Domo Arigato, Mr. Robota

Domo Arigato, Mr. Robota

17 November, 2008 | 6.58PM

• Written by: elektrax
• Filed under: Music News :

For his most recent Little Nobody release, known simply as ‘Robota’, Andrez Bergen had to write lyrics for the first time in his 12-year career as a producer—somewhat surprising, given that Bergen is also a professional journalist and has his debut novel about to be published.

The reason for the change of heart was a fellow resident of Tokyo, and a close friend: Toshiyuki Yasuda.

Yasuda is one of Japan’s best-kept secrets, a producer in his own right who’s not only made music with Atom Heart, but none other than Si Begg is desperate to work alongside. He’s also a former member of Fantastic Plastic Machine.

DOMO ARIGATO, MR. ROBOTA

When Bergen finished production on the original mix of ‘Robota’ earlier this year, he said he ran it by Yasuda for feedback.

Innovative, quite unlike anything you think you may have heard before, that mix is machine-based disco-funk-tech for the next decade, slamming and melodic all at once, a dazzling dancefloor rocker that drifts into a hot-wired epiphany.

It’s left quite a few fellow critics so gob-smacked that they weren’t exactly sure how to define the sound, and some respected peers—like Steve Stoll and Jammin’ Unit—are talking about doing a remix.

When Yasuda himself heard that vocal-less version of ‘Robota’, he promptly asked Bergen for a set of lyrics in order that he could join in the fun with some gorgeous, robot-style vocoder vocals.

“Robo*Brazileira is my singing alias, a fictitious Brazilian robot,” Yasuda patiently explains to the unenlightened (in this case, this writer). “For me, the robot is one view-point with which to see ourselves, as humans. To see us cautiously, I think I must have external eyes.”

Of course.
“It was always one of my vague plans to do a remix of Toshiyuki’s Robo*Brazileira stuff,” lamented Si Begg himself, in a recent interview with Bergen (in journalist mode). “Such nice vocoder work.”

The Noodles/Mosquito man is not wrong—Yasuda, here, takes a very special track, and renders it superb.

Think shades of Jean Michel Jarre on ‘Zoolook’, Kraftwerk, the Cylons from the original series of Battlestar Galactica, Electric Light Orchestra, and Herbie Hancock, compressed and shaken up by two men as fond of Underground Resistance and Surgeon, as they are of Tadashi Shinkawa and Ary Barroso.

The outcome, an EP through the Hypnotic Room label (hroom019), has Bergen’s and Yasuda’s original work-out, plus two diverse, thoroughly engaging remixes by Funk Gadget and Dick Drone.

While ‘Robota’, and its accompanying videoclips, may be homages to old-skool robots, they also smack of irreverent humor. As with Si Begg and Luke Vibert, this is a key element of Andrez Bergen’s output—and of Toshiyuki Yasuda’s as well.

“I proposed to do the Robo*Brazileira vocals because of the name of the track, and in light of the obvious humor,” he reports.

In recent interviews, Bergen has also professed a love for the iconography of old robots in science fiction shows, like Lost In Space and Forbidden Planet, and the post-cyborg Cybermen in Doctor Who. He also still has the same tin robot he bought when he was five years old.

By contrast, Yasuda says he’s fond of retro toy musical instruments and gadgets, but bears no such nostalgia towards the physical man-machine.
“Robots offer a different view point, yet they are replaceable, and I don’t have an interest in robots themselves, or in their technology.”

Yasuda just unveiled the ‘Autumn Session’ album, in collaboration with Japanese chorus group outfit, Pecombo, on his own label, Megadolly—just in time for the autumn season in the northern hemisphere, and fashionably out-of-whack for those of us hailing from the deep south, like Australia, where it’s late spring.

“It’s a session album, but the band members consist not only of humans,” Yasuda muses. “The drummer is a TR-606, the bassist is a Sine Wave, and the vocalists Robo*Brazileira and Pecombo. But the guitar and accordion are played by humans.”

He also capped off 2008 with the release of ‘Around The World With Señor Coconut’ on Play It Again Sam—a stunning album that saw Yasuda collaborate with his long-time mentor and hero, Uwe Schmidt (Atom Heart).

“I performed at Sonarsound Tokyo in 2006, and ran into him backstage; a few months later he contacted me to say that he liked my albums, and then invited me to join his Latin unit for Señor Coconut’s new album—as a robot singer,” Yasuda enthuses with glee, an obvious emotion all-too-human.

© 2008 Angela Fox, Australia

Get ‘Robota EP’ on Hypnotic Room via Beatport.com

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