Seems like the summer heat has rendered the 'bots at RobotSound HQ lethargic as of late. It's evident that they'd rather sit around watching bad Reality TV programming and getting their snack on than producing anything in terms of meaningful content for y'all. Nevertheless I've managed to coax them into uploading my set recorded live at the recent Hot Box Summer Solstice event. A potent synthesis of love and war, this mix attempts to address the uncertainty of the times in which we live by incorporating both the chaos of today with (hopefully) the promise of a brighter tomorrow.

HotBox 6.21.08

Shit Robot - Lonely Planet
Water Lilly - The Sleepwalker
Franz & Shape - Forgotten Days (Memory Boy Remix)
8-Bit - The Robots
Hell - Suicide Commando
Kano - It's A War
GTO - Love Is Everywhere (Live & Love Mix)
Steril - Electrostatic
The Clone Machine - Clone Machine (Empire Mix)
Der Zyklus - Roche Limit (v3)
Millimetric - Where
David Carretta - Shocktreatment
Nitzer Ebb - Murderous (Phil Kieran Mix)
6blocc - Digits
Anthony Rother - Mathematik
MOTOR - 1X1 (Phil Kieran Remix)
Kiko - Slave Of My Mind
Romina Cohn - The Night
Ectomorph - Lost Angles (Manyangles Version)

Largely a phenomenon of the 80's & early 90's, the megamix seems to be making a comeback recently. Between CBS's Megamix Contest to postings of classic megamixes on YouTube, I've noticed a resurgence of the artform. Back in the pre-digital age, the megamixes that were committed to vinyl (as opposed to homemade ones put out on cassettes and sold out of homeboys' trunks at area swap meets), were usually released through limited, unlicensed pressings or for subscription-based, DJ-only labels. Some of the larger alternative dance bands (Depeche Mode, New Order, Pet Shop Boys, etc.) had several commissioned for club use or for diehard collectors. Nowadays, music doesn't have to be manually cut and pasted from tapes to make megamixes - one can simply use some programs to sample and piece things together, and voila, instant megamix (okay, it's still a time-consuming, but not nearly as cumbersome process).

This prompted me to dig out a few mixes from the archives and rip them for your listening pleasure. Also posted are this year's CBS contest winner as well as the entry from RobotSound cohort, Pollo Loco.

Flim Flam Acid Mix

Dave Clarke Old Skool Cut Up Mix

Cocktail 83 [Il Discotto]

Digital Emotion - Super Mega Mix

Dircsen - Small Time Shot Away (CBS MMC Winner 2008)

Pollo Loco - Prepare to Qualify (CBS MMC 2008)

Today's RobotMix™ comes to us courtesy of Mark Archer, of Nexus 21/Altern 8 fame. Mark kicks it wayyy Old Skool here with Thee urban jams of the early-to-mid 80s. Let me be the first to witness that the robots who krafted these songs had some serious soul indeed.

Listening to this mix, I was transported back to my childhood, when I'd tune in to local radio station KDAY when it was still 1580 on the AM dial. I'd eagerly await each day's top hit countdown which for a time nearly always included one of the countless "diversions" of Art of Noise's Beat Box, Egyptian Lover - Egypt Egypt, Newcleus - Jam On It, Cameo - She's Strange, and invariably, something from the LA Dream Team. KDAY was responsible for bringing the sounds chilly most of West Coast Hip Hop (Electro-hop in particular) from the other side of town to the ears of suburban, fat lace wearin', robot mimes like myself.

So, depending on your flava, break out the linoleum/carboard, don those Adidas tracksuits and Kangol hats, or dig out the rollerskates for the smoov sounds of:
Soul Electro

(Tracklisting after the jump)

Seeing that we're already in that time period, it's time to honor a small, yet noteworthy subset of early techno, namely Bleep. Centered around the Yorkshire towns of Leeds, Sheffield and Bradford in the UK, it briefly made it's name during '89 - '91, before the ravey piano anthems and hardcore breakbeats took the spotlight. We all know that Robots Love Bleeps (or anything Bleep-related for that matter), so it should surprise no one that this particular electronic dance music sub-genre deserves a post of its own.

Here's not one, but two mixes of Yorkshire Bleeps and Bass courtesy of Sheffield Bleep, an internet radio station broadcasting the very best electronic, dance & experimental music, non-stop, 24/7 - tune into their SHOUTcast stream here. Mix 1 mainly focuses on Bleep put out by Network Records while mix 2 consists of early WARP releases. Tracklistings and places to buy after the jump. Now you'll never accuse me of causing you bleep deprivation.

Network Bleep

Sheffield Bleep

It has been a while since I've offered a proper mix on RobotSound. Notwithstanding the fact that I've been listening to some decidedly retro-minded, un-robotic sounds as of late, it's time to return to our primary directive: Enabling robots like us to maintain their superiority edge on the sonic curve.

Our next audio hybridization installment comes to us from Spain, from the proprietor of Planeta Modular and it's a dark one indeed. Visions of dystopian futuristic soundscapes for the offworld colonies of tomorrow. Be seduced by the power of the darkside...

Darkman - Pleasures Received In Pain

1. Le Seduction Des Innocents - La Glorie D´Un Homme
2. Numb - Guilt
3. Le Syndicate Electronique - Dissidence
4. Benjamin Pecek - Power
5. Le Syndicate Electronique - Sacrifice
6. Fastgraph - Systematic
7. Anthony Rother - Don´t Stop The Beat
8. Fastgraph - Vsat
9. The Other People Place - Eye Contact
10. Ectomorph - The Haunting
11. Arpanet - Quantum State Recombination
12. Syncom Data - E.C.M.
13. Tollstoi - The Red Fader
13. Planet Detroit - Invasion From Planet Detroit
13. Partisan Midi - Tilt
14. The Operator - Local Host
15. The Dexorcist - Connect One
17. DBit - Medusa
18. Spinks vs. Kalbata - Contact Jerusalem
19. Kill Memory Crash - The O
20. E8 - Cruise Contol
21. Urban Electro - Subhuman Patrol
22. Drexciya - Depressurization
23. Brothomstates - Adozenaday

Enjoy the latest RobotSound mix. Equal parts future disco/Italotronique, EBM, and percussion-driven electro with a Whitney/Kraftwerk mash-up and Iggy Pop cover thrown in for good measure.

HOTBOX 12.1.07

Tracklist:
Creme de Menthe - Do You Want My Love?
Francisco - Esplanade 97
Op:l Bastards - Sagittarius [Disco Flavour Remix by Patrick Pulsinger]
Microthol - Moroder Machine
The Immortals - Ultimate Warlord
Sync 24 - I Don't Know
Girls on Top - I Wanna Dance With Numbers
Nitzer Ebb - Control (I'm Here) [Dubfire's Jamrock Remix]
Dirty Princess - Jugaral Reves
Human Body - Galactica [The Hacker Remix]
Manic Mind - Mentally Sick
Anthony Rother - Moderntronic 1
Bass-A-Rani - Boogie Chasers [Dexter Edit]
Huntemann - Disco Tech [Die Raketen Remix]
Crash Course in Science - Cardboard Lamb [David Carretta Remix]
Princess Superstar - Do It Like A Robot [Hell Rocks the Equalizer Remix]
Mix Machine - Phreax
Archigram - Doggystyle
Polygamy Boys - Polygamy Boys Theme
Mr. Pauli - Satisfaction

Robotsound™ proudly presents:
dr™ @ Hotbox. 8.04.07

nu beat music for the sexy

fast eddie - acid thunder / 1988 DJ International
miss nicky trax - acid in the house / 1988 Kaos Dance
tricky disco - tricky disco [lützenkirchen remix] / 2007 iO
trance trax - get on / 1991 Beat Box International
major problem - acid queen / 1988 Kaos Dance
human body - acid bizzard / 2005 Goodlife
prince - erotic city / 1984 Warner Brothers
photocall - silver clouds / 2004 Computer Life
plus device - body heat / 2006 Hefty
kiko - running in the city / 2001 Goodlife
egyptian lover - make it hot / 2006 Egyptian Empire
anthony rother - moderntronic3 / 2007 Datapunk
huggotron - gasoline / 2006 Confused
franz & shape - tightropes [kissy sell out's bethnal green dub] / 2007 Relish Recordings
jun-x - balltraxx / 2005 Brique Rouge
millimetric - where / 2006 Goodlife
steril - grey / 2001 International DJ Gigolos