Mix-Up

Mix-Up
Studio album by
Cabaret Voltaire
Released23 October 1979
RecordedJuly–August 1979
StudioWestern Works, Sheffield
Genre
Length43:01
LabelRough Trade
ProducerCabaret Voltaire
Cabaret Voltaire chronology
Extended Play
(1978) 		Mix-Up
(1979) 		Live at the Y.M.C.A.
(1980)

Mix-Up is the debut studio album by English band Cabaret Voltaire. It was released on 23 October 1979, through record label Rough Trade.

Content

[edit]

The album contains a cover of The Seeds' song "No Escape", from their 1966 eponymous debut album.

Critical reception

[edit]
Professional ratings
Review scores
SourceRating
AllMusic[1]
Blender[2]
The Encyclopedia of Popular Music[3]
Muzik[4]
Record Mirror[5]
The Rolling Stone Album Guide[6]
Smash Hits5/10[7]
Spin Alternative Record Guide7/10[8]
Trouser Pressneutral[9]
ZigZag8/10[10]

Writing in Smash Hits in 1979, Red Starr said the album was an "intriguing but only occasionally attractive array of verbal and musical images". Starr went on to say that it sounded like "pointless backroom self indulgence".[7] Steven Grant echoed Starr's ambivalence in Trouser Press, saying that the album "has an obsessive strength — like Eno in his stranger moments but without his repetitiveness," but that "The music, though fascinating, is rarely coherent."[9]

In a retrospective review, Head Heritage described Mix-Up as "a great snapshot of a brief period in post-punk UK when there was a sudden urge to grapple with a bizarre, homemade, hamfisted white dub landscape."[11] AllMusic writer Andy Kellman was less favourable, writing that "Cabaret Voltaire's first two proper studio albums hardly match the greatness of later works like Red Mecca, 2 X 45 and even 3 Crepuscule Tracks", while noting that Mix-Up "only helped solidify Cabaret Voltaire's status as an integral part of the extended frisson of 1978–1982 post-punk".[1]

Track listing

[edit]

All tracks are written by Cabaret Voltaire (Chris Watson, Richard H. Kirk, Stephen Mallinder), except as noted

Side A
No.TitleWriter(s)Length
1."Kirlian Photograph" 5:32
2."No Escape"Sky Saxon3:34
3."Fourth Shot" 3:57
4."Heaven and Hell" 5:45
5."Eyeless Sight" (live) 3:12
Side B
No.TitleWriter(s)Length
1."Photophobia"lyrics: "Victor"5:49
2."On Every Other Street" 4:01
3."Expect Nothing" 6:05
4."Capsules" 4:04

Personnel

[edit]
Cabaret Voltaire
Additional personnel

References

[edit]
  1. ^ a b c Kellman, Andy. "Mix-Up – Cabaret Voltaire". AllMusic. Retrieved 24 January 2013.
  2. ^ Howe, Rupert (April–May 2002). "Cabaret Voltaire: (Various)". Blender. No. 6. Archived from the original on 10 February 2003. Retrieved 4 December 2020.
  3. ^ Larkin, Colin (27 May 2011). The Encyclopedia of Popular Music. Omnibus Press. ISBN 9780857125958. Retrieved 23 September 2024.
  4. ^ Bell, Duncan (June 2003). "Cabaret Voltaire: Mix Up / Voice of America / Red Mecca / 2x45". Muzik. No. 97. p. 79.
  5. ^ Westwood, Chris (3 November 1979). "Cabaret Voltaire: Mix-up". Record Mirror. p. 18.
  6. ^ Considine, J. D. (2004). "Cabaret Voltaire". In Brackett, Nathan; Hoard, Christian (eds.). The New Rolling Stone Album Guide (4th ed.). Simon & Schuster. pp. 128–29. ISBN 0-7432-0169-8.
  7. ^ a b Starr, Red (15–28 November 1979). "Albums". Smash Hits. Vol. 1, no. 25. p. 31.
  8. ^ Sinker, Mark (1995). "Cabaret Voltaire". In Weisbard, Eric; Marks, Craig (eds.). Spin Alternative Record Guide. Vintage Books. pp. 67–68. ISBN 0-679-75574-8.
  9. ^ a b Grant, Steven (February 1980). "Cabaret Voltaire: "Mix-Up"" (PDF). Trouser Press. 7 (1). New York, NY: Ira A. Robbins: 38.
  10. ^ Wilde, Jon (June 1990). "Cabaret Voltaire". ZigZag. No. 1. pp. 98–99.
  11. ^ mare-C (22 April 2002). "Cabaret Voltaire – Mix-Up". Head Heritage. Retrieved 3 September 2016.
[edit]
Retrieved from "https://en.wikipedia.org/w/index.php?title=Mix-Up&oldid=1248948514"