Robin Webb discovers an album which taps into our collective paranoia, as Cabaret Voltaire return with the first album in 26 years
Mute
Released: 20.11.20
Sample-heavy electronic indie noise-meister Richard H. Kirk returns as the sole progenitor in the guise of a rejuvenated Cabaret Voltaire, 26 years since the last highly regarded album The Conversation. Many artists in the field of experimental, electronic and beat-driven music justly acknowledge that the Cabs are a keystone influence who should be loftily revered; this album is a remarkable return, no novelty, no pastiche, no looking back.
It’s dubby, techno electronica, modern Kosmische created prior to our currently interesting times – pre-pandemic, it can be suitably interpreted as a commentary. Shadow of Fear taps into collective paranoia, pulsing and tormenting with samples that surreally expose unease in a developing dystopian world of our creating.