Shit Robot – From the Cradle to the Rave

Tim

15 years ago

I’ve been waxing lyrical about this debut from Shit Robot since I got my first listen, but now its out on general release I though it would be worthwhile putting my thoughts into prose a little better.

As a man about to turn 40, Marcus Lambkin has found his sound. It’s a sound that many will associate with many of his stablemates at DFA (the name actually comes from a rather shit drawing James Murphy did of a robot), but few outside LCD Soundsystem have managed to create something this definitive.

Tuff Enough opens the record with some flare and a funky, growling bassline, before dropping some house-styled hi-hats and beat into the ring, along with short staccato repetitive vocals and some collapsing tom fills to keep you on your toes. This growling bassline is echoed in I Found Love, but taking much longer to get there.

With Alex Taylor of Hot Chip on vocals, Losing My Patience is probably my favourite on the album, with clean beeps and synthlines bouncing along with 4/4 rhythm running just ahead of the beat giving the song its momentum beneath Alex’s warm and soulful tones. Take Em Up 2 then falls back to a deeper, funkier sound with Nancy Whang on vocal duty – keeping it in the DFA family once again. It’s a simple, laid-back discofunk jam

The album straddles much of the last decade in dance music, with parts disco, funk, electro, acid house but still manages to strive its own path. Each DFA artist on the record adds a little bit of their own magic dust, and Lambkin has turned all of that into the best dance record of 2010.

Shit Robot – I Found Love
Shit Robot – I Found Love (TBD Remix)