Name Stephen Mallinder
Best known for Cabaret Voltaire.
Current city Brighton, England.
Really want to be in Titan the moon of Saturn.
Excited about Cabaret Voltaire shows. (Tour kicks off May 4.)
My current music collection has a lot of Electronic meanderings.
And a little bit of Techno and dub.
Preferred format Vinyl or my own wavs on hard drives.
5 Albums I Can’t Live Without:
1
White Light/White Heat, The Velvet Underground
This was the dark and disturbing Velvets release. Without Nico, and John Cale’s last studio album with the band, they cut loose to offer a menacing riposte to the flower power of the West Coast scene. It had bizarre and edgy spoken-word classic “The Gift,” the mesmeric “Sister Ray,” and a “Here She Comes Now,” a track we chose to cover on our first Cabaret Voltaire release Extended Play.
2
Y, The Pop Group
This album tore apart what people thought could come from punk. It mashed together jazz, brittle guitar funk, philosophy, and attitude. So mind-and-body. A band with ultimate style and self-awareness. On stage they blew up with style. The album gave Dennis Bovell, as producer, the freedom to rip the tracks apart, to deconstruct and then rebuild in a true dub style. Pure class.
3
Spanners, The Black Dog
Warp, my home town label, created a brand-new sound and aesthetic built up from the bones of techno and house but with a distinct young urban take. The label cut its teeth with 12 inches and compilations but The Black Dog produced [one] album of breath-taking technical guile. Later to splinter and become Plaid, becoming part of Bjork’s live band, this album is of its time but equally timeless.
4
A South Bronx Story, ESG
We were smitten with New York electro from early stuff like the Peech Boys, and D Train and then all the releases of Afrika Bambaataa and Arthur Baker. We went on to work with John Robie from those sessions and worked with BAM [Brooklyn Academy of Music]. ESG distilled all that into a live band sound, essential women making essential music. Their early releases hard to find surfaced in this classic album.
5
Music for 18 Musicians, Steve Reich
I’m drawn to systems music, coming out of the minimalism of Terry Riley I was sucked into the hypnotic compositions of Philip Glass and Steve Reich. This music expands and contracts time. It is both physical and cerebral. Reich is currently touring this album so get lost in its spirals while you can.