In our previous episode, we went deep into the history of Cabaret Voltaire and their importance to UK industrial and, latterly, dance music. Now, we follow the trail we laid therein by taking a journey through the band's extensive discography, really fleshing out how they went from a Sheffield attic in 1973 to a Patagonian field site recording lizards for David Attenborough. Along the way, we take in televangelists, voodoo, Charles Manson samples, Velvet Underground covers, a near-miss with Todd Terry, and a Taylor Swift pressing-plant mix-up that turned a forgotten ambient track into a viral curiosity decades later.

Phil Eaglesham (aka P6 - ex-Stretchheads and De Salvo, current OMO frontman) returns to bestow upon us his encyclopaedic knowledge of the band and British industrial music. We start in 1974 with the lo-fi bedroom experiments of Cabaret Voltaire 1974–76, work through the rough-edged early Rough Trade EPs, the spring-reverb wilderness of Three Mantras and Voice of America, the cult monument that is Red Mecca, and the band's stylistic pivots through Hai!, 2x45, The Crackdown, Micro-Phonies, The Covenant, the Sword and the Arm of the Lord, Code, and beyond. We also pick at the more controversial late chapters, including the major-label years, the slightly-too-late acid house pivot, and Richard H. Kirk's solo reactivation of the name.

Along the way, we explore the band as a video production company that happened to make music; their roles as curators and tastemakers via Double Vision; the Burroughs-and-televangelism worldview that made them frighteningly prescient about Reagan-era Christian nationalism; and their unsung debt to Black American music and dub. Chris also offers a wider reflection on what it means to lose the egoless purity of your earliest creative work as ambition and industry pressures take hold.

We get deep in the weeds talking about the producers they worked with (Flood, Adrian Sherwood, John Robie, Marshall Jefferson); the labels (Rough Trade, Some Bizzare, Virgin, EMI, Mute); their collaborators and contemporaries (DAF, Wire, Throbbing Gristle, Clock DVA, Soft Cell, New Order, The Shamen); and the bands that lifted from them wholesale (Nine Inch Nails, Ministry, The Rapture, White Zombie, and a generation of Glasgow acts you've heard but can't quite place).

It all culminates in us taking a closer look at Eight Crepuscule Tracks, a record that Phil thinks is their best and a very pure statement of what the band can and did achieve. We also settle upon what is perhaps the most important lesson to be gleaned from the Cabs' music: the importance of never compromising on your vision. By entering the belly of the beast and somehow remaining intact, they became one of the rare bands in this corner of music history whom nobody has a bad word for.

Highlights

00:00 Intro

01:18 Welcome Back, Phil

02:46 1974–76: Egoless Experimentation

04:51 Bedroom Records

06:30 Extended Play and DAF

07:37 The Velvet Underground Cover

08:26 Nag Nag Nag

10:20 Van With a PA

11:38 Three Mantras

12:24 Mix-Up

14:50 William Burroughs

16:48 Voice of America

19:35 Peter Care and Double Vision

21:41 Red Mecca

24:25 Encyclopaedia Bands

27:36 Hai!

29:36 2x45 in New York

32:07 Sheffield's Family Tree

32:55 Chris Watson Leaves

36:16 The Crackdown

42:23 Micro-Phonies

46:38 Covenant, Sword and Arm of the Lord

49:48 Drinking Gasoline

51:45 Code

54:58 Listen Up and Reissues

57:12 Groovy, Laidback and Nasty

1:00:15 Body and Soul

1:03:56 Shadow of Fear

1:04:51 The Taylor Swift Accident

1:08:27 Richard Kirk's Death

1:14:50 Bus Shelter Bashes

1:19:58 Sincerity vs Seriousness

1:25:00 Debt to Black Music

1:29:00 Eight Crepuscule Tracks

1:51:00 Why Everyone Loves Cab Vol

1:58:36 Coming Soon: Coil?!

Cabaret Voltaire are no one thing. Depending on which corner of the internet you found us from, you might know them as the caustic Sheffield noise act who preceded post-punk, the sinister electro-industrial outfit with a penchant for evangelical samples and anti-fascist agitprop, or the dancefloor-adjacent act who fetched up on Factory's Belgian satellite label and made something close to club music. You're all correct.

This week, we have a guide. Phil Eaglesham — P6, former front person of Stretchheads and De Salvo, current singer in OMO, musical walking tour operator, man of broad and alarming musical learnings — is here to help us navigate one of the most complex and wilfully uncommercial bands to come out of the UK, via their transitional compilation Eight Crepuscule Tracks.

We trace the band's origins in a Sheffield attic in 1973, chart their debts to dub, Black American music, and the sci-fi soundscapes that shaped a generation of working-class ears, and make the case that Cabaret Voltaire — despite their apparent difficulty — were one of the most industrious and fundamentally political bands of their era. We also get into their time at Western Works Studio, which functioned less like a recording facility and more like the gravitational centre of an entire Sheffield scene; their complicated relationship with Rough Trade; and their connections to Joy Division, Lydia Lunch, Clock DVA, and the bands that would become the Human League and ABC.

Along the way, Phil brings original artefacts including a signed 1979 TG/Cab Vol/Rema Rema poster from Tottenham Court Road, and the original 12-inches the album is built from. We also ask what would have happened to Cabaret Voltaire without punk — and conclude they'd likely have ended up an academic footnote rather than a foundational text. Highlights: 00:00 Intro

03:56 Meet Phil Eaglesham

07:47 P6 — The Name and the Character

09:29 Queer Identity in the Industrial Scene

12:55 Pseudonyms and Rockism

17:44 Cabaret Voltaire: The Basics

22:32 Sheffield, Western Works, and the Scene

25:18 Rough Trade, The Fall, and Being Prolific

29:10 Working-Class Roots and Industrial Culture

32:33 Sci-Fi Soundscapes and Electronic Prehistory

35:11 Musique Concrète to Cab Vol: How Close Were They?

36:13 Dadaism, Situationism, and Confrontational Art

38:40 Punk's Effect on Audiences (Not Just Music)

40:11 The Counterfactual: Cab Vol Without Punk

41:43 Black Music, Funk, and the DNA Nobody Talks About

43:39 New Wave, No Wave, and New York Connections

46:29 Factory Records, Crépuscule, and the Belgian Connection

47:49 Original Artefacts: Posters, 12-Inches, and History

50:31 Why Eight Crepuscule Tracks?

52:54 Looking Towards Next Week and Outro

We don't often cover classical or neoclassical music, as it’s a wee bit out of our wheelhouse. But that doesn’t mean we don’t enjoy it—often, our entry into that world is via film soundtracks. Jóhann Jóhannsson is a perfect example, having scored some of the most iconic films of the last 20 years.

However, that’s only part of the story. Jóhannsson also released a series of acclaimed solo records; this week, we’re focusing almost exclusively on that solo output, while also providing an account of his life, his key cinematic works, and his tragic passing in 2018.

We chart his path from early days in indie bands to the cross-genre think tank Kitchen Motors, and his meteoric rise as a composer for films like Prisoners, Sicario, Arrival, and The Theory of Everything (for which he won a Golden Globe and earned an Oscar nomination). From there, we take a closer look at his solo discography, including IBM 1401: A User’s Manual (built from his father’s vintage computer recordings), Fordlandia, and the short-film soundtrack And in the Endless Pause There Came the Sound of Bees, as well as posthumous releases like Gold Dust.

We cap things off with a discussion regarding his death and the question of whether the pressures of Hollywood played a role in his demise, before focusing exclusively on his 2016 masterpiece, Orphée.

00:00 Intro

03:56 Meet Jóhann Jóhannsson

07:47 Early Life And Indie Bands

09:29 Labels And Influences

12:55 Chris' Hildur Guðnadóttir Facebook Scam Story

17:44 Solo Albums Breakdown

22:32 IBM 1401 Masterpiece

25:18 Fordlandia And Later Works

29:10 Film Breakthrough And Awards

32:33 Blade Runner Score Rejected

35:11 Blade Runner Score Shakeup

36:13 Zimmer Versus Vangelis

38:40 Jóhann Interview Clues

40:11 Who Made The Call

41:43 mother! And The Scrapped Soundtrack

43:39 Experimental Sound Design

46:29 Final Projects And Legacy

47:49 Last And First Men

50:31 Posthumous Releases

52:54 Death And Tributes

55:39 Did Hollywood Kill Him

58:48 Orphée Album Deep Dive

01:08:32 Why His Music Matters

This week, we're talking about two things we think are quite interesting. First off, we chat about the early mathcore/metalcore band Drowningman and reflect on why they never quite reached the heights of their peers, such as Converge and The Dillinger Escape Plan—bands they often found themselves touring with in the late 90s and early 00s.

While that story is compelling in itself, Drowningman can also count themselves among the artists who tried to sabotage a contractual obligation to a record label. As the story goes, they hit the studio with Kurt Ballou (Converge, God City Studios) to record a very weird album, tentatively titled Best Album Ever. The record was never officially released; it was allegedly created with the sole intention of being purposefully bad in order to satisfy, and terminate, their two-album contract with Revelation Records. In the end it never saw the light of day.

This got us thinking about other artists who have tried to escape their contractual obligations. We use this lens to take a wee sojourn into the annals of music history, unearthing stories of several big-name artists who tried, and sometimes succeeded, in doing something similar.

We hope you enjoy! Highlights:

00:00 Intro

01:27 Skipping the Discourse

01:56 Viral Bands Debate

02:59 Patreon Pitch

05:37 Awkward Party Exits

06:17 Meet Drowningman

08:19 Origins and Scene

12:00 Early Releases Breakdown

16:07 Rock and Roll Killing Machine Era

21:07 Later Records and Fadeout

24:47 Did They Deserve Bigger

27:05 Contractual Obligation Albums

35:38 Ozzy Contract Loophole

36:25 Speak of the Devil Drama

38:05 Ozzy Album Aftermath

38:57 Neil Young vs Geffen

39:49 Beach Boys Owed Album

40:55 More Contract Escapes

42:40 Sisters of Mercy SSV

45:46 More Obligation Oddities

47:43 Rolling Stones Provocation

50:31 Zappa Lather Bootleg

51:25 Prince vs Warner Saga

57:42 Drowning Man Review

59:32 Track Highlights Breakdown

01:02:56 Final Verdict and Wrap

01:06:21 Outro and Thanks

You may be shocked to hear that Lift to Experience made one album. One. A ninety-minute double CD concept record about the apocalypse, set entirely in Texas, written by three boys from Pentecostal and Baptist backgrounds who genuinely believed they had something to say to God. And then, more or less, they vanished.

In this episode we cover the Texas Jerusalem Crossroads in full — the vision behind it, the religious fervour that powered it, and the question of whether you need to share any of that fervour to find the record genuinely moving. We'd argue you don't, and the band themselves seemed fairly relaxed about that.

We also get into the wider story, which turns out to be just as compelling as the music. The album that couldn't be bought in its home country for years. The label that mixed it without the band present and broke their hearts. The tour that never happened. The beard competition. The sandwich grill.

Along the way we ask a question that feels increasingly relevant right now — what does it actually mean when Americans start singing about Texas as the site of the final battle between good and evil? In 2001 it seemed like a grand artistic conceit. In 2025 it feels a little different.

Is the Texas Jerusalem Crossroads the unsung post rock record with actual things to say? We think so. But it's a ninety-minute album, so you've got time to make up your own mind.

Highlights:

00:00 Intro and Whether We’re Actually Living in the End Times

03:11 Album Introduction

04:46 Millennium Anxiety

09:17 Band Origins

11:19 Sound and Influences

12:22 Post Rock With Vocals?!

17:33 Name and Release

19:48 Religion and Meaning

25:46 Art Versus Belief

29:46 Lyrics and Apocalypse

32:00 Track Highlights

33:51 Shoegaze Favourite Track

34:50 Dynamics of Cloud Nine

36:27 Maximalist Texas Vibes

37:03 Album Art Joke Explained

38:56 Religion and Tech Rants

40:53 UK Success US Absence

44:22 Recording Struggles and SXSW Myth

49:19 Bad Mix and Band Fallout

53:17 Aftermath and Cult Legacy

56:02 Reunion and 2017 Reissue

59:41 Remix Reviews and Changes

01:02:42 Apocalypse Talk and Final Thoughts

01:07:45 Outro

You may be shocked to hear that musicians sometimes lie about who they are. Some may say this is not shocking at all - it's almost a tradition. But there's a meaningful difference between Ziggy Stardust and a band from North Dakota claiming to be a Chinese black metal act to game the press.

In this episode we try to map that difference. We spend a healthy portion of time on what we're not talking about - aliases, concept bands, anonymity for anonymity's sake - before getting into the genuinely murky territory of bands that have used fabricated identities for commercial advantage. We cover the fake Zombies that toured America simultaneously in 1969, The Masked Marauders and the elaborate Rolling Stone prank that accidentally became a real album, Silibil n Brains, Dundee rappers who got signed to Island Records on the strength of their American accents, before discussing Ghost Bath, the project that brought this whole phenomenon into focus for us.

Along the way we also get into AI-generated music, Milli Vanilli (and why what they did is arguably less dishonest than what plenty of current pop stars do routinely, and a genuinely unresolved case involving a supposedly Iraqi black metal band that may or may not have put its members in real danger.

The question running through all of it: does context change how we hear music? And if it does — what does that say about us?

Highlights:

00:00 Introduction

01:24 Catfish and Hoax Bands Explained

02:11 Patreon

05:10 Famous Death Hoaxes

05:42 Mystique Versus Scams

09:02 Not Aliases or Roleplay

10:43 Anonymity and Masks

13:23 Fake Touring Lineups

19:03 Concept Bands and Bits

24:28 AI Bands and Deception

27:54 Outright Music Scams

30:13 Milli Vanilli Then and Now

30:53 Pop Star Fraud Culture

33:39 Mask Marauders Hoax

35:20 Orion Elvis Impostor

38:50 Platinum Weird Backstory

40:25 Syllable American Rap Ruse

43:38 Jana Mystery Metal Band

46:06 Velvet Cocoon Troll Scam

48:36 Ghost Bath Identity Debate

54:40 Context and Cultural Relativism

58:10 Ghost Bath Fallout and Ethics

01:02:53 Outro

You may be shocked to hear that Green Day have a lot of songs. Some may say, in fact, that they have too MANY songs, because there does come a point where they all just blend into on another.

In this episode we explore this phenomenon, and it is exclusively (in our view) an issue that plagues the latter half of their career. We cover everything from American Idiot to Saviors, and whilst not all of these albums are afflicted in such a way, it definitely seems to become more prevalent as we more closer to the present era.

We also ask a crucial question - is Green Day punk? The answer is probably not quite what you expect, but we do debate the finer points. Suggesting that perhaps they could be Schrodinger's punx...

All this leads us to trying to answer the real question - is Insomniac Green Day's unsung classic?

Let's find out.

Highlights:
00:00 Intro
01:53 Car Album Debate
05:07 Legacy Act Question
09:31 Setting Up American Idiot
10:24 American Idiot Phenomenon
14:22 Stadium Band Status
23:08 Broadway And 21st Century
31:15 Uno, Dos, Tre And Rehab
35:38 Revolution Radio To Father Of All
37:38 Father of All Reappraisal
39:03 Critics vs Short Runtime
39:49 Side Projects and Salty Pretzel
43:18 2020 Output and Pandemic Era
44:18 Saviors and Derivative Sounds
48:42 Compression and Phone Listening
52:49 Is Green Day Punk?
01:00:28 Defining Punk and Yardsticks
01:19:59 Insomniac Context and Backlash
01:21:21 Critics and Rawness
01:22:22 Sales and Fan Backlash
01:24:01 Honest Bridge Album
01:26:28 Opening Tracks and Tone
01:30:29 Singles and Track Picks
01:32:56 Production and Gear Talk
01:39:54 Songwriting and Label Control
01:53:48 Closing Tracks and Verdict
01:59:22 Wrap Up and Goodbyes

Could it be done? Is it possible to call anything Green Day have ever released both unsung AND (crucially, because there's a fair bit of 'meh' in their catalogue) good? Well folks, this week and next we're going to do our very best to find out. And we're joined by our good friend Rick Bruce from Coffin Mulch and Moonshine Docks.

Our contention? That their fourth album, Insomniac, is an unsung classic. This is all relative of course--in the 90s and 00s they sold bucket loads of records. How many people had copies of their records knocking about in their car footwells before 2010? Probably millions.

And it hasn't stopped. They're still pulling down millions of streams per month. Objectively, they are huge. And somewhat less objectively, they're probably the biggest punk band ever, and certainly one of the biggest bands on earth.

I mean, Insomniac itself isn't even their lowest selling record. And in this episode, we don't even get to it! It's a two parter after all.

No, in this episode we talk about everything from the 1000 Hours EP right up to, and including, Warning. With a brief detour into Pinhead Gunpowder too. We'll tackle Insomniac itself in our next episode--as is our way.

Timestamps: