| Cabaret Voltaire is a post-punk industrial and electronica band from Sheffield, England consisting of Stephen Mallinder, Chris Watson and
Richard H. Kirk. Their
earliest performances were dadaist-inspired performance art. In 1978 (see 1978 in music), Cabaret Voltaire signed to Rough Trade
and after several highly acclaimed initial singles/extended players, including "Extended Play", "Nag Nag Nag", Three
Mantras and 3 Crepuscule Tracks began releasing punk-influenced albums of experimental music such as The Voice of
America in 1980 and the widely-hailed Red Mecca in 1981.
In 1983 (see 1983 in music),
co-inciding with the departure of Watson (who went on as part of The Hafler Trio), Cabaret Voltaire began moving towards electronic dance music with the album The Crackdown on Virgin Records. In 1984, the singles
"Sensoria" and "James Brown" from the album Micro Phonies (also on Virgin) charted on the independent music charts. In 1986 (see 1986 in music), the band released Code, followed by the house-influenced Groovy,
Laidback & Nasty in 1988 (see 1988 in music). A series of completely instrumental works under the Cabaret Voltaire name were released on
Instinct Records in
1993 and 1994, but appeared to be largely the product
of Kirk. Since then, Kirk has begun a solo career under several names, including Electronic Eye and Sandoz, while Mallinder has
relocated to Perth, Australia and records with a collaborator under the name Sassi & Loco.
Random trivia
In the movie Ferris Bueller's Day Off you can
see a Cabaret Voltaire poster in Ferris' room. It is the cover of their 1984 release Micro-Phonies.
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