Dark Cabaret
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Dark cabaret is a music genre that can be traced back to the 1970s and is still played today. Dark cabaret artists draw influences from German cabaret, burlesque, vaudeville, folk, punk, deathrock, gothic rock and darkwave music styles, as well as Film noir.
Characteristics
Dark cabaret is characterised by driving piano and by deep female or male vocals influenced by the style of Kurt Weill, Marlene Dietrich, Alexander Vertinsky, Cole Porter, Danny Elfman, Nina Hagen, PJ Harvey, Tom Waits, Tom Lehrer, Nick Cave, and even Roxy Music/Brian Eno. Alternatively, the music may center around another instrument such as the cello or accordion, or even the voice.History
Origins
Perhaps the earliest stage of the modern dark cabaret genre dates back to 1974, when Nico released her album, The End. Her songs, "You Forgot To Answer" and "Secret Side" were much ahead of the Dark Cabaret sound which was to come. Marc Almond also was an early contributor to this direction. The Virgin Prunes bordered the sound at times, and Nina Hagen's punk opera style closed in on it further; but it was Rozz Williams, the former lead singer of Christian Death, who took the style in a more fully cabaret and darker direction a decade later. His release with Gitane Demone, Dream Home Heartache in 1995 on Triple X Records (an allusion to a song by Roxy Music) was perhaps the foundation for a new sound in the goth movement.The songs "Christian Circus Joe" and the jazzier "Psychic Sarah" also appeared by the Sex Gang Children in 1997, demonstrating the cabaret-style infusion into a slowly evolving post-punk art goth sound. Lydia Lunch also regularly produces work which falls into this category, most notably on her 1980 album, Queen of Siam.
Evolving movement
San Francisco-based chanteuse Jill Tracy released Diabolical Streak in 1999 which quickly garnered two California Music Award nominations, as well as the SIBL international Grand Prize for songwriting. LA Weekly proclaimed Jill Tracy "a femme fatale for the thinking man." Diabolical Streak was hailed by Canada's Shift Magazine as one of the "Top 10 Neo-Cabaret albums of all time."Also San Francisco-formed band Rosin Coven create their own style of theatrical cabaret with macabre tunes of goth-appeal atmosphere and make bizarre performances with Jill Tracy and other musicians on Edwardian Ball - show in memory of Edward Gorey.
Nicki Jaine (album "Of Pigeons and Other Curiosities" and single Revue Noir, her collaboration with chief of Projekt label, Sam Rosenthal) and Amoree Lovell (especialy demo songs "Dark Town Sally" and "High Maintenance/Low Tolerance") are also striking examples of the genre. Danny Elfman's dark cabaret influence is especially noted in his scores and character voices in the films The Nightmare Before Christmas, Chicago, and Tim Burton's Corpse Bride.
London cabaret act, the Tiger Lillies, have implemented dark themes and imagery, but do not typically convey a dark sound. Nonetheless, A Gorey End, their 2003 release featuring the Kronos Quartet and posthumous lyrical contributions from Edward Gorey, helped to create a greater awareness of the uprising genre by earning a Grammy nomination.
Artists
The term "Dark cabaret" is applied to a wide spectrum of bands; who may also fall into the genres Punk cabaret, Punk opera, Neo-burlesque, Gothic Ragtime, Vaudeville, Apocalyptic folk, Neo-folk, Psych folk and others. Thus making it diffcult to pin down the genre.In recent times as the modern Deathrock movement has moved further away from its roots into electronic territory, bands from the Deathrock movement such as the Deadfly Ensemble (Lucas Lanthier of Cinema Strange’s solo-project) have began to counter this by implementing cabaret into their music. In 1999 Cinema Strange appears on "Goth Oddity: A Tribute To David Bowie" with "Time" - track with the cabaret-driven piano lines.
Katzenjammer Kabarett who once referred to themselves as "deathrock cabaret", (which Two Ton Boa also belong), are other examples of this. Though recently Katzenjammer have began to refer to themselves as "post-punk cabaret" in recognition of their widely varying incorporations.
Recent times
The most recent act to surface and solidify this style are The Dresden Dolls. The group have garnered some significant mainstream success, drawing more attention to the genre. In, September 2005, Projekt Records released a compilation called A Dark Cabaret featuring songs such as "Coin-Operated Boy" by The Dresden Dolls, "Evil Night Together" by Jill Tracy and "Flowers" by the late Rozz Williams.Record labels
External links
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