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Underground > Radio & Music >

Robot Mix CD suggestions?

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01:50 / 21.06.02

I'm making a robot mix cd. So far I have Styx, Mr. Roboto. And Black Sabbath's Iron Man. And perhaps one of the greatest songs ever recorded, Robot Parade by They Might Be Giants. So I need more Robot songs. And I really want robot vocals, (Sabbath was almost disqualified but were saved by the voice that kinda sounded Robotish in the beginning) not just songs with Robot in the title. So any suggestions?

And a kick in the ass for the 1st person to tell me I might as well add Britney Spears to the list because all my Robot songs are Robot pop shit.

07:29 / 21.06.02

what version of Robot Parade? the "metal/adult" version or the kids album version? the metal one RIPS! it's so good! so if you only have the Kids version FIND THE OTHER ONE! okay off the top of my head here's a few more

Devo - Mechanical Man
the Aquabats - Giant Robot-Birdhead
Bis - Like Robots
the Arrogant Worms - Killer Robots from Venus
Skavoovee & the Epitones - Japanese Robot
James Kolchaka Superstar - Monkey vs Robot
the Amazing Kill-0-Watts - Plug it in and Turn it On (has robot vocals and everything, found it on mp3.com i think)

and for redundancy
They Might Be Giants - Become a Robot
the Aquabats - Robot Theme Song
the Aquabats - Ska Robot Army
Bis - Robotic
Bis - Clockwork Punk

yeah there ya go... i think this is a RAD idea that i may have to steal... ROCK!

07:35 / 21.06.02

The Stranglers - Rise of the Robots

Off the Black and White album, contains frenetic sax madness.

"Oil break at dead of noon,
They're gonna want a union soon."

07:40 / 21.06.02

Two suggestions:

Kraftwerk - We Are The Robots
Members Of Mayday - Save The Robots

07:48 / 21.06.02

No competition:

Invasion of the Gabba Robots (All Your Base Are Belong To Us)

without the images it's rather striking...

09:52 / 21.06.02

Add N to X - metal fingers in my body
machine is bored with love
Ten Benson - Robot Tourist
The Rock of Travolta - Giant Robo

and how about..

Kraftwerk - Showroom Dummies .. (not explicitly robot-y, but if a bunch of robots were going to have a party, I bet they'd put it on)

14:09 / 21.06.02

Hanson Brothers: My Girlfriend's a Robot
* (note: this is not Hansen. This is the band that was in "Slap Shot," a sort of brutal Canadian version of the Ramones.)
I took her apart cuz she broke my heart,
I took her apart, yeah yeah.

I'm tempted to add Magnetic Fields' "Epitaph for my Heart", just for the opening verse: "Caution, caution, caution! To prevent electric shock...
Do not, do not, do not remoove cover!
No user serviceable parts inside...
Refer servicing to - qualified
Service... personnel!"
Let this be the epitaph for my heart...

Oh, and there's a Man or Astro-Man? song - one with actual words and everything - called "Evert 1 Pipkin" that would work just fine. Especially in combination with the prior track (which kind of runs into it), "Static Cling (Theme From)", which sounds like a robot factory. In fact, that song is much more "robot-like" but "Evert 1 Pipkin" is a beautiful... beautiful!... apostrophe to a PA system. A man in love with his electronics. "Stereo speaker... take this voice. Transform it into... background - noise...."
They're both on Made From Technetium (samples at the link.)

ONLY NICE THINGS

15:00 / 21.06.02

Delia Derbyshire - Zoom Zii (Wuu wuu).

15:00 / 21.06.02

I don't know what the original sounds like, but The Replicants did a cover of "Are Friends Electric?" that I really like. It does not, however, have robot vocals.

15:21 / 21.06.02

Flux put a song on a mix he sent me that would be perfect. I forget who it was but the song consisted of a computer voice rapping.

Flux, you remember? I'll try and track down the mix

17:04 / 21.06.02

I find it sad that I already have most of these songs. The already mentioned Monkey vs. Robot and My Girlfriend's a Robot are truly rock n' roll phenoms!

Add to the list Robot Love in which Doug Nagy, The Sinister Ukelele Minstrel sings a duet with a computer. Also, just about any of my Giant Japanese Robots of the 70s suggestions in the Song Pimpin' thread, especially the Getter Robo theme.

17:36 / 21.06.02

Sample and Hold, on Neil Young's Trans album. The whole record is very heavy on the vocoders.
This particular song has the repeated line: "I need a unit to sample and hold, but not the lonely one, a new design - new design." It's very 80s.

There's that Radiohead track with the robot voice - "stronger, fitter, happier," or whatever it's called.

http://www.greenspun.com/bboard/q-and-a-fetch-msg.tcl?msg_id=008usV
and
http://www.greenspun.com/bboard/q-and-a-fetch-msg.tcl?msg_id=008uPN

have ideas.

18:25 / 21.06.02

Two suggest themselves immediately:
Robot Song - Kenickie
Breakdance (Electric Boogie) - West Street Mob

20:03 / 21.06.02

Doubting Thomas saith: I don't know what the original sounds like, but The Replicants did a cover of "Are Friends Electric"...

The original's by Gary Numan, and sounds like it.

A

04:42 / 22.06.02

I used to do a radio show on a community station, and i once did a special on songs about robots, i wish i'd kept the playlist now. Other folks have already listed a lot of them, but let me see what i can remember...

Dillinger Four- It's a Fine Line Between the Monkey and the Robot,
Supernova- Electric Man,
Berserk- Giant Robots,
Screeching Weasel- I, Robot,
Sekiden- Love Song For Robot,

Absolutely anything by Servotron (which is a band made up of members of Supernova and Man or Astroman? {i think} who claim to be robots on a mission to rid the world of carbon-based life forms).

That's about all i can think of at the moment, but i know i had a lot of them at the time, i'll see what else i can think of and post again later.

08:00 / 22.06.02

I highly recommend "School for Robots" by Bruce Haak. Fantastic.

A

12:56 / 23.06.02

I've Been Hitting On A Russian Robot, by Boris the Sprinkler

Regrettable Juvenilia

16:40 / 23.06.02

Princess Superstar - 'Do It Like A Robot'

Red Cross Iodized Salt

22:43 / 23.06.02

Anthony Rother - 'Destroy Him My Robots'
Alexander Robotnik - 'Problems d'Amour'
Telex - 'Moskow Diskow' (for the robot voice)

04:14 / 24.06.02

I'm a disco dancer (and a sweet romancer) by Christopher Just,

yes, it doesn't have 'robot' in the title and none of the lyrics are about robots... but its sung by robots, in many modulations, and its got some nice remixes...

No star here laces

09:28 / 24.06.02

Prisoners of Technology - "Trick of technology"

And a million other drum and bass records from '97, but this is the best one.

09:09 / 25.06.02

There's this record called "The Best of 386DX" which consists of popular hits sung and performed by an obsolete computer. It does "Anarchy in the UK" and "Jumpin' Jack Flash" amongst others. Admittedly, it sounds like Stephen Hawkings accompanied by a cheap casio, but what a concept..

And there was also that article in the first issue of Careless Talk.. about a man who's made himself a band out of robots.. I'll dig up the details if anyone cares..

23:21 / 27.06.02

Red Robot Theme Song by Kompressor

No star here laces

09:56 / 28.06.02

Kompressor eat your candy, Kompressor does not dance.

I vaguely know some people who dress up as robots and perform crapulous electroclash music at 333. Can't remember what they call themselves though.

I suggest Eddie Flashin' Fowlkes - "420 Low" as the obligatory Detroit techno entrant...

theskunkymonkey

12:07 / 01.07.02

Yoshimi Battles the Pink Robots - Flaming Lips. BTW you can listen to the whole album at flaminglips.com. It is wonderful...

03:58 / 07.06.03

The hate my best friend mix made me remember this old thread. Maybe some of the new blood would like to contribute.

06:17 / 07.06.03

Whodini - Rap Machine

19:06 / 07.06.03

Steam Powered Oscillation by Christian Fennesz (from The Magic Sound of Fennoberg cd) is something similar to Radiohead's Fitter Happier.

Also, there's Bicycle Built for Two by Max Matthews.

03:03 / 09.06.03

While it doesn't actually mention them, Harder, Better, Faster, Stronger by Daft Punk is... yeah. Robotic. And should qualify for that guilty pleasures thread as well because I keep starting my playlists on it.

08:43 / 09.06.03

old electro tune called pac jam is a corker, loads of vocoder vocals

also space is the place by the johnson crew has for me the best vocoder voice in any electro tune, although there is a dub version which is around on some comilations so look for the vocal version

amsure thereis a hazel o conner post punk tune about robots from breaking glass but it could be an untrelaible childhood memory

a

15:35 / 10.06.03

Here, you gotta use this:

It's an mp3 site for a guy doing synthesizer covers of emo songs: Denton Is The Reason

I don't know the originals, but I love the covers.

19:43 / 10.06.03

Front Line Assembly's "Mindphaser" from Tactical Neural Implant is a must.

not specifically about robots, but Fortran 5's heavily-synthesized vocals on their cover of Eric Clapton's "Layla" are both robotic and highly comical.

also, theskunkymonkey suggested "Yoshimi Battles the Pink Robots" from the album of the same name, i would like to add "One More Robots/Sympathy 3000-21" from that same album. i think it's better for your purposes since it's more sensitive to the robot perspective... =)

i'll bet there's a good Ladytron song or two, though i can't think of any at the moment.

at the scarwash

01:26 / 11.06.03

Ummm, Servotron, anyone? Man-or-Astro side project where they were all robots singing pop songs about invading earth to destroy all humans. I think that if robots have a national anthem, it it probably "Planet Rock," by Afrika Bambaata and Soul Sonic Force. "Straight Outta CompUSA" by Commodore 64 is a great robo-rap tune, as is the (perhaps offensive) "Down with Entropy" by MC Steven Hawkings.

11:06 / 11.06.03

"Fortran 5's heavily-synthesized vocals on their cover of Eric Clapton's "Layla" are both robotic and highly comical."

Highly synthesised? That's Derek Jacobi! He's an Ack-Torr.

12:42 / 11.06.03

If you can get your hands on a song called School for Robots, by Bruce Haack, you won't regret it. It's synthesised space-music par excellence with a rather comical dance routine for robots. Plus The Glass Room by DMX Krew is thoroughly totally wicked and has vocoder-esque robot vocals. Except it's not ABOUT robots.

Sunny

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