Thousands of tourists and theatergoers were cleared from Times Square as the police investigated what they suspected was a car bomb there on Saturday evening.
Police officials said they received a report about 6:30 p.m. of smoke coming from a Nissan Pathfinder parked on 45th Street just west of Seventh Avenue. The authorities found a smoking package in the vehicle and now believe it was a bomb. A bomb squad was sent to the scene.
The package did not explode, and officials said they did not know whether it was related to terrorism...
Just before Xmas in 2008 The Quietus received a promo that caused a bit of a stir in the office. The CD – which arrived with no press release, no covering letter and no sender information – was a tough collection of acid electro remixes of a New Zealand Maori dub outfit called Kora on Shiva. No disrespect to the blunted Antipodeans but our brains were scrambled and our pulses sent racing because of the name of the remix outfit: Cabaret Voltaire.
Was this the Cabaret Voltaire... who, along with Throbbing Gristle and Public Image Limited, were embarrassingly ahead of the field, during the post punk years – a time when groundbreaking bands were seemingly ten a penny? The Sheffield based avant gardists who moved from Dada-influenced tape loop/ home-made electronics through proto-industrial, post punk, EBM, electro, acid, machine funk, proto-house, ethno-techno and beyond until splitting up in 1994? The original trio of bloody-minded sods (Chris Watson, Richard H Kirk, Stephen Malinder) who released the still scabrous sounding treated guitar/electro punk racket of ‘Nag, Nag, Nag’ and decimated dub of ‘Sluggin’ Fer Jesus’? The slimmed down but no less oppressive and inventive duo (Kirk, Malinder) who released the singles ‘Sensoria’, ‘Crackdown’, ‘Thank You America’, ‘Yashar’ and ‘Here To Go’?
A year later when the Cabs’ name popped-up attached to another remix project on Shiva (National Service Rewind by The Tivoli), the answer it seemed was yes. By now, industrial message boards had cranked into over-time, coming up with all-sorts of theories. It seemed like Kirk alone was now using the Cabaret Voltaire name... as well as the immense amount of effort he’d already been throwing into Sandoz, Al Jabr, Biochemical Dread, Blacworld, Dark Magus, Destructive Impact, Dr. Xavier, Electronic Eye, Extended Family, Frightgod, Future Cop Movies, International Organisation, King Of Kings, Multiple Transmission, Nine Miles Dub, Outland Assassin, Papadoctrine, Port Au Prince, Reflexiv, The Revolutionary Army (Of The Infant Jesus) (Not sure that he had anything to do with them? - Mona)… well, you get the picture.
And why resurrect Cabaret Voltaire at all? Surely they were the last fucking band who should be dragged back for one last turn under the spotlights… The least nostalgic band there was.
[For some context, my review of the Kora remix album from December 19, 2008, read thus: “The only word from Kirk's press bod is that they 'have lined up select shows for 2009 – dates, content, format and locations tbc. It's going to be a bit special, that's guaranteed'. Well, I acted a bit 'special' on hearing this and nearly rendered the office to matchsticks with a cricket bat. Thinking 'For fuck's sake – if this is a Don't Look Back rendition of Microphonies at Koko, I'm literally going to kill someone.' There's simply nothing wrong doing retro/ nostalgia shows if you're a foot note in the history of indie like Teenage Fanclub or Stump but for the two decade career of one of the UK's most forward-looking and uncompromising bands to be sullied like this would be an exercise in seizing ignominy out of the jaws of sublimity.”]
However, a recent lengthy chat with Richard H Kirk put my mind at ease. These are exciting times indeed for fans of the industrial and the futuristic. Not only do we have violent young bucks Factory Floor to contend with but now we have the Cabs back as well. And, just as it should be, they are refusing to revisit old glories and instead plan new work in the field of electronic music, installation, film and art.
