Cabaret Voltaire

During the '70s and '80s, Cabaret Voltaire represented a backlash towards dance music. Like other experimental groups of the time, however, their electronic preferences also excluded them from any involvement in the punk movement. Being without genre has its advantages though, and Cabaret's open-ended nature left them with an infinite number of directions to take creatively. Taking harsh, intentionally poorly timed beats and mixing them with various political and counter-culture-based sound bytes, Cabaret pushed the boundaries of electronic music in a time before most people understood that boundaries even existed. Unfortunately, being an underground band also means having little money or resources to create your art. Enter then the concept of "Double Vision": a communications company founded by Cabaret in order to create cheap videos and remain influential against modern music trends. Though having worked with Throbbing Gristle, the Residents and Einstürzende Neubauten, Double Vision presents is an exhibition of Cabaret's video accompaniment for their own work. Sadly, the result does not measure up to today's standards. Filmed with a Super 8 camera, most of the images are either home video footage or stock footage of war scenes and nature clips taken while standing in front of the television. Musically speaking, the sound quality is horrible and the only tracks that are relevant today (i.e., "Nag Nag Nag" and "Seconds Too Late") are not credited to Cabaret. Still, this release is less entertainment and more an educational discovery. With the potential for special features, Mute really missed a great opportunity, and instead this disc only contains the 85-minute of footage. Ultimately it is the concept behind the music and sounds that make this an interesting work and this release will appeal to collectors of rarities more than anyone else. (Mute, www.mute.com)