 and a cold wave Clock DVA sounds like a good idea, here you go. Definitely some proto-power-electronic stuff happening. Great headphone music.
Cabaret Voltaire - Mix-Up 1979 - jagged and difficult, but good, especially the back end of the album.
Cabaret Voltaire - The Voice Of America 1980 - really interesting, jagged album that is clearly a transition from experimentalism into finding a new sound and integrating much more accessible ideas - good album and recommended.
Cabaret Voltaire - Three Mantras 1980 - two 20-minute tracks - really good album - could be mistaken for a krautrock album - nice Arabic influence on "Easter Montra" - recommended, thought the 2nd track can get annoying at times.

and yeah, listen to Clock DVA and that lineage.

[david lloyd jones]

liked cv up to their major label releases, which followed chris n leaving.
their records and videos (ground breaking at the time) were massively inspirational.
saw them at their crossover to more explicitly beat/dance/aesthetic period, and preferred earlier stuff, on retrospect.
at the time, many bands were influenced by a dance beat hence their discographies-beat driven rather than rock.