Kirk and Chris Watson were at the birth of the band. They were both fascinated by early electronic music and experimented with sounds and noises as well as loops of tapes. When Kirk’s friend, bassist and singer Stephen Mallinder joined them, a band named after the first-war Swiss Dadaist Cabaret Voltaire was formed. Her early concerts, in which there were a lot of noises, sometimes ended in skirmishes with the audience.
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They made a name for themselves after punk opened the door to experimenting bands that were not interested in major publishers. They have already succeeded with the first singles Do The Mussolini (Headkick), Bader Meinhof and Nag Nag Nag. The first albums Mix-Up and The Voice of America from the turn of the seventies and eighties combined the early electronics with noises, punk energy and underground. Together with Throbbing Gristle, the band helped promote raw electronic and industrial music, in which the trio was not afraid to use even elements of minimalism and Arabic music, as the recordings of Three Mantras and Red Mecca showed.
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However, the sound of the band, in which only Kirk and Mallinder remained later, gradually became clearer, and the duo moved closer to electronic dance music, which they promoted as one of the first. The band was not only at the birth of EBM, but also house and techno.
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Cabaret Voltaire disbanded in 1994, and Kirk devoted himself to solo work. In 2009, however, he revived the group and performed this new name himself at the Berlin Atonal festival in 2014 under this name. Last year, Cabaret Voltaire released a new album Shadow of Fear after 26 years, followed this year by Dekadrone and BN9Drone.
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