A few posts back I looked at Cabaret Voltaire’s ‘Here To Go’ UK CD single and dwelt upon the fact that the singles from the parent album which that single and the one in today’s posts hail from, ‘Code’, remain largely unavailable digitally. In the case of today’s featured 12″ release, ‘Don’t Argue’, only the A side ‘Dance’ mix got a re-release, as part of 2001’s ‘Remixed’ compilation CD on EMI.
This release was the ‘second’ 12″ issue of ‘Don’t Argue’. That staggered multi-release approach was very much a product from that time in ’80s when the fashions made it near obligatory to release a second 12″ (sometimes a third, or even more!) a week or two after the ‘first’ 12″, often with a different mix or B sides or the like. In this case, two new mixes to join the two mixes already issued on the initial 12″ (the ‘Extended Version’ and ‘Hate & Destroy’ mixes of ‘Don’t Argue’). Don’t forget that there was a 7″ single release too, which contained the 7″ single mix and the ‘Who’s Arguing’ mixes of ‘Don’t Argue’. So, spread across 2 x 12″ and 1 x 7″ formats, there are six mixes of ‘Don’t Argue’ to be had – and they all differ from the album version. Of these six single release mixes, only two of them have appeared on CD releases – as noted above on ‘Remixed’ for the ‘Dance’ mix and also of note the ‘Extended Version’ of ‘Don’t Argue’ can be found on the 2001 compilation CD ‘Cabaret Voltaire – The Original Sound Of Sheffield ’83 / ’87. Best Of;’, where it is listed with the slightly different title of ‘Don’t Argue (John Robie Extended Version)’.
While the first 12″ (and 7″) had featured John Robie on remix duties, this second 12″ release features mixes by Adrian Sherwood on both sides. As the mix title may hint at, these mixes take the familiar components of the previous 7”/12” mixes, – including the somewhat controversial at the time female backing vocals, which are completely absent from the album mix – and stitch in some rhythmical intricacies that you could easily argue have more than a hint of the style of Kraftwerk to them. The A side largely follows the same basic pattern and elements as the album and previous 12” mixes as far as the Stephen Mallinder vocals and documentary samples go but gets to the rhythmical jugular a lot faster and stays there for the duration. It also drops Bill Nelson’s guitar lines too, which the earlier mixes had retained. The ‘Dub’ mix as you might expect drops Mallinder’s vocals entirely though does retain the female vocals and documentary samples and gets a lot more playful and focused with the rhythmical scaffold and bass sequencer especially.
As it happens, there has previously been a digital release of ‘Don’t Argue’ via iTunes back in 2009. This featured the 7″ Version, ‘Dub Version’, ‘Hate & Destroy Mix’ and ‘Who’s Arguing’ mixes of ‘Don’t Argue’. At some point though it looks to have been withdrawn from sale and is no longer available.
By 1987 I was pivoting to CD singles only, and I was thrilled when I saw the “Here To Go” CD5, yet I still couldn’t resist Cab Volt 12″ wax…when I in fact saw it! I managed to buy:
• Parlophone – 12R 6157
• Parlophone – CDR 6166
• EMI-Manhattan Records – V-56067
• Parlophone – 12RX 6166
But that was as far as things went.
This 12″ was an unknown quantity to me at the time! It’s been in my want list for over 10 years, but now with the DLX RM 3xCD of “Code” coming in October, my CV needs are going to be more than fulfilled…though if I ever saw one of these in the wilds, I’d surely buy it for the vibrant Neville Brody sleeve art! Which I think The Designer’s Republic studied very closely!
Was very pleasantly surprised to read about the upcoming ‘Code’ re-issues, including the three CD version – the original releases and satellite singles remain nice artefacts in their own right, for sure. My first purchase of ‘Code’ was on cassette, funnily enough – at the time, I found that the thing, since it had extras – and it was quite a shift in sound, even from the preceding ‘Covenant…’ album – which was a rather itchy, high-energy, in-yer-face sound by comparison to the smoother grid-like grooves of ‘Code’.
Hah! You echo my thoughts. Following the slick “Micro-Phonies” era, the sound got nasty on “Drinking Gasoline” and nastier still on the low-res electro-punk of “The Covenant, The Sword, And The Arm Of the Lord.” At the time of “Covenant” I was befuddled at the sound but within a year that was my favorite Cab Volt album. I treasure your description of it as “itchy!” When “Code” showed up two years later, I found it too bloodless at the time, but by the time of “Groovy, Laidback + Nasty” I clung to “Code” as a last gasp of greatness. As everything else that happened afterward surely underlined. When Mallinder was edged out of the group, I lost interest. I bought “Body + Soul,” “Technology: Western Re:Works 1992,” and “Plasticity” but couldn’t keep them. The latter two were immediately ejected form the Record Cell, but I grudgingly held on to “Body + Soul” [and the “What Is Real” CD-5] just for “Decay,” and the minimal presence of Mal really, but even that went in The Great Cull, begun last year and ongoing [if I ever get any more free time]!