Cabaret Voltaire - Code [2026 Remaster, Codified Marble]

By 1987 Cabaret Voltaire had spent more than a decade as Sheffield's most restless electronic experimentalists. Code is where they aimed that restlessness squarely at the dancefloor. The duo's eighth studio album was their most commercially successful, a sleek collision of synth-pop and mechanistic funk, and it has been out of print for years.

Richard H. Kirk and Stephen Mallinder wrote and recorded at their own Western Works studio, then brought in Adrian Sherwood as co-producer and mixed at Red Bus in London. Bill Nelson adds guitar across much of the record. The singles "Don't Argue" and "Here to Go" are the obvious entry points, all sampled voices and hard-edged sequencers, while "Sex, Money, Freaks" and "Thank You America" show how much menace the band could still fit inside a pop structure. The title reflects their fascination with computers and programming, and with the social control they saw arriving alongside them.

This reissue was begun in 2019 with Kirk himself and completed after his death from his notes, in consultation with Mallinder and Kirk's estate. Denis Blackham remastered the album from the original tapes, and the original artwork has been restored.

Pressed as a limited edition on "Codified" marble vinyl, this is the first chance in a long time to own a pivotal Cabaret Voltaire record on wax.