Code

Cabaret Voltaire | Format: Audio CD

Product Details

• Audio CD
• Number of Discs: 1
• Label: Manhattan
• ASIN: B000091OA0
• Also Available in: Audio Cassette  |  Vinyl  |  MP3 Download
• Average Customer Review: 4.6 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (7 customer reviews)
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #361,032 in Music (See Top 100 in Music)

Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

6 of 6 people found the following review helpful:

4.0 out of 5 stars Definitely different..., March 16, 2004

By 

Travis Miller (Shepherdstown, WV United States) - See all my reviews
(REAL NAME)   

This review is from: Code (Audio Cassette)

Cabaret Voltaire has changed styles almost continuously since the beginning. "Code" represents the band at the peak of their 80s pop phase, sounding like nothing so much as Information Society jamming with Throbbing Gristle. Call it industrial synth-pop.

It's a curious record, bridging the far-flung worlds of mainstream 80s pop and underground electro-industrial. Lots of industrial bands have dabbled with dance rhythms in the past, but on "Code", CV sound like they really mean it - there are funky wah-wah guitars, bouncy basslines, vocoders, and hooky arrangements. Even Stephen Mallinder's guttural howl has become a suave, urgent whisper. A couple of these tracks could have become mainstream hits, if they weren't about death and blasphemy.

Is it a sell-out record? I don't think so. Despite all the pop trappings, there's still an undeniably weird edge to this album, supplied by atonal synths, paranoid lyrics, weird samples, and the occasional burst of unexpected noise. In other words, the original CV is still there, intact - it's just dressed up for a night at the club. I still haven't figured out if CV were being subversive, or just having fun for a change. Probably some of both.

3 of 3 people found the following review helpful:

4.0 out of 5 stars Cabaret Voltaire - Code, July 6, 2005

By 

Visigoth Triangle (Evergreen Park, Illinois USA) - See all my reviews

This review is from: Code (Audio CD)

If you like industrial, techno, dark eighties style dance music, this would be the CD for you--except it's almost unavailable. I have it on a 33.3 "wax" LP, so I can tell you a CD version would be worth having. On this record, the band seems to polk fun at the industrial dance industry while simultaneously producing a great industrial dance record. Go figure.

If you've been exposed to other CV recordings, you probably think they're mostly dark, weird, abstract and sometimes hard to listen to. And you'd be right. However, "Code is a DANCE record. It's dark, weird, abstract, sometimes hard to listen to... AND it's got a dance beat! If you can find it, get it!

Notable tracks: "Don't Argue", "Thank You America", "Life Slips By".

2 of 2 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars Absolutely amazing - and incredibly, unavailable!, January 5, 2008

By 

Toxic Excess (Chicago, Illinois) - See all my reviews

This review is from: Code (Audio CD)

I bought this album on vinyl initially when it first came out, when CDs were still a bit "iffy" for most people. I'd been a fan of theirs for years, but this one blew me away. Within a few months of its initial release (I don't recall now how long it actually was - it's been a long time) the CD came out and I bought it immediately. It was one of the first CD purchases I ever made, actually.

This is undoubtedly the most generally accessible record they ever made and, even with my fondness for experimental music I was completely hooked from square one. Funky, humourous, musical, cynical... it has it all. Imagine my surprise when it was never re-released in any form! Silly of them (EMI, I mean) because it could easily find a whole new audience now. I sold my vinyl copy - which was pristine and beautifully pressed in the first place - for over $40 on eBay recently and now the CD is going for well over $100. I just wish to God I'd gotten the UK version of the CD when it came out, as it has two extra tracks on it. I've managed to filch MP3 versions of them off the internet, but why don't the powers that be just re-release this classic? It's a mystery...