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
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
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
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
'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.
'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