Richard H. Kirk

Biography

Kirk was born on 21 March 1956 and grew up in Sheffield, South Yorkshire, where he lived his entire life. He attended the Psalter Lane School Of Art, completing a one-year sculpture course and meeting Peter Care, who later directed several Cabaret Voltaire videos. In 1973, Kirk and Chris Watson formed the industrial band Cabaret Voltaire; later that year Stephen Mallinder joined on bass and vocals. Kirk described their early approach: 'We'd do mad stuff - drive around in a van with tape loops playing out the back, or go into pubs with a tape machine and play weird stuff.

Cabaret Voltaire (1973-1994)

Just trying to wind people up.' He told the New York Times: 'When we started, we wanted to do something with sound, but none of us knew how to play an instrument. So we started using tape recorders and various pieces of junk and gradually learned to play instruments like guitars and bass.' The band signed to Rough Trade and released their debut EP, Extended Play, in November of that year.

Between 1978 and 1981 they issued the single 'Nag Nag Nag' and the albums Mix-Up, The Voice of America and Red Mecca. Kirk's solo debut, Disposible Half-Truths, was recorded at Western Works Studio and released in 1980 by Industrial Records. Watson left the band in 1981, though he appeared on the 1982 album 2x45. Kirk and Mallinder then moved toward a more commercial direction, signing to Some Bizarre with a licensing deal through Virgin, and releasing The Crackdown, Micro-Phonies and The Covenant, the Sword, and The Arm of The Lord.

Kirk's second solo album, Time High Fiction, came out during this period but contained material recorded as early as 1979. He began collaborating with vocalist and musician Peter Hope, issuing singles such as 'Leather Hands' and the albums Black Jesus Voice and Ugly Spirit. In 1987 Cabaret Voltaire released CODE via EMI, and Kirk followed with Hoodoo Talk, a culmination of his work with Hope. The band's next album, Groovy, Laidback and Nasty, was heavily influenced by house music.

After accumulating significant debt under EMI, the band was dropped and returned to Les Disques du Crépuscule, a Belgian label that had previously released their 1981 EP 3 Crépuscule Tracks, for their 1991 album Body and Soul.

Cabaret Voltaire (1973-1994)

Kirk, along with Chris Watson, formed the industrial band Cabaret Voltaire in 1973. Later that year, the band brought in Stephen Mallinder to provide bass and vocals. The band signed to Rough Trade and released Extended Play, their debut EP, in November of that year. From 1978 to 1981, they released the single 'Nag Nag Nag' and the albums Mix-Up, The Voice of America and Red Mecca.

Watson left the band in 1981, though he still was featured on the 1982 album 2x45. His departure led Kirk and Mallinder towards a more commercial direction. Signing to Some Bizarre, and utilising a licensing deal with Virgin, the band released The Crackdown, Micro-Phonies and The Covenant, the Sword, and The Arm of The Lord. In 1987, Cabaret Voltaire released CODE via EMI.

Groovy, Laidback and Nasty, significantly influenced by house music, was the next album released by the band. Due to significant debt amassed under EMI, they were dropped. To release their next album, 1991's Body and Soul, the band returned to Les Disques du Crépuscule. During this era, Kirk formed Sweet Exorcist, a seminal bleep techno act, with Richard Barratt.

They released several singles, most notably 'Testone', and an album, C.C.C.D, notable for being the first album released on the Warp Records label. In 1991, the band made a deal with Mute to distribute records from the band's label Plastex in the United States. From this period to 1994, the band released Plasticity, International Language and The Conversation. Cabaret Voltaire disbanded in 1994, and Mallinder moved to Australia in 1995.

After Cabaret Voltaire (1994-2009)

After Cabaret Voltaire's dissolution, Kirk continued to work prolifically, often prioritising aliases over work under his own name and exploring multiple types of electronic/dance music. With Barratt, he released the second Sweet Exorcist album, Spirit Guide to Low Tech, this time under Touch. Under his own name he released The Number of Magic, and in the same year released Every Man Got Dreaming as Sandoz and The Idea of Justice as Electronic Eye.

After this Dark Continent was released under the Sandoz name, and he released a self-titled album under the project name Agents With False Memories. In 1997 he released Intoxica and Night Watchmen under the aliases Nitrogen and Dark Magus respectively, and the fifth Sandoz release God Bless the Conspiracy. Experimenting with dub, which had heavily influenced his career, Kirk released In Dub: Chant to Jah. He proceeded to release Knowledge Through Science as Richard H. Kirk, Is This Now? as Trafficante and one million and three as Al Jabr.

From 1998 to 2001, Kirk released Darkness at Noon and LoopStatic (Amine ß Ring Modulations) under his own name, Afrocentris under Sandoz, Neurometrik under Electronic Eye, Subduing Demons in South Yorkshire under Blacworld, Aural Illusions under Digital Terrestrial and Here and Elsewhere under Orchestra Terrestrial. After 9/11, much of Kirk's work shifted to critique of the war on terror, as he released albums such as TWAT v4.0: The War Against Terror and Bush Doctrine (under the alias Biochemical Dread).

During this time, many of Kirk's unreleased recordings were put into compilations, such as URP Vol 1_, URP Vol 2_, URP Vol 3_ and URP VOL4 expreso_elektro_congo, along with Earlier/Later—Unreleased Projects Anthology '74–'89. In the mid-2000s, Kirk released Richard H. Kirk Meets the Truck Bombers of Suburbia Uptown Vol. 1 (Feat. Pat Riot), Live in the Earth: Sandoz in Dub Chapter 2, Afro Digital under the Bit Crackle name, Subduing Demons in South Yorkshire Part 2 and the final Electronic Eye album Autoshark.

Later in the decade, two parts of the album Burning the Word by the alias Vasco De Mento were released, along with Sandoz In Dub: Chapter Two / Extra Time Under The Stones and Acid Editions (303 Excursions) under the Sandoz name, Sonic Reflections (Unreleased Soundtrack Project 1994) under his own and Unabriged Soundtrack To Future Movie as Dollars and Cents. Kirk released much of this music on his own labels, including Alphaphone Recordings and Intone Records.

Cabaret Voltaire revival (2009-2021)

In 2009, Kirk revived the Cabaret Voltaire moniker as a solo project, to release remix albums with Kora and The Tivoli, titled Kora! Kora! Kora! and National Service Rewind respectively. Kirk followed this with two albums under his own name, Reality Is Opposite and Anonymised, and his final album as Sandoz, Digital Life Time.

Kirk played the first Cabaret Voltaire gig in twenty years in 2014, at Berlin Atonal, with all new material. According to Kirk, Coachella offered him a significant amount of money to reunite the original membership of Kirk, Watson and Mallinder. Of this, he said, 'Cabaret Voltaire was always about breaking new ground and moving forward. It would be so sad to see it as a nostalgia act.

You can't make yourself that age again. The way forward is to keep trying new things.' Kirk's final album under his own name, Dasein was released in 2017. It received critical acclaim from The Quietus, who described it as 'the most ambitious and complex album Richard H. Kirk has created in his solo career.'

Under the Cabaret Voltaire name, Kirk released Shadow of Fear, with 'Vasto' as the lead single. In the next few months, Kirk released an EP titled Shadow of Funk, along with two drone albums, Dekadrone and BN9Drone, all under the Cabaret Voltaire moniker. These were his final releases, as he died on 21 September 2021, aged 65. His prolific work resulted in AllMusic calling him 'contemporary techno's busiest man'.