Cabaret Voltaire - Code FLAC album

F A N T A S T I C ! I hope in a special edition remastered !!!

It's 2017 - where is the 30th anniversary remaster??? C'mon MUTE!

I hope in a special edition remastered from the original masters !!!

Such an awesome album from Cab Vol. I think it was meant to be commercial but who cares it has some awesome beats and sounds great on a good stereo system. Funky, industrial and catchy would be some words I'd use. Underated indeed and worth the purchase if you have not got it yet.

Not really a commericial album (that came with the next release) but a natural progression for CV by hiring AS (On-U Sound and Tackhead) to produce it. Funky Alternatives was where it was at in 87/88. I was there.

The samples in "Don't Argue" are from the 1945 US post-war orientation film "Your Job In Germany", written by Theodor Geisel (Dr. Seuss) and directed by Frank Capra.http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=1v5QCGqDYGo

Boring dance stinker. The "Living Legends" running out of steam and cashing in on some disco crap.

Not a fan of the progession of Cabaret Volatire then.

This is a double-edge sword, to be honest. In terms of production, 'Code' is a masterpiece of its time (aided a great deal by Adrian Sherwood) - borrowing from the duo's earlier 80s' material (most notably "Micro-phonies" but with less menacing and more pristine results (extra points definitely go to the crisp drum programmes). In terms of contents however, it couldn't have been shorter of ideas (not to mention experimentation), despite some impressive musicians participating in the creative process (Bill Nelson on guitar, Mark Brydon on bass, Sim Lister on saxophone). By the time 'Code' was released, Cabaret Voltaire started experiencing tiresome repetition - 'The Drain Train' was a bore and frustration with modern dance music was audibly catching up with them. While Mal's vocals still keep a whispering menace trademark, Kirk's arrangements are predictable - "Don't Argue" immediately marks that, despite augmented by a powerful drum machine. 'Sex, Money, Freaks' includes interesting bass and James Brown-like sax solos (courtesy Mark Brydon and Simeon Lister of Chakk) but goes on for ages, based on the song title's phrasing. 'Thank You America' and 'Here To Go' follow the same route - the beat is there to enjoy but the songs are just tedious; "Thank You America" fares better a bit, echoing the group's earlier nihilistic comments about religion, politics and the mass-media power abuse.Side two kicks off with 'Trouble Won't Stop' - a stunning electro-pop tune with a paralysing funky sound. 'White Car' on the other hand could very easily be a leftover from the duo's 'Covenant' days and here stands as the catchiest, in terms of a radio-friendly pop-song (as can be according to the Cabs). 'No-one Here' is a standout track, combining film-noir, jazzy atmosphere (Lister again) and edgy electronic beat with a hip-hop flare, all to great effect. The equally edgy 'Life Slips By' and the closing (and somewhat thinner) number 'Code' mark the Cabs' slow departure from mid-80s electro-funk towards clubbing music (in their case, acid-house, as fully explored on their follow-up - "Groovy, Laidback and Nasty").'Code' by comparison sounds amusing at best, but by large a shadow of Cabaret's former selves, in order to sound "song-structured". Singing over from Virgin/Some Bizzare to EMI may have added to the pressure as the expectations were obviously high at the time but the overall effect, if it's to judge from both, the creative and commercial sides of the story, "Code" is only moderate success.

The thing that makes this album stand out among techno, industrial, EBM/aggrepo albums of the 1980s is the consistent likeability and danceability of all songs. Code was probably the most club-centric album of Cabaret Voltaire up to the time of its release, and most comparable to Micro-Phonies, another great album. (See Micro-Phonies poster on Ferris Bueler's bedroom wall in movie). Code is not as aggressive, noisy or industrial as CV's other albums up to 1987, but it is nevertheless edgy and instead adds a funky groovy dimension that wasn't yet heard much within progressive music but became more common during 1990s through today with house music's invocation of funky disco. CV transitioned from this album to even groovier house techno in future releases through early 1990s. "Don't Argue" and "Here to Go" were the singles played on progressive radio and clubs at the time, which I rate 4-stars along with "Trouble (won't stop)", which is true funk techno. "Thank You America" also stands out, and the rest of the album remains pleasant and fun to bring out a consistently progressive rhythmic sensation for techno-leaning audiophiles.