Cabaret Voltaire

Cabaret Voltaire is a post-punk industrial and techno group from Sheffield, England consisting of Stephen Mallinder (vocals, bass), Richard H. Kirk (guitar, keyboards, winds, tapes, programming) and

Cabaret Voltaire is a post-punk industrial and techno group from Sheffield, England consisting of Stephen Mallinder (vocals, bass), Richard H. Kirk (guitar, keyboards, winds, tapes, programming) and Chris Watson]] (keyboards, tapes, programming). Their earliest performances were dadaist-inspired performance art. In 1978 (see 1978 in music), Cabaret Voltaire signed to Rough Trade and after several highly acclaimed initial singles/extended players, including "Extended Play", "Nag Nag Nag", Three Mantras and 3 Crepuscule Tracks began releasing punk-influenced albums of experimental music such as The Voice of America in 1980 and the widely-hailed Red Mecca in 1981.

In 1983 (see 1983 in music), co-inciding with the departure of Watson (who went on as part of The Hafler Trio), Cabaret Voltaire began moving towards techno with the album The Crackdown on Virgin Records. In 1984, the singles "Sensoria" and "James Brown" from the album Micro Phonies (also on Virgin) charted on the independent music charts. In 1987 (see 1987 in music), the band released Code, followed by the house-influenced Groovy, Laidback & Nasty in 1990 (see 1990 in music). A series of completely instrumental works under the Cabaret Voltaire name were released on Instinct Records in 1993 and 1994, but appeared to be largely the product of Kirk. Since then, Kirk has begun a solo career under several names, including Electronic Eye and Sandoz, while Mallinder has relocated to Perth, Australia and records with a collaborator under the name Sassi & Loco and more recently in another collaborative effort the Kuling-Bros.