(06.26.06) Songs for Robots, it is called. Seldom if ever has a name been so accurately given
to an album,
whether one understands “robot” as this mechanical species concurrent to humans for
world
domination or as a metaphor of our dull and stupid everyday lives. Indeed, this
album from Random
Insults (Kai Griebenow and Yancy Ferrer), a high-quality cd-r issued in 2005 on the
very lively
and active independent label Roil-Noise, Kansas City, will take you on a 37-minute long
automated trip
in a world where everything is servo valve, motor oil and welding assembly line.
Haven’t thought of
robotics as a political paradigm yet? Don’t worry. Random Insults is here for you.
And though all
instrumental, these 11 tracks develop in a quite clear way the vision Kai has of our
contemporary
societies.
In a world of robots, everything is repetition. The heavy bass – and I mean, heavy –
on track 1,
“Assembly – Birth of a Squirrel Class Robot” pops up back again on track 6 “Screw
Insertion in
Socket – Reproduction Factory” and – though a bit differently – on track 7 “Work –
Nuclear
Disaster Cleanup Unit,” and then you realize everything is modular, WE are modular,
similar and
interchangeable in a world governed by and submitted to capitalist production
requirements. And
modularity is a keyword here: change through repetition, nothing is the same but
every sound is
stabbed deep into your mind like with a mechanical hammer, and if the overall can be
said glitchy,
it is surely not in a friendly and light way – one does only need to read the titles
to be aware
of that. This universe has its own schizophrenic raison d’être and it becomes quite
scary when you
realize that it might well be the world we are living in.
Made mainly using a laptop and Fruity Loops with lots of effects (tongue-in-cheek,
Kai says, “we
use compressors, and more compressors”), these tracks are likely to please those of
you who are at
the same time into IDM and industrial music. Here the tempo is heavy, the rhythmic
loops are made
of raw distorted stabs mixed with glitchy samples, processed sounds come from
everywhere, hammered
to the rhythm by brute force, and the global feeling is that of an assembly line
slowly but surely
getting mad in a way that wouldn’t have displeased the Fritz Lang who did
Metropolis. Noises,
yes. But rythmic. and, then, some minimalist melodies (track 10, “Robots Funeral –
Disassembly”),
or bass sequences, like in track 8, “Broken servodreams – Oilpan Blues.” To resume
this in a few
words: electronic industrial music, true to its core definition. A must-listen.
Songs for Robots is out now on Roil Noise Offensive.
