The Star Shrink Shooters
KINGS HAVE LONG ARMS
Clinic
Sex Schon
Plus Device
Boys Noize
Revlon9
Scan X
Jennifer Cardini
The Parallelograms
Pornorobo
Maral Salmassi

Though we are already fully integrated and essential to day-to-day life, robots do not yet enjoy the same rights as humans. That will change one day soon, according to a new UK government-commissioned report mentioned in this article. I for one welcome this news and look forward to the day when "states will be obligated to provide full social benefits to [us] including income support, housing and possibly robo-healthcare to fix the machines over time."

Will machines become conscious?

A little over a year ago, I launched this site with the lyrics to Kraftwerk's The Robots. Without Kraftwerk, us robots might never have been unleashed on an unsuspecting world. They made it cool to Do the Robot, Do It Like A Robot, or simply enjoy Asian Pop Culture. So, it's entirely fitting that I find in my inbox today news of an upcoming Kraftwerk tribute album. Now I know that there are plenty of tribute albums out there that aren't worth the plastic from the CDs they're encoded on [*cough* Hypnotic]. Add that to the fact that tributes to this particular band have been released on plenty of occasions, with interpretations spanning from Classical [Balanescu Quartet] to Simulated Cha-Cha-Cha [Señor Coconut Y Su Conjunto] and everything in between. But this model looks promising in that it keeps with the pioneering ethos of the group that made Music Non-Stop [i.e. Techno Pop].

Put out by the [micro]superstars of the chiptuniverse, 8-Bit Operators, these lo-bit microchipmeisters and their homemade circuit-bent contraptions actually seem worthy enough to cover the classics of Der Düsseldorf Man-Machines. With CD and vinyl dropping in February on Astralwerks, you'll be sure to Smack Your Blip Up!

Schneider TM - The Light 3000

Now that I've presented material from one of, if not THE premiere electronic band of the last 25+ years, I think it's a good time to showcase some of the new(ish) talent on the scene. In all likelihood, some of you will already be familiar with a number of these artists; but if you're familiar with all of them, I'll know that there is someone out there who is more of an electrofreak than I am. In any event, take some time out of your hectic schedule and investigate these fine machine musicians:

Digitaria [Is that sort of like a Digital Cafeteria?]
Dcast Dynamics [new project from Shad T. Scott aka Gosub]
Mediengruppe Telekommander [For those who like their Electro punk-ified, German und Fukengruven]
Microthol [No, it's not a miniature menthol cigarette]
The Consumer [Aren't we all?]
Bitstream [Like Robotsound™, keeping the bits streaming your way]
Franck Kartell [This list's first French person]
Para One [This list's second French person]
The PEneLOpe[s] [A Finnish French band]
Electrosexual [Best.Name.Ever]
Millimetric [French dude + EBM = Hellyes]
Goudron [THIS is machine music. Proper.]
Jun-X [Fuck, another French person?! Okay, next list won't be so Francophilic, I promise]
Limbertimbre [Mad rockin' glitched-up industrial electrofunk]
DJ Zimbardo [Shout out to Qwiki for the heads up on what he calls glitchyacidelectrotechhouse]
New Young Pony Club [Not quite Robot music, but worth the mention nonetheless]
Chromatics [Technically, another "proper" band, but these guys fit well into the Robotsound™ aesthetic]
Mirage [Nu-Italo from Jersey City, NJ [?!] - Cool blog here]
Le Mans [Gotta represent at least one local LA act]
Black Replica [from the universe of H. Mueller. Anyone care for some Electro-goth?]

Here for your listening pleasure is a recently unearthed recording of a concert given by the Boys of Basildon from 6.27.81. I usually don't post full albums, but seeing as this is probably not an officially licensed recording, I can rationalize offering it in its entirety. Containing tracks never recorded by the band in the studio, along with favorites from your childhood, enjoy the crackly, raw analogue goodness from this seminal robot band.

One of my favorite machine musicians today is Skanfrom [Stephan Metzger aka Roger Semsroth]. His work over the past 10+ years in Bakterielle Infektion [along with Uwe Marx] as well as under his Television Set and sleeparchive aliases spans from Industrial Synth-pop to Cold Wave and Minimal Electro. The music seems tailor-made for robots looking to explore their darker emotions [yes, we too can experience fear, melancholy, anger and isolation like our human counterparts]. But it can also be hopeful and comforting, giving us a reason to persevere in a ruthless, competitive world where individualism is frowned upon and personal liberty is constantly being threatened.

Skanfrom's work, like that of his robot contemporaries who champion Retro-Futurism, is heavily influenced by the Futurists and New Romantics of the late 70's and early 80s. In continuing Robotsound's tradition of bringing you inspired takes on the classics, I present the next installment of I <3 the 80's, all performed by the same talented android.

Bakterielle Infektion's cover of Joy Division's "A Means To An End"
Television Set performs an early track of Depeche Mode by the same name.
Skanfrom gives us an instrumental version of Duran Duran's "Planet Earth"