Archive for the ‘Robot’ tag
Dans La Rue: Bay Area Maker Faire 2010
The Maker Faire is like an engineer’s craft show on acid. There’s dudes riding around in go-carts that look like cupcakes, sixty-year-olds playing Jules Verne in the Steam Punk pavilion and lots of fire. This first video features Mark Galt’s intoxicating “Quadruped” kinetic sculpture at the Bay Area Maker Faire in May 2010.
SCHEMATIC: More videos and photos from Maker Faire 2010…
Robot Rock du Jour: Neil Young – Trans LP (1982)
In 1982, Neil Young was abducted by robot aliens who grafted an organic neural-net processor onto his existing human brain and sent him back to Earth to make vocoder-infused, heavily distorted guitar rock. Five of the nine tracks on Trans were recorded by this Neil Young Beta Unit, who also remixed Mr. Soul as the b-side on the Sample and Hold 12″ single.
SCHEMATIC: Other Neil Young Beta Unit videos and cover art…
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Robot Rock du Jour: The Droids – (Do You Feel) The Force (1977)
Silver droids + wall of speakers + dancing space chick = hot video. Leave it to a Frenchman (Barclay manager Fabrice Cuitad) to put out a super-cool concept 7″, 12″ and LP based on the iconic film Star Wars. This video covers Part I. Part II has a funkier vibe.
SCHEMATIC: HQ vinyl rips of Part I and Part II, sources, cover art…
Party Time: Saturday Robot Party @ The Idle Hour (Baltimore, MD)
VIGR is in the house. 4+ hour rare vinyl set. Need I say more? Hope to see you there! I’ll try to keep track of the setlist…
Keyser Söze Alert: Iko – Iko ’83 LP (1982)
Virtually Nothing is known about this Montréal (?) group, but I’ve deduced what is going on here:
Iko was an android trio from the future that traveled back in time to 1982 in order to learn what it meant to be human in the decades just preceding the merger of man and machine. Archetypal and powerful nerd music.
Only 500 copies of this LP sold. So if you account for DJ/radio promos, maybe 1,000 were even pressed, making this gem truly obscure. The $100+ price tag for this album is one of the deals of the century.
’83 is presented here in its entirety, ripped from my mint copy at 24bit/96kHz and converted to MP3 at 196 kbps for optimal sound quality. I also found and posted two unreleased tracks (9 & 10) for posterity.
SCHEMATIC: MP3s, album review and cover artwork…
Robot Rock du Jour: Vocoder – Amor de Robot (1985)
Manchego munching synth-pop group Vocoder emerged from the silicon matrix in the mid-80s to release some quintessential nerd tracks, then disappeared forever back into the ether.
SCHEMATIC: Additional release info, high quality cover art and record scans…
Keyser Söze Alert: R.E.M. – Computer Communication (1983)
No, Michael Stipe and did not dabble in Italo. Actaually, Computer Communication was the second of four releases to appear on the short-lived Xanadu label from Italy in 1983. This is a readily available and largely underrated Italo classic 12″ that you can still buy in excellent condition for around $20. They’re pretty tough to find for sale in the US, so you’ll probably have to pay international air postage from Italy if you’re dying for the track.
SCHEMATIC: Automan 11 bootleg reissue…
Robot Rock du Jour: Logic System – Unit (1981)
From the Hideki Matsutake’s album Logic released in 1981. How can you argue with a hot (french) girl singing over smooth robotic beats? Get the Japanese pressing: It is sonically superior and not expensive (yet).
Oh? What’s that? You liked that, did you? Well, there are over 130 more videos on my painstakingly assembled youtube playlist. If you want to journey even deeper, I’ve compiled two related playlists that delve into the history of and equipment used in the production of early electronica.