Customer Reviews

The Living Legends

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It's absurd that nobody's reviewed this CD yet - it's a true industrial classic. It's a Cabaret Voltaire compilation along the same lines as E.N.'s 'Strategies against architecture' albums. This is the band at its most experimental, constructing grating electronic soundscapes over drum-machine grooves. It sounds fresh and alien, and there's a generous variance of song styles, from dark electro-pop('do the mussolini') to minimalist krautrock jamming('walls of Jericho'). Buy immediately if you have any interest in the origins of industrial music.

Bulletins from their most interesting period - disembodied paranoid funk with a Burroughs fixation - shrill, cold, claustrophobic - pioneering work that still sounds fresh - "Voice of America" and "2x45" work similar territory with excellent results.

The Living Legends is a compilation of Cabaret Voltaire music released in their formative years on the label Rough Trade. The title is surely tongue-in-cheek, though there are some moments where they indeed achieved nearly legendary status.

First of all there's "Nag Nag Nag", a prime example of dark electro-industrial pop, complete with aggressive vocals, distorted guitars, a propelling drum machine beat, hummable bassline and quite a catchy song structure overall (featuring some rudimentary form of verse and chorus).
The four songs on their first release (entitled Extended Play) already pre-dated this style somewhat (my favourite of them being their splendid cover of the Velvet's "Here She comes Now", which I find as equally successful as Nirvana's cover).
"Silent Command" marks a slightly new direction, but still works.
Other highlights include "Seconds Too Late" which has quite a militant beat/bassline section and robotic vocals, plus "Control Addict" which follows in a similar vein. "Jazz the Glass" is short and catchy. "Walls of Jerico" features some nice improvisation over a constantly driving drum machine beat and some tinny-sounding synthesizer.
"Is That Me (Finding Someone at the Door Again)" is an example of their earliest experimental work from 1975 (before they were even signed) and is a quite fulfilling closer to the CD.

All in all a terrific compilation, pleasing for fans of Cabaret Voltaire in their seminal relevant years (before drifting into some kind of mixed bag underground synthpop style after the departure of Chris Watson), and also good for admirers of electro, industrial or experimental music in general. My only complaint is that I find "Eddie's Out" a bit too long (even for Cabaret Voltaire): being such a piece of declared anti-music, it slightly overstays its welcome (clocking in around 9:50 minutes) and should have been a bit shorter (just two minutes or so).
The rest is history and well recommended (offered to an adequate price as well).