Cabaret Voltaire—the Sheffield-based trio founded by Richard H. Kirk, Stephen Mallinder and Chris Watson—started out in 1973 conducting esoteric, DIY tape experiments with creaky synthesisers and primitive drum machines to create a dark, paranoid style of electronic pop. By the end of the decade, their tracks, such as “Nag, Nag, Nag” and “Do the Mussolini (Head Kick)”, helped write the blueprint for industrial music while also pointing the sound towards the dance floor. The group’s output in the ’80s proved a formative influence on the burgeoning techno, house and alternative scenes worldwide, but Cabaret Voltaire were just as impacted by what they were hearing, and recorded 1990’s Groovy, Laidback and Nasty in Chicago with the help of house legend Marshall Jefferson. All the while, Kirk—a restlessly creative producer and songwriter—was simultaneously making experimental techno as part of Sweet Exorcist with DJ Parrot, and would delve into all manner of other styles in the years after CV’s 1994 breakup, under no fewer than 30 different aliases. He restarted Cabaret Voltaire in 2009 and continued recording and releasing music under the moniker until his death in September 2021.