Celebrating
its 40th anniversary today is the fifth studio LP from Industrial music
pioneers, Cabaret Voltaire, with The Crackdown being released on August
18th of 1983. It's the album which saw the band take a decisive turn
away from overt experimentation and fundamentally lay the cornerstones
of what would become known as "EBM" (electronic body music). Its funky
electro-grooves became the signposts for bands like Font 242, Front Line
Assembly and countless others.
Recorded late in 1982 at
Trident Studios, London, England, the band were now paired down to a
duo, with Chris Watson having left part-way through the recording of
their previous album, 2x45. With Watson's "Musique concrète"
contributions now absent, the group leaned more into the latent groovy
essence which resided in its remaining members. It was also the era
when MIDI based electronic drum machines and sequencers were making
their mark on the electronic music scene and the Cabs were on the
bleeding edge of incorporating that tightly synchronized syncopation
into their music. The wobbly sync of analogue gear was gone and the
rhythms subsequently became tough and tense.
The album was
produced by the band themselves, along with Mark Ellis (aka, Flood), who
would become a stalwart producer in the genre of electronic pop,
working with artists like Gary Numan, Depeche Mode, New Order and
Orbital, among many others. The result was a genre defining shift from a
band which had come from oblique avant-garde obscurity into now setting
themselves up to lead a new revolution on the underground dance floors
of the UK, Europe and North America. Taylor Swift would never be the
same!
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