But then there’s Hai! Cabaret Voltaire was a three-piece band from Sheffield built on the post-punk We Don’t Do What the Others Do model. They took their name from the place in Zurich where the term “Dada” was first coined, and their music was dark, wickedly intelligent, eminently danceable and strikingly original stuff. Their Fool’s Game 12” is quite bluntly one of the best EP’s ever to come out of England; only a small worldwide cult of true believers had any idea at all of who Cabaret Voltaire was until they signed with a label called Some Bizarre and released the incredibly disappointing The Crackdown, abruptly and effectively ending my interest in them. But before The Crackdown -- I really can’t describe for you how awful it was listening to The Crackdown; it was like watching your best friend wearing some horrifying monkey-suit to go out on a date with somebody you knew he didn’t even really like -- they were a bracingly original band, and they somehow got enough distribution into Japan to warrant actually going over, where they played two live dates: one in Osaka, and one at a place in Tokyo called Tsubaki House, on the 23rd of March, 1982. Hai! is the recording of that evening’s performance. 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 [next]