http://www.timeout.com/newyork/clubs/q-a-cabaret-voltaires-richard-h-kirk
You wouldn’t expect a band that lifted its moniker from an iconic Dadaist nightspot in World War I–era Zurich to be your run-of-the-mill pop combo—and Cabaret Voltaire is anything but run-of-the-mill. Formed in the gritty English industrial town of Sheffield in the early ’70s by Stephen Mallinder, Richard H. Kirk, and Chris Watson, Cabaret Voltaire mirrored the city’s dystopian edge with a sound that was raw, experimental, political and uncompromising. But by the early to mid-’80s, the pioneering band’s music—while still exploratory and unconventional—had crystallized to the point where you could actually dance to it in the world’s more forward-thinking clubs. That’s the period chronicled in a new box set, the Mute label’s #8385 (Collected Works 1983–1985), brimming with album tracks, 12-inch cuts, previously unreleased material, concert footage and more. Time Out New York caught up with Kirk for a phone chat about the group’s evolution, the box set and Cabaret Voltaire’s future.
