Description
The album "2X45" is a collection of two separate sessions, one with Chris Watson and one without (the former also with guest drummer Alan Fish of fellow Sheffield experimentalists Hula). The album shows the Cabs now well on their way to the perversely upbeat yet ominous funk of their early-'80s days. A song like Breathe Deep may have things like Richard H. Kirk's sax and clarinet lines over the stripped-down polyrhythms of Alan Fish and Stephen Mallinder, yet the way Mallinder husks the vocals and the claustrophobic feel of the recording don't entirely lend themselves to just going ahead and tearing the roof off the sucker. It's a careful balance the Cabs maintain, but it does work more often than not, while the influence on later industrial-affiliated acts is immediately apparent. Watson's work in the band at this point isn't as noticeable as before, but the drop-in samples on Yashar of intense voices asking where all the people on earth are hiding give a sense of where he still turns up. The second session, with Nort and Eric Random on drums, guitar, and percussion, is a touch murkier at points but only just. War of
Collecting two separate sessions, one with Chris Watson and one
without (the former also with guest drummer Alan Fish of fellow
Sheffield experimentalists Hula), 2X45 shows the Cabs now well on
their way to the perversely upbeat yet ominous funk of their
early-'80s days. A song like Breathe Deep may have things like
Richard H. Kirk's sax and clarinet lines over the stripped-down
polyrhythms of Alan Fish and Stephen Mallinder, yet the way
Mallinder husks the vocals and the claustrophobic feel of the
recording don't entirely lend themselves to just going ahead and
tearing the roof off the sucker. It's a careful balance the Cabs
maintain, but it does work more often than not, while the influence
on later industrial-affiliated acts is immediately apparent.
Watson's work in the band at this point isn't as noticeable as
before, but the drop-in samples on Yashar of intense voices
asking where all the people on earth are hiding give a sense of
where he still turns up. The second session, with Nort and Eric
Random on drums, guitar, and percussion, is a touch murkier at
points but only just. War of Nerves (T.E.S.) may start with a
tape of a guy talking about tortures involving rats and may have
Mallinder's distorted, demonic vocals in full effect, but the crisp
rhythm punch is still predominant. Wait and Shuffle is even, dare
it be said, perkier, with a brisk, reggae-touched drum and bass
combination and some sprightly keyboards playing around with the
sax wails and further found-sound oddities. The lengthy Get out of
My Face concludes the session and release on perhaps the quirkiest
note yet. Mallinder's cryptic sloganeering peppers things
throughout, but it's Kirk's intriguing guitar and the relentless
but still somehow fun rhythm push which define the song best of
all. ~ Ned Raggett
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