Build The Robots : Dr Steel

Remember remember the 4th of November; mischief, mayhem and 'bots! Yep, on this very day, back in 'my' day we'd be looking forward to Mischief Night... knock-a-door-run, garden creeping, hedge hopping and many other subversive shenanigans. Since the US inspired trick or treat thing gained a foothold on these shores, Mischief Night is now little more than a distant memory... but I'd welcome its return in a heartbeat. We didn't give our neighbours the option of 'trick' or 'treat' because Mischief Night was just 'trick' whether they liked it or not... we didn't want sweets in return for doing nothing. We could have bought sweets if we wanted them, but instead we spent our money on half a dozen eggs and lobbed them at doors! In my youth, such mischievous acts seemed daring, brave and reckless... but with hindsight, they were lame, stupid and pointless. If we do see a return of Mischief Night, I hope it will involve something a little more creative than knocking on a door and running away... something like... let me think... umm... err... building a robot army to take over the world... and it seems the dastardly Dr Steel is planning just that (although he may not have pencilled in November 4th as his invasion date).

Taken from his 2001 album titled Dr Steel 2: Eclectic Boogaloo, it's Build the Robots!

Cyber Messiah : Into Enternity

It's Easter Monday and in my tiny mind, is a good enough reason to push this durgeful thrash turd out. Think yourselves lucky that I couldn't find a video to the other vaguely Eastery tune I had in mind, Crimson Glory's Cyber Christ... so you'll just have to make do with Cyber Messiah by Into Eternity.




The only way is up!

Worship The Robots : DJ Swamp

Song number 99 comes with a flake & juice in the form of damn good advice... because one day we'll all either have to worship the robots or DIE! Horribly.

Aside from offering essential life prolonging advice, DJ Swamp is more active than an activated activator, having lent his scratching talents to a plethora of artists including Vanilla Ice, Katy Perry, Hanson and Kool Keith. Maybe he should have offered some spelling advice to the so-called 'cool' Keith whilst he was at it? DJ Swamp has also opened for Daft Punk, The Prodigy, Fatboy Slim and The Chemical Brothers, but not in a gay way. A quick glance at his Wikipedia page suggests that his output is best described as ubiquitous. He's been everywhere and now he's here on 101 Songs About Robots too, which I'm sure will make his mum very proud. With Worship The robots, it's DJ Swamp.




I wonder if they're the same white suited guys that appeared in The Body Electric video?

Dirty Robot : Arling & Cameron

Arling & Cameron (AKA A&C) are a Dutch electronic music duo with influences ranging from kitsch to lounge, and everything in between! This isn't their greatest release, but it is about a robot... and a dirty one at that. Here's a fan-made video for Dirty Robot which is better than a picture of the CD sleeve.



As a point of trivia, The Lemonheads did a rather pointless cover of Dirty Robot... pointless because it sounds almost identical to A&C's original, apart from the fact they've got Kate Moss guesting on vocals. I won't bother including that here, but if you're feeling masochistic it is on YouTube.

Robot Sings (as if...) : Buffalo Daughter

Although I've had this track for many years, I've never bothered finding anything out about the artist... until now. Buffalo Daughter are a Japanese trio who's music I'll attempt to describe as easy electronica with acoustic undertones. Others may describe it as synth-pop and save about twelve syllables... Why didn't I think of that? And talking about syllables, the full title of today's robot song is Robot Sings (as if he were Frank Sinatra with a half-boiled egg and the salt shaker on a breakfast table), which makes it the longest robot song title I've ever seen. Taken from their 2001 LP 'I', Robot Sings (...) isn't so much a song about robots, it's a song by robots! Cybernetic Japanese Robots!! 




There's a curious sound at around three minutes ten seconds in that suggests a good strong coffee goes right through both synthetic and organic lifeforms.

Robot : t.A.T.u.

Here's one by the Muscovite faux-lesbots t.A.T.u. From their 2001 début album and rolling their Rs better than anyone I've ever heard, it's Robot.   Let's all have a sing along!

Machine Man : Judas Priest

Are you ready to rock!? Are you ready to robot rock?!?  No it's not Daft Punk with their repetitive two word ode to robots, it's the devil worshipping, middle America bothering Judas Priest with Machine Man featuring Tim 'Ripper' Owens on vocals.



The Judas Priest track I really really wanted to post is Electric Eye from 1982 and featuring the far superior Rob Halford on vocals (who apparently left the band to start a chain of shops selling car parts and cheap bicycles). But the question of 'what exactly constitutes a robot' had to be asked and since Electric Eye is actually about a spy satellite, admittedly a self conscious one, I'm not sure whether it belongs on 101 Songs About Robots or not... so would a self aware satellite with an unblinking eye, armed with lasers and orbiting the earth be classed as a robot?

Robot: [rəʊbɒt]

1. A machine capable of carrying out a complex series of actions automatically, especially one programmable by a computer: "half of all American robots are making cars or trucks"
2. (Especially in science fiction) a machine resembling a human being and able to replicate certain human movements and functions automatically: "the robot closed the door behind us"
3. A person who behaves in a mechanical or unemotional manner: "public servants are not expected to be mindless robots"

Well there's three definitions from the OED... and after a quick look at the lyrics for Machine Man, I reckon Electric Eye is more on topic than today's post, even if it is about a satellite (most of which look like R2-D2 with additional solar wings anyway)... so I guess I'll have to include it at some point soon.

 

Cyborg 009 : Italian Anime Theme

I've no idea who's performing this theme song, nor am I entirely certain which particular version of Cyborg 009 it's from, apart from the fact it's from the Italian airing. According to wikipedia, Cyborg 009 first aired in 1966, but this theme sounds more recent than that. The 1979/1980 anime TV series was popular in Italy, so it could be the theme from that, or possibly from a 1980 movie version of the series. There was also another remake of the TV series in 2001, and another film in 2012, and with little information to go on, I'm not sure what the actual year of this theme song should be. I'm guessing 1979 or 1980, but it could well be from 2001*... if anyone can shed light on this, I'd be grateful.

Anyway, enough of my inane ramblings, here's the song...





*from the info on Wikipedia and from what i can gather from the title sequence in the video, it is from 2001... but I've still no idea who the artist is. Clearly I need all the help I can get, so please don't be shy :)