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Author: Subject: Red Review: 4/5
draconian
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[*] posted on 9-26-2003 at 02:18 PM
Red Review: 4/5


Red Magazine reviews the album, giving it 4 out of 5 ears:
RED MAGAZINE

By Jamie Gadette

Ima Robot
Ima Robot
Virgin Records

"It was only a matter of time before the ’80s made a comeback. It hasn’t been long, but somehow selected trends from the decade of greed are currently surfacing in the sounds of new post-punk music. Ima Robot is one of the forerunners in this reappropriated movement. The group features an MC-turned-rock singer, a guitarist weaned on a beat machine, former Beck bandmates on drums and bass and a multi-instrumentalist who plays keys. Each man, talented in his own right, left a relatively secure job to pursue a dream. Now everyone can revel in the result—11 tracks of experimental nostalgia.

“Here’s a story for the kids,” lead vocalist Alex Ebert announces on “Dynomite,” and the spastic journey begins. Frantic synthesizer, drums and guitar jump in, laying the framework for Ebert’s manic, stilted vocals. An ahh-Ahhhh-ahh-screaming chorus puts the finishing touch on a most compelling introduction.
As the album unfolds, Ebert becomes even more frantic. Waves of profuse electronic blips become increasingly complex. The sense of urgency should overwhelm but it only inspires a lot of jerky, blank-stare dancing.

Ima Robot is certainly carving new paths, but the journey has included much reappropriation and convolution of various significant influences. “Dirty Life” evokes early Television in its guitar tone and methodically paced keys, while “What We Are Made From” wavers on a Bowie-esque space oddity—the stars look very different today.

Other tracks hint at PiL (Johnny Rotten’s post-Pistols experiment) and even Devo, which lends its spirit of ambiguous sexuality to the album. When Ebert shouts, “just give me some girls,” it feels like he only wants them to join the fun. There is no sense of masochistic intent—David Lee Roth this band is not.

Even the surprise hidden song about “ex-girlfriends” and “black Jettas” isn’t focused on the subject, just the beats laced so tight that kids will start to dance-fight. Ima Robot, the leader of a new mechanized nation, will decide the outcome."
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