Cabaret Voltaire – Methodology '74 / '78. Attic Tapes;

With a number of early 90s compilations mostly released by The Grey Area of Mute Records, the rise of electroclash at the turn of the century renewed the interest in Cabaret Voltaire's work, resulting in a number of compilations and box sets, some of which were rather cashing in on the group's work while some were putting together a more decent picture although the latter were not immune to a repetitive mess of dub versions where there should have been some more exclusive ones to fill in the gaps in private CD/LP collections.

Around the same time, Mute and Virgin put together extensive collections of Cabs' work - single-CD versions were titled "The Original Sound Of Sheffield", based on the more available material while the box-sets "Conform To Deform" and "Methodology" focused on the obscure - all of these featuring The Designers Republic's typically hyped up (and to an extent pretentiously illegible) designs.

Of the two, "Methodology" is surely more consistent in presenting the chronological genesis of a group once as confrontational as it became more dancefloor friendly in their later years. Of course, decades back, TG's Industrial first released something similar, being "Cabaret Voltaire 1974-76", a collection of the group's earliest proper recordings - in the 90s, Mute re-released that on CD and for a number of years, it was the only such insight into Cabaret Voltaire's creation prior to their more "popular" releases via Rough Trade in the late 70s.

Surely, many will undoubtedly treasure "Methodology" for all the daring, faulty or plain for-fun-sake doodling with tapes and synth noise - some of these indeed sound like mere sketches that got nowhere in the first place but in the context of "Methodology" even the simplest of ideas form the inevitable part of the complete picture which indeed make "Methodology" a deserved and well-conceived success.

The most thrilling thing of all is the quality of these early recordings - very possibly restored from the proper, original tape reel source rather than plain audio cassettes (although the latter is not excluded, in both cases the person responsible for the mastering, did a great job). A number of proper versions of never-before heard tracks are a reason enough to get a hold of this box-set; to name a few, "Oh Roger" and "Havoc" (both previously merely appearing as live cassette recordings), the opener "Exhaust" (a plain repetitive one-word piece) is amazingly good-sounding considering its timeline, "Fuse Mountain" is one of the most beautiful ambient pieces this side of Eno and Kraftwerk (audible references to both)...

Towards the end of the box-set (read: disc three), more familiar material comes kicking in, the demo versions of "Headkick", "Heaven And Hell", "Talkover", "Here She Comes Now", "Baader Meinhof", "Nag Nag Nag" or "Capsules", showing no real difference to the recordings we're familiar with from Cabaret Voltaire's official releases. Interesting to hear for their development but generally mainly an insight into the final versions that didn't need much rework in the proper studio - in that respect, the final versions are without doubt a better offering (for that, check "The Living Legends" and "Listen Up With Cabaret Voltaire", both highly recommended early 90s compilations).