Brighton, UK musician Stephen Mallinder, co-founder and frontman of the iconic Cabaret Voltaire, has aired the video for "Shock to the Body".
The song is part of our current playlist and is taken from his second solo album 'tick tick tick', which came out last month (July 15) via Dais Records, grab it here.
Channeling the temporal malaise of lockdown through a lusher palette of modular electronics and stereo strings, the songs embrace ambiguity and plasticity, loose systems of percolating circuitry and airless funk. Recorded across a handful of sessions at MemeTune Studios in Cornwall with frequent collaborator Benge (aka Ben Edwards), Mallinder cites no guiding aesthetic premise for the collection beyond “cowbell on every track, and entirely no reverb.”
Brighton, UK musician Stephen Mallinder, co-founder and frontman of the iconic Cabaret Voltaire, has dropped his new single "Contact".
The song is taken from his second solo album 'tick tick tick', which will be out on July 15 via Dais Records, pre-order it here.
Channeling the temporal malaise of lockdown through a lusher palette of modular electronics and stereo strings, the songs embrace ambiguity and plasticity, loose systems of percolating circuitry and airless funk. Recorded across a handful of sessions at MemeTune Studios in Cornwall with frequent collaborator Benge (aka Ben Edwards), Mallinder cites no guiding aesthetic premise for the collection beyond “cowbell on every track, and entirely no reverb.”
Brighton, UK musician Stephen Mallinder, co-founder and frontman of the iconic Cabaret Voltaire, has dropped his new single "Shock To The Body".
The song is taken from his second solo album 'tick tick tick', which will be out on July 15 via Dais Records, pre-order it here.
Channeling the temporal malaise of lockdown through a lusher palette of modular electronics and stereo strings, the songs embrace ambiguity and plasticity, loose systems of percolating circuitry and airless funk. Recorded across a handful of sessions at MemeTune Studios in Cornwall with frequent collaborator Benge (aka Ben Edwards), Mallinder cites no guiding aesthetic premise for the collection beyond “cowbell on every track, and entirely no reverb.”
Brighton, UK musician Stephen Mallinder, co-founder and frontman of the iconic Cabaret Voltaire, has announced the release of his second solo album 'tick tick tick'.
The follow-up to 2019's debut Um Dada, further distills his signature fusion of minimal synth, oblique wordplay, and “wonky disco” into a riveting rhythm suite ripe for our age of escalation: tick tick tick. It will be out on July 15 via Dais Records, pre-order it here.
Channeling the temporal malaise of lockdown through a lusher palette of modular electronics and stereo strings, the songs embrace ambiguity and plasticity, loose systems of percolating circuitry and airless funk. Recorded across a handful of sessions at MemeTune Studios in Cornwall with frequent collaborator Benge (aka Ben Edwards), Mallinder cites no guiding aesthetic premise for the collection beyond “cowbell on every track, and entirely no reverb.”
Lyrically the record is equally evasive, rich with allusions and associative linguistics, surveying liquid notions of societal noise, ecological ruin, art world pretension, and the trials of daily life. But the lack of fixed meaning remains Mallinder’s main muse: “Music should draw you in; lyrics should make you think. Most interpretation is misinterpretation.” This is music of countdowns and comedowns, fleeting pleasures and opaque futures, observing the great decline while dancing on its ashes. Flux is deathless and forever; the rest, illusion: “I will be a constant figure / Flickering a moving picture / Turning in your head forever / Split apart but held together.”
Check out the album's tracklist and take a listen to the late-night techno-influenced lead single "Hush", below.
Electronic synth trio Wrangler (made up of Stephen Mallinder, Ben Edwards and Phill Winte) have aired the video for their latest single "Machines Designed (To Eat You Up)".
The song is taken from their new album 'A Situation', released last month (28th February) via Bella Union. Grab your copy here.
Electronic synth trio Wrangler (made up of Stephen Mallinder, Ben Edwards and Phill Winte) have unveiled the video for their new single "Anthropocene".
The song, which is about the collapse and fall of human civilisation, is taken from their new album 'A Situation', due for release on 28th February via Bella Union. Pre-order your copy here.
Brighton, UK musician Stephen Mallinder, co-founder and frontman of the iconic Cabaret Voltaire, has announced the release of his new album 'Um Dada', his first solo album in over 35 years.
Laced with leftfield house and cut-up sound collages, Um Dada is a melding of energies that are an exercise in simplicity and motion. Sincere, playful realism that beckons your body to move, always reminding you to never take yourself too seriously without forfeiting your agency. It will be out on October 11 via Dais Records, pre-order it here.
Um Dada is mischievously idealist, however never loses touch with reality. Offering structure while simultaneously dismantling any and all preconceptions. The spirit of sincerity that sustained Cabaret Voltaire’s lengthy career is abundantly present within founder Stephen Mallinder’s journey through his own whimsical utopian consciousness and staking claim to an identity that is solely his own.
Most in his position would be caught up in rosy retrospection, but Mallinder himself says:
“There’s too much digital finger-licking right now; every thought and desire at the turn of a dial… well a click of the mouse. And there’s a giddy, false nostalgia about the analogue past. Sorry to burst your bubble but the truth of history is more mundane: practical, pragmatic…Um Dada is about ‘play’ – cut and paste, lost words, twisted presets, voice collage, simple sounds – things that have been lost to technology’s current determinism. Let the machines talk to each other, let them dance .. they lead, we follow.”
It opens up with the exact machine-led surrealism that Mallinder recommends in “Working (You Are)”. A thick, stripped back dance floor groove provides the ideal foundation for Mallinder’s eccentric vocal cuts. The frisky chops present an almost twisted irony, subtly bringing to mind the role we’re all forced to play as just another cog in the ever grinding capitalist machine of life. Yet, somehow, the listener is left feeling optimistic. A prime example of simplicity at work.
Check out the album's tracklist and take a listen to "Working (You Are)", below.
Um Dada Tracklist:
01. Prefix Repeat Rewind
02. It’s Not Me
03. Um Dada
04. Satellite
05. Colour
06. Flashback
07. Robber*
08. Hollow*
