Cabaret Voltaire today share ‘The Power (Of Their Knowledge)’, the latest track to be taken from the eagerly anticipated new album. Shadow Of Fear, Cabaret Voltaire’s first new album in 26 years, is released on Mute on November 20.

Shadow Of Fear is Cabaret Voltaire’s first release with Richard H Kirk as the sole member of the band, and the result is an album that defies categorisation. The tone and personality of Cabaret Voltaire is ingrained into its core as it dances across techno, dub, house, ‘70s kosmische, and general esoteric explorations coupled with mangled vocal samples. It’s a voyage through the history of electronic music that arrives at a new destination.

Cabaret Voltaire has always been a group ahead of their time, even prescient at times, and this album carries on that evolution. Kirk explains, “The current situation didn't have much of an influence on what I was doing - all the vocal content was already in place before the panic set in - but maybe due to my nature of being a bit paranoid there are hints in there about stuff going a bit weird and capturing the current state of affairs.” Although, as with a lot of Kirk’s work, concrete meaning and narrative is ripe for interpretation rather than being spelled out. “Surrealism has always been really important to Cabaret Voltaire,” says Kirk. “And that's still present too.”

The genesis of the new album was the 2014 Berlin Atonal festival where Kirk played the first show on his own as Cabaret Voltaire. This began a new era for the pioneering Sheffield outfit whose influence across electronic, post-punk and industrial music remains an untouchable one today. This is new music for a new era: “The mission statement from the off was no nostalgia. Normal rules do not apply. Something for the 21st Century. No old material.”

SHADOW OF FEAR TRACKLISTING

Be Free

The Power (Of Their Knowledge)

Night Of The Jackal

Microscopic Flesh Fragment

Papa Nine Zero Delta United

Universal Energy

Vasto

What’s Goin’ On

Babeheaven, the project of West Londoners Nancy Andersen and Jamie Travis, have shared their latest single, ‘Craziest Things’, along with a video from the award-winning illustrator and animator, Sacha Beeley. The track is taken from the duo’s much anticipated debut album, Home For Now, which will be released on November 20 via AWAL, and follows the singles ‘Cassette Beat’ and ‘Human Nature’. About the track, Nancy said: “On ‘Craziest Things’, I explore my anxiety and insomnia, not being able to make sense of my emotions and running around in a state of mania.”

Babeheaven, who have performed live at The Scala in London and have sold out headline shows at Bush Hall, Jazz Cafe and Bussey Building, also announce a London headline show at Village Underground on February 23. Following tours as special guests of Loyle Carner, Cigarettes After Sex, Nilüfer Yanya and The Japanese House, the band has also been invited to tour as special guests of Rhye around Europe in April 2021.

The project of lifelong friends Nancy Andersen (vocals) and Jamie Travis (instruments and production), Babeheaven is the work of two creatives united by a similar outlook on life and the organic nature of true creativity. Introduced to one another aged 13, they stayed in touch, and found their lives colliding once more as adults. Both with musical tendencies handed down from their fathers - Nancy’s a commercial jingle writer, Jamie’s the founder of Rough Trade Records – the pair soon found themselves working on tracks every evening, initially as part of a wider group but soon just the two of them when they realised how much they had in common.

“As a person of colour and a plus-size woman, I’ve never felt that comfortable with myself as a performer,” she says. “Over lockdown I've had a lot more time to think about how I want to be perceived on stage. I used to have really bad anxiety before a show - plunging straight into a song and not looking up until the end of the song where I can look around for affirmation from everyone in the band and crowd. It’s been really valuable to work on remembering that I’m on that stage for a reason, particularly as a person of colour. I think it’s important for an alternative band to be fronted by somebody you wouldn’t normally see - I don’t need to be over-sexualised, or our music to be put into a box of R&B, just because of my skin or body type.”

Babeheaven tour dates:

Headline:

Tue 23 Feb 2021-London-Village Underground

Rhye support:

Tue 06 Apr 2021-Dublin-Academy