Back in the early '80s, when every band with a synthesizer was labeled New Wave, industrial-electronic forebears like Throbbing Gristle, Suicide, and Cabaret Voltaire were dumped into the same bin and disappeared into music hell. Mute Records has now resurrected Cabaret Voltaire's early works as part of its "Essential Collection" series. Listening to these c.d.'s, which were originally released from 1979 to 1981, is like opening the door of the past to fall headlong into the future.

The band used "found," or natural, noises much like Phillip Glass and Brian Eno, with snatches of conversations and aural oddities to create a soundscape that is multi-layered, dense, and lush. Drums sparkle, guitars talk, and sounds are melded into new shapes. Whether it's a disturbingly sprightly beat set against a raw low bass or the thrumming of one note extended and repeated, the listener is pulled along for the ride.

Lyrics sound more like psychotically mumbled dialectical harangues than something to sing along with. Their seminal hit "Do The Mussolini (Headkick)" contains the lyrics "White spats and bola lats / Black shirts and perverts / Father's hands / Kick the corpse" with a chorus of "Do the Mussolini Headkick." "Voice Of America/Damage is Done" excerpts an aged Southern official (uncredited) speaking before a concert: "We'll furnish you with earplugs so you won't get a headache -- no dancing, no running up and down the aisles ..." and then the growling synth takes over. Is this supposed to show us that rock was the revolution? Or is it an in-joke?

Cabaret Voltaire has aged well. These discs easily could be mistaken for the work of some new industrial band out of Chicago or a slithery version of New Order spiced up with some Nine Inch Nails for added darkness. There is no mistaking the vitality, innovation, and energy that helped spawn a genre.