Cabaret Voltaire

Kino have announced the release of their new album ‘Radio Voltaire’, arriving 13 years after the band’s much-loved debut ‘Picture’ back in 2005. Out on the 23rd March 2018, it sees John Mitchell (Arena, It Bites, Lonely Robot) & Pete Trewavas (Marillion) teaming up once more, with Craig Blundell (Steven Wilson) on drums & John Beck (It Bites) guesting on keyboards.

The first Plug In & Turn On (1994) is undistinguished and remains a non-essential release. Disc 1 is mostly dated club tracks; Disc 2 is ambient but gets lost with too many messy and dissonant tracks. Fortunately the second volume Plug In & Turn On vol. 2 is superb. On some tracks the club music DNA had disappeared entirely; there seems to be more of an anything-goes ethos, more confidence on the part of both compilers and artists. Woob's brilliant cinema of the mind which gets two airings on "Odonna" and "Pluto", and Adham Shaikh sounds like he's channeling old-school ambient master David Parsons with the cavernous Eastern drones of "Vapor"…

Razormaid was started in the mid 80's by Joseph Watt and Art Maharg in San Francisco, California as a music service for working club DJs. Their objective was to offer something other than just the regular versions that everyone had in their record bins. They created their own special versions of songs by editing and sometimes remixing the hottest club tunes being played (or about to be played) around the world. Their re-edited tracks set them apart from every other DJ service at the time and the music that they chose was some of the most cutting edge stuff available.

Razormaid was started in the mid 80's by Joseph Watt and Art Maharg in San Francisco, California as a music service for working club DJs. Their objective was to offer something other than just the regular versions that everyone had in their record bins. They created their own special versions of songs by editing and sometimes remixing the hottest club tunes being played (or about to be played) around the world. Their re-edited tracks set them apart from every other DJ service at the time and the music that they chose was some of the most cutting edge stuff available.

Razormaid was started in the mid 80's by Joseph Watt and Art Maharg in San Francisco, California as a music service for working club DJs. Their objective was to offer something other than just the regular versions that everyone had in their record bins. They created their own special versions of songs by editing and sometimes remixing the hottest club tunes being played (or about to be played) around the world. Their re-edited tracks set them apart from every other DJ service at the time and the music that they chose was some of the most cutting edge stuff available.

To be fair, if you're into the Christmas standards, this LP is NOT for you. If, however, at any point in your life you painted your nails black and hung out at a goth club, you might be intrigued by some of the interesting, and occasionally ascerbic takes on Christmas here. This is a widely eclectic collection of musical styles, from Benedictine chant to angry industrial, with a lot of very strange stops in between.