Cabaret Voltaire

New Album Shadow of Fear Out Now

CABARET VOLTAIRE’s eagerly awaited new album, Shadow Of Fear, is out now on Mute.

Shadow Of Fear is Cabaret Voltaire’s first release with Richard H Kirk as the sole member of the band, and the result is an album that defies categorisation. The tone and personality of Cabaret Voltaire is ingrained into its core as it dances across techno, dub, house, 1970s Kosmische, and general esoteric explorations coupled with mangled vocal samples. It’s a voyage through the history of electronic music that arrives at a new destination.

Cabaret Voltaire has always been a group ahead of their time, even prescient at times, and this album carries on that evolution. Kirk explains, “The current situation didn’t have much of an influence on what I was doing – all the vocal content was already in place before the panic set in – but maybe due to my nature of being a bit paranoid there are hints in there about stuff going a bit weird and capturing the current state of affairs.” Although, as with a lot of Kirk’s work, concrete meaning and narrative is ripe for interpretation rather than being spelled out. “Surrealism has always been really important to Cabaret Voltaire,” says Kirk. “And that’s still present too.”

The genesis of the new album was the 2014 Berlin Atonal festival where Kirk played the first show on his own as Cabaret Voltaire. This began a new era for the pioneering Sheffield outfit whose influence across electronic, post-punk and industrial music remains an untouchable one today. This is new music for a new era: “The mission statement from the off was no nostalgia. Normal rules do not apply. Something for the 21st Century. No old material.”

“Shadow Of Fear is a brash and confident rebirth” – UNCUT 8/10* lead review

“… masterclass in shapeshifting disco” – MOJO 4/5*

“Kirk is intent on pushing forward, ensuring that the hints of familiarity never come with an accompanying tang of comforting nostalgia.” – THE GUARDIAN 4/5* lead review

“Deeply absorbing” – THE TIMES 4.5*

“A varied genre-hopper of a dance album, drawing on dub, techno and disco while beholden to none of them, and bristling with hooks to hold you once it’s lured you in” – METRO 4/5*

“Pins the listener down like a helicopter-mounted psy-weapon” – THE WIRE lead review

“Normal rules don’t apply”, though of course rarely did, which means this remains distinctly Cabs-like: full of malignant vocal samples, harsh rhythms and threatening detonations” – CLASSIC POP

“Shadow of Fear is up there with some of the band’s better albums. In fact, it’s also up there with some of the better electronic albums released by anyone this year” – THE ARTS DESK Disc of the Day

“Cabaret Voltaire sounds as spry as they’ve ever been…” – BANDCAMP

SHADOW OF FEAR TRACKLISTING

Be Free

The Power (Of Their Knowledge)

Night Of The Jackal

Microscopic Flesh Fragment

Papa Nine Zero Delta United

Universal Energy

Vasto

What’s Goin’ On

Listen to / buy the new album here: https://mute.ffm.to/CV-SOF