Cabaret Voltaire’s ‘Yashar’ and ‘The Crackdown’—plus a 1983 concert at the Hacienda in Manchester

In 1983, 1 year before the release of the groundbreaking single “Sensoria” was released, Cabaret Voltaire were already celebrating their 10th year in existence.  After the departure of Chris Watson 2 years prior in 1981, Stephen Mallinder and Richard H. Kirk were reduced to a duo that were becoming less Industrial, and slowly getting their feet wet with dance music while maintaining remaining on the cutting edge of sound.

Their last release as a trio was 1982’s 2×45, which highlighted the Sheffield band being ahead of their time with the track Yashar’s use of samples—including the Outer Limits episode quote “There’s 70 billion people of Earth; where are they hiding?”.

Note that although 2×45 was issued by Rough Trade, the single Yashar was released via Factory Records, and Factory Benelux.

Ahead of the CV duo gig at the Hacienda nightclub (playing amongst friends, given their history with Joy Division and Factory Records), Kirk and Mallinder had released their brilliant LP The Crackdownthrough Some Bizarre Records.

The album is one of Cabaret Voltaire’s best, with the track Animation creating an avant-garde ice storm of gothic jazz-funk and the track Why Kill Time (When You Can Kill Yourself) holding a black mirror to the sounds emerging from the burgeoning New-Wave.

Indeed, 1983 highlights the forefathers of Industrial and Post-Punk at the peak of creativity. Enjoy the full concert from that period above, and read our interview with Stephen Mallinder here.

You can purchase a DVD with this footage, a gig from 1986, and  three of the band’s promo videos, “No Escape”, “Yashar” and “Sluggin’ Fer Jesus”, at Cherry Red