Podcasts, Compact Discs, and Code
Money Makes Up For What You Lack
Mark Rushton’s Interpolation in the Arts is a weekly email on Substack where I talk about my ongoing work as a recording artist and visual artist.
This email is brought to you by the Mark Rushton Gallery, for printed and original artworks. License my music, sound fx, and illustrations at Pond 5 for your creative project. I’m on Bandcamp and all the usual streaming services.
This week’s topics:
Trent Reznor on Rick Rubin’s Podcast
Stop Updating The Compact Disc
Cabaret Voltaire - “Sex, Money, Freaks”
Trent Reznor on Rick Rubin’s Podcast
I don’t know why it showed up in my YT feed, but the Tetragrammaton with Rick Rubin podcast from 2023 featuring Trent Reznor has been a pleasure to listen to this week on my commute.
You’d think I’d be a big Nine Inch Nails fan, but I’m only casual.
I did play Pretty Hate Machine on the college radio station when it arrived back in the day. It reminded me of the 1987 album “Code” by Cabaret Voltaire and what Ministry was releasing then.
Listening to the interview, I can easily say that the Reznor of today could be my “musical philosophical brother”. The “philosophical” part. Totally respect the guy.
He and Rubin go way back, so that’s a treat to hear their dynamic.
I’m not a big podcast listener, and I wasn’t really interested in the other interviews Rubin has done.
But this one… if you’re in the creative arts, any of them, there might be something here for you in this conversation.
Stop Updating The Compact Disc
In my research of radio stations, I discovered a number of destinations that only accepted physical copies for promotional recordings.
At first, I ignored them, but a few seemed like they might be worthwhile.
I have some plastic clamshell cases. Not the awful, breakable “jewel” cases.
Instead of creating a tray card, I thought I would go with a sticker. I ordered 100 sheets, producing 200 stickers, for almost $25 including shipping. The experiment seems to look good.
Should I offer compact discs for sale? I’m not so sure about that. It’s a lot of work to prepare the files, create an iso file, burn the discs, and everything related to the artwork. I would want to hand-make them. For now, I think I’ll keep the CDs at the “promo” level.
Cabaret Voltaire - “Sex, Money, Freaks”
If you’ve heard any “early” Cabaret Voltaire from the 1970s or early 80s, which is very avant-garde and “not easy listening” electronic music, then you know that their 1987 album Code sounds downright commercial - at least in retrospect.
The album also features one of my favorite guitarists, Bill Nelson, on a few tracks.
I was a huge Cabaret Voltaire fan back in the 80s (songs like “Yashar”, “Sensoria”, the entire “Micro-Phonies” and “The Arm of the Lord” albums), and I thought Code was excellent. Very cohesive all the way through. If you like this song, you’ll like the entire album.
Code didn’t sell much at the time, but it had to have been to be a huge inspiration for what became the Nine Inch Nails sound. Just listen. You can tell. Nothing wrong with that.
After Code, Cabaret Voltaire completely switched their sound to “Chicago House”, started chasing trends, lost their audience, and made some terrible records. By the early 90s, the singing stopped, Stephen Mallinder moved to Australia, got into academia, and eventually the band split. Cabaret Voltaire was solely revived by Richard H. Kirk in the decade before his death in 2021, releasing some instrumental albums.
So it makes sense that somebody like Trent Reznor would come along, all inspired and hungry, and run with the idea a bit further in a more “industrial rock” direction.