Red Mecca - Cabaret Voltaire

Red Mecca represents the high point of Cabaret Voltaire's career. The scratchy experimentalism of their early work (well worth seeking out) had yet to mutate into a rather embarrassing attempt to 'go disco' and garner mainstream success (something that always eluded them). This stunning lp shows a greater complexity than Mix Up or The Voice Of America, its immediate predecessors, yet retains their vital avant-garde spirit.

A Touch ...
...it peters out, Red Mask gets its pummeling beat going and Red Mecca 'rocks out', after a fashion.

Really, no-one should be without this album. The Cabs may not be household names but they were a major influence on just about any significant music being made today.  ... more

Red Mecca represents the high point of Cabaret Voltaire's career. The scratchy experimentalism of their early work (well worth seeking out) had yet to mutate into a rather embarrassing attempt to 'go disco' and garner mainstream success (something that always eluded them). This stunning lp shows a greater complexity than Mix Up or The Voice Of America, its immediate predecessors, yet retains their vital avant-garde spirit.

A Touch Of Evil gets us into the mood with its strange horns and bongos combo, then Split Second Feeling kicks in, all primitive bass and whooshing sounds and we are drawn into the album proper.

Vocals are heavily distorted and the lyrics are only fleetingly intelligible but this is all part of the Cabs' approach and adds greatly to the eerie quality of the music. The undoubted high point for me is A Thousand Ways: Two organ notes repeat over and over and are joined by a crashing, distorted beat. Throughout the song, phasing effects transform the guitars and keyboards into an oddly soothing wash of sound that belies the aggressive beat and vocals. After it peters out, Red Mask gets its pummeling beat going and Red Mecca 'rocks out', after a fashion.

Really, no-one should be without this album. The Cabs may not be household names but they were a major influence on just about any significant music being made today. 

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