In a recent interview in The Wire’s September issue, Stephen Mallinder, Cabaret Voltaire founder, bassist and more, got asked “why now ?”. Why had he and other original member Chris Watson decided to reconvene the Cabs for some live UK shows some fifty years after the legendary electronic music trio’s first gig? As Mallinder and Watson went on to explain, Cabaret Voltaire’s unlikely return carries a deeper resonance than time frames or anniversaries. In the wake of the passing in 2021 of Richard H. Kirk, the third essential side of the band’s creative triangle, a marker was needed more than ever to celebrate and reconsider what Cabaret Voltaire music has meant to so many.
Judging by the huddling queue waiting in the lashing rain for Attenborough Centre doors to open tonight, Mallinder and Watson’s hunch is very much shared. The gig, one of a short series around the UK this Autumn, sold out in a blink and there’s a crackle of expectancy hovering over the packed foyer and bars. Even the merch is flying off the table pre-show, longed for replacements for those overworn tees that have endured through the years. Yes, the crowd may seem to be packed with mid-eighties teens but clearly the thrill’s not gone.
Firstly though to prep us for the main event we have Microcorps aka Alexander Tucker aka one half of Grumbling Fur and now the deliverer of incisive, industrial techno that’s guaranteed to drive out any lethargy. In Orbital goggles and white hoody a robotic voiced Microcorps quips “thanks for coming down” and the blast begins. Reversed symphonic chords fill the ACCA rotunda before a searing electronic riff cranks up a crushing beat rampage. As images of urban decay, all pylons and high rise, flicker across the back projections it’s clear there’s no gentle introduction here. Tucker’s latest ‘CLEAR VORTEX CHAMBER’ album may have marked a hardening of the Microcorps sound but the live enactment sees the pieces drill even deeper to find their own primitive power. His second track pumps the rhythms up into a pounding mutant song, Tucker clutching the mic and crouching into each machined vocal yowl for a savage cyber- metal crescendo. With visuals zooming into a shadowy vortex, Microcorps then snaps from a swelling harmonium-toned drone into a glitchy, sub-melodic songline. Heads nod, shoulders shift before Tucker’s fractured dancehall shuts down with the crowd well primed for the sonic venture ahead.
Soon the ACCA main hall is filled with that unforgettable sample from Cabaret Voltaire’s classic ‘The Voice of America’. As the Police Chief’s briefing speech warns “We will not allow any dancing, running up and down the aisles…” you can feel the memory of old rebellion swirling around. There’s a sense that this could be a moment. Cheers rise, the band slide on and we’re smartly into the tense electro-funk twitch of ’24-24’ its Kraftwerkian string loop still piercing and synth riff reliably hypnotic. Mallinder steps out from electronics rig to stage front, sharp and assertive, his breathy sneer still potent over this heavy take on their early eighties banger.
There’s a brief pause for now-Brightonian Mallinder to welcome us to this “home from home” gig and give thanks for Richard Kirk’s timeless influence before we’re plunged back into tonight’s giddy sixteen song Cabaret Voltaire feast. The set’s drawn mainly from their transformative ‘Crackdown’ and ‘Microphonies’ albums from 83 and 84, releases which saw the band’s early electronic innovations absorbed into a tighter, angry dancefloor thrust. ‘Animation’ sounds crisp and sprightly; electronica pioneer and Cabs associate Eric Random’s gliding guitar lines injecting some arcing Krautrock optics into the song. ‘Crackdown’, prefaced by the “contemplating jazz” snippet from Ginsberg’s ‘The Howl’, retains its dark paranoiac malevolence, ‘Just Fascination’ stomps magically and a pulsating ‘Why Kill Time (When You Can Kill Yourself)’ brings out the robotic bob and strut amongst the punters. Maybe it’s ‘Spies In The Wires’ which pushes just that bit further for attention tonight, Mallinder’s bass lurking in the zone as the tune’s big beat mightiness engulfs the room.
Hearing these songs played with such renewed energy as they probe extremism, military powerbroking, technological dependence and decline, underlines the ongoing relevance of Cabaret Voltaire’s messaging. As prophetic and prescient as ever, the band also show in tonight’s set that their experimental restlessness remains embedded. Early on they play their only new piece, Chris Watson’s more abstract ‘Tinsley Viaduct’, an atmospheric, eerie sound collage capturing the Brutalist beauty of a Sheffield landmark while stark images of the structure haunt the ACCA’s inner chamber.
Other left-field tracks from Cabaret Voltaire’s 1977 to ’81 phase, before Chris Watson left to pursue life as a Sound Recordist, also get re-imagined. ‘The Set Up’ may boom more heavily through a 21st century sound system but its incessant guitar whine still circles with an icy chill. ‘Landslide’ again rumbles and slithers ominously, drummer Oliver Harrap keeping the beats clinical and the locomotive skank of ‘Taxi Music’, from the Johnny Yesno soundtrack, gets a furious electro house revamp.
Time flies as the set unfolds, a testament to Mallinder, Watson, Random and Harrap’s energy and application as well as their intuitive set listing. There are no dips here. The band charges towards closure on waves of pulse raising danceability and frenetic visuals which wrap around you mesmerically. The wild Arabic infused romp of ‘Yashar’, the sleezy, On-U slam of ‘Sex, Money, Freaks’ and ‘Easy Life’s bleep-disco bop swell the momentum to their final number, a sky- punching, bass bumping run through their eighties club classic ‘Do Right’.
After a pause, applause and “mores”, Cabaret Voltaire 2025 return for the inevitable but necessary post punk agitator ‘Nag Nag Nag’, delivered spikily to much shouting and pointing. Reassuringly it still sounds unhinged and unrivalled for indignance. After the spiralling electro-clash whirl of Sensoria calls time, the house lights up briskly and a polite shuffle home begins. There’s a hum of satisfaction in the collective chatter, the sound of re-connection not just between a band and its fans, people and their memories but with music of the past and the meaning it still undoubtedly has today.
The Attenborough Centre For Creative Arts, Saturday 22nd November 2025
Words by John Parry
Photos by Victor Frankowski
