2020's
Shadow of Fear marked the studio return of
Cabaret Voltaire, six years after
Richard H. Kirk had resurrected the project for live performances and 26 years since their previous album,
The Conversation, was released. Despite the lengthy absence,
Kirk has always kept up a prolific, multi-monikered release schedule comparable to peers like Uwe Schmidt and
Pete Namlook, so it's no surprise that three more
CV releases were announced soon after the album appeared. Shadow of Funk concentrates squarely on
CV's industrial dance side, with three hypnotic, beat-heavy tracks clearly structured for club use. The title track stretches past 12 minutes, featuring a big, clunky drum loop similar to late-'90s tribal techno, building up to aggressive snare rushes and pausing for polyrhythmic breakdowns, while furious noises screech around the insistent beats. The ten-minute "Skinwalker" is a variation on the previous track's theme, employing the same percussion loop and snare rolls but differing in its usage of sampled vocal cries, which are punched in call-and-response style. "Billion Dollar" has a bit of the agitated edge of the first two tracks, particularly with its buzzing sequences, rough breakbeats, and gritty samples, but its bassline and Ibiza-tinged melodies strangely but amusingly approximate a lo-fi version of end-of-the-millennium trance, like a bedroom demo by an aspiring
Paul van Dyk wannabe. The tracks all sound live and hand-shaped in real time rather than programmed, yet highly focused and direct, and the energy level never lapses. ~ Paul Simpson