I was kind of surprised when I Raaabot came out with a discog. Because they only had like seven songs. Sure, they were fucking amazing and the four-song 7″ is one of the best records in the frenzied emo style that was ever released but a discog? I guess they were more popular than I realised. This CD collects together 15 songs in total. Seven are from their 7″ and split 7″ with Cable Car Theory. three are unreleased (warning, they are unreleased for a reason and the reason is this: they are fucking awful) and five are live.
So, for anyone who doesn’t know, I, Robot was a band a few years ago, I think they were connected to that weird band Devola in some way (members or friends), and their style of music is that angry, destructive mid 90s emo style worked on and updated by such as Saetia and Yaphet Kotto have in different ways. The guitars spiral around in a wonderfully controlled manner, making muchos noise yet being so chaotically melodic at the same time, and with the pre-requisite quiet parts too of course. It is rough and ready, and the 4 songs from the s/t 7″ are fantastically raw and unpolished, just how I like this kind of music – the breakdown on “What If?” is to die for, and the Republic of Freedom Fighters style build up on “Frida Rider” cuts me off at the knees every time. Masterful. I find this style of screamo much more palatable than a lot of that genre lately, so it’s great to stick on a record like this and just totally get in the groove and rock be blown away by songs I know real well already.
The less said about the unreleased stuff the better, they are a disgrace and I am shocked that this is the same band! I am sure it is actually not I, Robot and just some other band pretending to be them. It is just bad, generic and straight forward screamy hardcore with some awful sung parts, kind of like bollocks bands like Thursday. Horrible. The live stuff is just basically 5 songs, 4 of which were never properly recorded. These are much better than the properly recorded unreleased stuff, sounding more in the Yaphet Kotto style than before, though the live recording doesn’t really do them complete justice. Oh, there is also a hidden bonus track that is like a weird grind / metal / the Hated crossover. Hmm!
If you don’t have the vinyl and you are into this style, then this is essential. If you do have the vinyl, then it depends on whether you just want all the stuff in one place plus some live material. The choice, as they say, is yours!