"DOUBLEVISION PRESENT CABARET VOLTAIRE"
Mute
To round out their ongoing series of Cabaret Voltaire reissues, Mute has released Doublevision Present Cabaret Voltaire
on DVD. Originally issued through Factory in 1984, this DVD is
identical to the original VHS release: the same 14 videos in the exact
same sequence. It's a shame they couldn't find something extra to slap
onto the digital version, but it's still a welcome reissue for those
who have no patience for the deterioration of their VHS collection.
Doublevision was a communications company founded by Kirk, Mallinder
and Paul Smith in 1982, with the express purpose of releasing
music-based video for an affordable price, eventually transforming it
into one of the first explicitly audiovisual record labels. This is not
surprising for Cab Volt, who were always two steps ahead of their
contemporaries, it seems. For these 14 videos, Cabaret Voltaire
utilized nascent video editing technology, splicing together television
clips, performance videos and archival film footage, gluing it all
together with low-tech early video effects. The interesting thing about
watching these videos in 2004 is that the primitive video techniques,
which probably seemed piss-poor at the time of their release, now play
into the current avant-garde video art obsession with early 1980's low
budget pirate video aesthetic. 20 years on, this collection of random
video cut-ups and ugly, jagged editing techniques seems positively
vanguard. The tracks presented are from the finest period Cabaret
Voltaire: "Diskono," "Obsession," "Nag Nag Nag," and "Seconds Too
Late," among others, are represented. Televised nature and anthropology
programs are intercut with images of war, death and destruction from
new broadcasts. Clips of Leni Riefenstahl films and videos or surgeries
rub shoulders with grainy, decayed video images superimposed over each
other in a weird Burroughsian collage of overlapping transmissions,
giving rise to a mysterious "third mind" of accidental coincidences and
synchronicities. As experimental video, it all works amazingly well. As
music videos, the effect is somewhat more muted, as the edits often out
of sync with the beat structures of the music. Still, it would be hard
to imagine a more appropriate visual accompaniment to Cabaret
Voltaire's abrasive, subterranean, low-fidelity electronic music.
To round out their ongoing series of Cabaret Voltaire reissues, Mute has released Doublevision Present Cabaret Voltaire
on DVD. Originally issued through Factory in 1984, this DVD is
identical to the original VHS release: the same 14 videos in the exact
same sequence. It's a shame they couldn't find something extra to slap
onto the digital version, but it's still a welcome reissue for those
who have no patience for the deterioration of their VHS collection.
Doublevision was a communications company founded by Kirk, Mallinder
and Paul Smith in 1982, with the express purpose of releasing
music-based video for an affordable price, eventually transforming it
into one of the first explicitly audiovisual record labels. This is not
surprising for Cab Volt, who were always two steps ahead of their
contemporaries, it seems. For these 14 videos, Cabaret Voltaire
utilized nascent video editing technology, splicing together television
clips, performance videos and archival film footage, gluing it all
together with low-tech early video effects. The interesting thing about
watching these videos in 2004 is that the primitive video techniques,
which probably seemed piss-poor at the time of their release, now play
into the current avant-garde video art obsession with early 1980's low
budget pirate video aesthetic. 20 years on, this collection of random
video cut-ups and ugly, jagged editing techniques seems positively
vanguard. The tracks presented are from the finest period Cabaret
Voltaire: "Diskono," "Obsession," "Nag Nag Nag," and "Seconds Too
Late," among others, are represented. Televised nature and anthropology
programs are intercut with images of war, death and destruction from
new broadcasts. Clips of Leni Riefenstahl films and videos or surgeries
rub shoulders with grainy, decayed video images superimposed over each
other in a weird Burroughsian collage of overlapping transmissions,
giving rise to a mysterious "third mind" of accidental coincidences and
synchronicities. As experimental video, it all works amazingly well. As
music videos, the effect is somewhat more muted, as the edits often out
of sync with the beat structures of the music. Still, it would be hard
to imagine a more appropriate visual accompaniment to Cabaret
Voltaire's abrasive, subterranean, low-fidelity electronic music.
