Like all the best covers, the one below reminds me why I love both the original outfit, the Seeds, and their creative re-interpreters, Cabaret Voltaire.

The latter really brings out the nihilism inherent in Sky Saxon's lyrics. It's also unsettling to see the Sheffield grumps (Richard H. Kirk, Stephen Mallinder, and Chris Watson) performing outside of the urban environment with which I usually associate them.

In the All Music Guide, Andy Kellman sums up the appeal perfectly, "A cover of the Seeds' 'No Escape' evidences Cabaret Voltaire's paradox as a seemingly anti-rockist band who—at their heart (for the first several years, at least)—was a garage band. For all the manual binning and sandblasting of rock's elemental properties, the band could take an acid-damaged rock song like 'No Escape' and make it sound even more damaged while retaining its spirit, nerve, and structure."

In Rip It Up and Start Again: Postpunk 1978-1984, Simon Reynolds goes into even more detail: "The group initially saw themselves as less a musical entity than as a 'sound group,' says Kirk, doing a lo-fi, garage band version of musique concrète...there's an almost charming sixties garage punk feel, the fuzztone guitar and Farfisa organ vamps recalling ? and the Mysterians or the Seeds."

The Seeds' "No Escape" appears on their 1966 debut. The Cabaret Voltaire cover first appeared on 1979's Mix-Up. Since then, it's also materialized on Live at the YMCA (27-10-79), The Original Sound of Sheffield '78/'82, and Methodology '74/'78: The Attic Tapes...but "Nag Nag Nag" remains my favorite CV song.

H/t: Brian MacDonald