The Pink Robot – The Pink Robot 6.0

The Pink Robot is a pop group from Norway making extremely catchy, electronic music. If you have heard Ladytron or We Are Scientists you should have a pretty good idea of what you’re getting into. Most of the songs are pleasant, if not particularly substantial.

Pretty much the worst thing I can say about this is that it really isn’t anything new. Most of this kind of sound had much more popularity in the US in the middle 00s, so it perhaps if this came out a few years ago, it would be more interesting. As it is, it simply sounds like these guys sort of devoured that kind of sound and spat it back up.

Of course there are songs on here that feel good enough to avoid this “meh” feeling.  “Pink Robots” works as a cute little baby stomp. The energy dies down a little bit for “Line” which honestly sounds surprisingly sweet and less contrived than most of the other material on here. And “Washing Machine” succeeds with pure overwhelming manic hyperactivity.

So basically, there really shouldn’t be anything new you’d experience on here. There’s nothing good or bad to say about it, it simply exists for better or worse. It probably embodies my idea of “redundant” music by not being particularly offensive or original, but sometimes that’s OK.  

The Hundred in the Hands – This Desert 7.7

A good way of describing this would be a less embarrassing version of Ladytron. When you tell people you listen to this, you don’t need to hang your head in shame and stare at the ground.

Easily avoiding the tackiness that could have consumed the project, it has a good, dark electronic feel to it. My two personal favorites would be “Building in L.O.V.E” (yeah, I didn’t say their song titles were any good) and “Sleepwalkers” whose feel sounds like a later version of the Cocteau Twin’s music (from Heaven or Las Vegas era).

The rest of the songs might not be as good, but they aren’t dreadful. Successfully mixing the darker impulses and a certain degree of affection in “Tom Tom” makes this a pretty solid effort. Surprisingly, they were able to find space at Warp Records; a label that’s been sort of struggling to find a new voice after people stopped listening to “esoteric, difficult music” like Autechre, Prefuse 73, et al.

I’d like more from them, and it looks like they’re just getting started. Thankfully it was on the right foot.