Mix-Up

Mix-Up
Studio album by Cabaret Voltaire
Released	23 October 1979
Recorded	July–August 1979
Studio	Western Works, Sheffield
Genre	Industrial post-punk [1]
Length	43:01
Label	Rough Trade
Producer	Cabaret 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

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

Critical reception

Professional ratings

Review scores
Source	Rating
AllMusic	[1]
Blender	[2]
The Encyclopedia of Popular Music	[3]
Muzik	[4]
Record Mirror	[5]
The Rolling Stone Album Guide	[6]
Smash Hits	5/10 [7]
Spin Alternative Record Guide	7/10 [8]
Trouser Press	neutral [9]
ZigZag	8/10 [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

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

Side A

No.	Title	Writer(s)	Length
1.	"Kirlian Photograph"		5:32
2.	"No Escape"	Sky Saxon	3:34
3.	"Fourth Shot"		3:57
4.	"Heaven and Hell"		5:45
5.	"Eyeless Sight" (live)		3:12

Side B

No.	Title	Writer(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

Cabaret Voltaire

• Stephen Mallinder – vocals, bass guitar, percussion
• Chris Watson – synthesizers, tapes
• Richard H. Kirk – guitar, synthesizers, wind instruments
• Haydn Boyes Weston – drums

Additional personnel

• Porky – mastering

References

1. 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. 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. 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.

External links

• Mix-Up at Discogs (list of releases)