Tuesday, July 18, 2017

SOUND & VISION: CABARET VOLTAIRE PRESENTS DOUBLEVISION

This was the Cabs flaunting the latest technology back in 1982 when cheap VHS cameras gave easy access to all sorts of television detritus. It’s essential lo-fi sound and vision gave the project an immediacy lost as the technology improved. This was electro-punk at its best,  and it still has the power to wean "art" kids off their IPhones if more widely seen/heard. With its disconcerting media loops, voices from the ether,  primitive electronics,  and elemental drum machines, "this is",  as Stephen Mallinder sings, "entertainment,  this fun". Someone at MOMA would eventually notice their dystopian beginnings and include a Cabaret Voltaire video in its permanent collection (Peter Care's vertigo-inducing video of "Sensoria"). Cover design and typography by Neville Brody





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