Cabaret Voltaire - Beat World (1978)

As I mentioned in my post by The Fall, in the early 80's my two favourite bands were The Fall and Cabaret Voltaire, probably because they were both producing a unique sound for the time, and that was what I was into back then. My first purchase by The Cabs was their 'Extended Play' EP, quickly followed by the classic 'Nag, Nag, Nag' 7", and then everything they ever released after that including 7" and 12" singles, vinyl albums, flexi-discs and live cassettes, right up to the 'Code' album of 1987, where I felt that they'd reached their peak of innovative music and were coasting on the dance boom. Some of my favourite releases are the extended 12" singles, like 'Three Mantras', 'Eddies Out', 'Yashar' and '3 Crepuscule Tracks', where they were at their most experimental, and the 'The Voice Of America', '2x45' and 'Red Mecca' albums remain some of their best work. For this post I'm going right back to the beginning, with a demo tape that they put together from the many hours of recordings that they taped in their attic studio. This is one of Cabaret Voltaire's first self-released demo tapes, given to a close friend prior to the group's signing to Rough Trade. Most versions on this release are a bit different to what can be found on existing Mute/Rough Trade vinyl or CD releases, and I've pieced it together from various archive releases and bootlegs, following the track listing from the original tape. I'm fairly confident that these are the original versions which would have been on the cassette, although some of the timings don't tie up with the information that I've found online. However, I know that they're from the right period, and so this is an excellent snapshot of the emergent band at their most experimental, previewing a sound which would erupt onto the music scene a year later, creating a whole new genre all of their own.  

Track listing

01 Talk Over   
02 Here She Comes Now   
03 Capsules   
04 Control Addicts    
05 Baader Meinhof  
06 Loves in Vein  
07 Do The Mussolini (Headkick!)  
08 Oh Roger  
09 Heaven + Hell   
10 Havoc   
11 No Escape    
12 Photophobia  
13 The Set Up   
14 A Minute Is A Lifetime