Cabaret Voltaire, Red Mecca (side A)

Red Mecca could almost be described as gentle by Cabaret Voltaire's menacing standards. Where only a couple of years earlier it seemed that every sound was harsh and distorted, the palette on 1981's Red Mecca, while still massively destroyed and processed, is a lot more diverse. The processing feels at least vaguely approachable and not constantly demolished to a point of aggression. The compositional structures still find awkward ways to use repetition, and the results are hardly friendly. By relying on a far less distorted palette, it at least reaches a bit less deeply into the darkest parts of the psyche, without giving up the things that make Cabaret Voltaire special.