Das Kabinette - Spy Thriller

Good afternoon and welcome along on a wonderful Tuesday. To start with is a wee follow up from Christmas 2018 and the Blackpool band Das Kabinette. Spy Killer sounds exactly like what it is; endearingly musty new wave that’s been sitting on someone's shelf since the early 80s, dusted off and released in 2008. Apparently the band never released the album in 1983, when it was recorded - their loss! Would've been good then and somehow it's still good or even better now. The vocalist (and the lyrics) get a little too camp now and then ("Something's On Your Mind" might well have stayed buried), but in general this is a chilly, subdued ride at night through the dry ice post-punk graveyard. The title track, "The Cabinet", and "Next In Line" are ready-made for Goth-ing it up down at the club, on the rugs lying around your apartment, in the alternative tent at the carnival, deep in the bowels of the Doctor's Tardis, or wherever else you may need some weathered old synths to set the tone. Such a shame Spy Thriller didn’t receive a 1983 release - you could've been sulking around the house to this for forty years. Ah well, no time like the present!

The Cabinet

Blackpool band Das Kabinette were known mainly for their underground hit “The Cabinet”, which was originally released as a 7” single in 1983. The song is inspired by the 1920 classic silent horror film The Cabinet Of Dr. Caligari, a highly influential film of the German expressionistic era. The film is themed around: the madness of society, the inner workings of the human mind and the paranoia of a country in the aftermath of a war.  Fascinated and inspired by both the themes and visuals of the film, Das Kabinette wrote the song “The Cabinet” during their second visit to the studio in 1983, and self-released it later that year on their own Klosette Records label.