Legendary UK electronic post-punk act The Cassandra Complex have recently released their album Death & Sex, via COP International. The complete reenvisioning of their 1993 classic Sex & Death, seven tracks from the original album have been recorded again thirty years later with a fresh mindset and set of 21st-century gear.
Founding member Rodney Orpheus explains: “When we first wrote these songs we didn’t have the tools to fully realise them the way we wanted. Now 30 years later we can finally make them sound the way they always sounded inside our heads.”
From the sinister death-rock growls of “Kneel to the Boss” to the lush electro-industrial soundscape of “Realm of the Senseless”, Death & Sex explores topics both lustful and morose. The original album became one of many Cassandra Complex releases to hit #1 in the German Alternative Chart, with upcoming single “Give Me What I Need” even soundtracking a popular news program on the German ARD network at the time of its initial release. Due to legal complications, Sex & Death was never made available in the US, and will be released internationally for the first time as Death & Sex.
Thematically, the album explores power dynamics in both sexual relationships and worker’s oppression (“Kneel to the Boss”); science fiction and space travel (“Give Me What I Need”); artistic empathy and connection (“Realm of the Senseless”); J.G. Ballard’s Crash (“Mouth of Heaven”); a Son of Sam-style exploration of psychopathy (“Voices”) and well, sex itself (“Satisfy Me”, “Come Out”). The band’s synthesized punk ethos comes roaring into a new era on Death & Sex. The essence of the songs remain true to their origins, now sounding fresh as ever and fully revitalized for a new audience.
The Cassandra Complex’s multi-genre approach to music-making comes to fruition here in the seamless fusion of industrial, post-punk and retro electronic sounds — with some grinding death-rock guitar riffs splashed in. A well-seasoned medley of darkness, Death & Sex takes its bevy of shadowy themes and catapults them into the limelight with memorable rock grooves and danceable rhythms. Orpheus’s deep vocal delivery carries the songs throughout, serving as an anchor for the unconventionally seductive lyrical content.
The end result is the consummation of 40 years of musical evolution for the band, with tempered synth layers intertwining with charging punk structures and the finely tuned chaos magick of early industrial. Death & Sex feels like a primordial invocation of the senses that envelops you with its electro-industrial melodicism and punk attitude. For an interplanetary rock’n’roll escape, look no further than these seven tracks.
New and classic songs from the 40-year back catalogue of The Cassandra Complex will be featured on the forthcoming CX40 world tour with shows in Belgium, the Netherlands, Germany, Denmark, Czech Republic, Austria, Latin/South America, and the US throughout 2024.
Along with this album, COP International has released the band’s most recent batch of new songs, The Plague (2022), on a remastered CD format for the first time.
The album is available now on Bandcamp. You can also listen to Death & Sex and learn more about each track here.
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