I Am Robot and Proud, Uphill City Remixes and Collaborations

review by dave heaton

With six remixes and three collaborative tracks, Uphill City Remixes and Collaborations offers a new take on the fanciful electronic music of I Am Robot and Proud, through the minds of other similarly playful and inquisitive musicians. Our colorful cast of characters includes Oorutaichi, who sings in an invented language and calls his music “imaginary electronic folklore”; Lullatone, who create dramy lullaby music, often using their own inventions (check this out); Dot Tape Dot, who has used toy instruments and field recordings to make what the website Skatterbrain called “musical Nyquil”; and Shugo Tokemaru, orchestral pop/folk maestro/puzzlemaster (try to figure out his website). I Am Robot and Proud himself is Shaw-Han Liem of Toronto. Uphill City, the source material for the remixes, was his fourth album of entrancing electronic music.

The result of the remix project is the refreshing of music that was already fresh, lively and exciting. Oorutaichi gets the most bubbly and dance-club-focused, if the club were filled with cartoon characters with funny voices, on his remix of “Making a Case for Magic”. That song has a great title, emblematic of I Am Robot and Proud’s music. Here it sounds even more magical. Lullatone are definitely on their recognizable lullaby trip with “Train Station Lullaby”, but they blend their sound smoothly into the original. Their two styles meet somewhere in the air.

Shogu Tokumaru uses percussion to induce a trance, and then also shakes that up. His “401 Circuit” is both calm and explosive. Watchman’s version of “Storm of the Century” is the busiest and most epic number here, fitting the title. It’s like a manic version of Disney’s Main Street Electrical Parade, but it also speeds up and slows down often, seeming erratic and electric while getting into a natural-feeling state of serenity.

Dot Tape Dot get tropical-jazzy on “Island Life”, while Montag turn “Something to Write Home About” into a proper pop song, with vocals. Meanwhile, the three collaborations, all with Yuri Miyauchi, show real synchronicity between like-minded artistic souls, which, really, is what this CD is all about.

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