I managed to grab a bit of time today to sort through some old cassettes that I found a few months back in the loft and came across many that I had completely forgotten about amongst them a couple from the N.M.E. imaginatively called Indie City 1 and , yes I'm sure you can guess the title of the second one.
I hadn't listened to the tape for years and was very pleasantly surprised when I listened to Volume 1, Side 1 and came across the likes of Nick Cave and The Bad Seeds, Sonic Youth, Orange Juice and the electro, industrial sound of Sheffield's finest, Cabaret Voltaire.
As much influenced by writers William Burroughs and J.G. Ballard as by the music of Bowie, Roxy Music, The Velvets and NEU, Cabaret Voltaire appeared out of Sheffield in the early 70's, becoming one of the most important bands to blend experimental electronic music with pop, dance, dub and techno.
Often in the early days of live performance they would share a bill with Joy Division, quite often risking injury as a lot of the crowds just did not get them. That all changed with the arrival of punk however and they found a more accepting audience.
Also heavily influenced by the band Suicide in '78, signed to Rough Trade they released the classic single Nag Nag Nag which somehow managed to combine the sound of Suicide with a hint of the finest 60's surf bands and to this day is one of the most important of the post punk era.
In the mid 80's the band started producing a more commercial sound culminating in this great piece of music that was much loved by the Hacienda crowd.
If this doesn't make you want to get up and shake your tail feather then nothing will.
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