After the end of Cabaret Voltaire, Kirk went on to record a zillion solo records under different names. This is trippy and ambient not for casual listening or the dance floor.

This is an early solo effort from Cabaret Voltaire’s Richard H. Kirk. It came in a three-pack CD set with a Malinder’s Pow Wow Plus and Cabaret Voltaire’s 1974-76. This record is in the brutal early style of Cabaret Voltaire and borders on pure noise at times. The focus here is electronic manipulation and less on beats and music.

This was the last band my brother was in before he left college. Great walls of guitar sound mixed with quiet parts. I am playing a little theremin on one of the tracks. I guess nowadays this might be called emo music, but this was a bit before all that. My brother went on to be a defense attorney, Patrick still plays in bands up in Madison, and Nathan was a founding member of the Chicago band Chinup Chinup. I don’t know what happened to the bassist. They have a MySpace page still!

More studio knob-twisting and ambient rethinkings of “Change” and “Requiem.”

Youth returned to the band prior to Pandemonium with these dancy remixes of “Change” and “Requiem.” Nothing too exciting here but pleasant nonetheless.

A greatest hits compilation. The only reason I bought it was to get the tracks “Turn to Red” and “Pssyche” on CD. Otherwise, nothing new here.

A great collection of singles and extended mixes from the EG years. I had a few of these on 7″ vinyl and it was nice to get clean versions on CD.

Killing Joke proves they can still crank up the angst on yet another “comeback” album. There’s no innovation here, but the songs are fast, loud, angry and everything you’d hope to get from Killing Joke after two decades of music. Dave Grohl provides the slightly-better-than-a-drum-machine guest drums.

Very much along the same lines as Pandemonium but something doesn’t quite click here. Maybe the cleaner production reveals the limitations of the session-cat rhythm section. Or maybe it’s that they haven’t added anything new to their songs. Up until now, each Killing Joke record seem to be a natural progression from the last. From this point on they are on auto pilot.

Having veered off course for a few records, this CD seems like the natural progression from Thousand Suns. The band is heavy as ever, but the songs are awash with synthesizers and house music elements. At times the production is just too messy and the guitars get lost, but, on the whole, a solid release.