Some music is better left on a MySpace page. Record labels could do the Earth a favor by not wasting its valuable petroleum supply on sub-par CDs like this. To be fair, Robot vs. Zombie is available as a download from iTunes and other digital distributors, but to put it on your computer might compromise valuable hard drive space.
Gonken’s attempt at fusing the genres of hip-hop, IDM, and indie rock make for a disc that is, at its best, only mildly enjoyable. Having chosen the worst aspects of the aforementioned styles doesn’t add to the entertainment factor. Perhaps this album is best understood as the soundtrack for a shopping spree at Hot Topic; perhaps it was if you caught Gonken’s performance their in the Burlington, Washington store last week.
The mere utilization of circuit bent instruments does not automatically improve the music played on them. It is rumored Madonna used them on her latest album after all. The song “Circuit Bent Teeth” takes a further step toward annoyance with vocals distorted as if they are processed by a megaphone, a ploy littered far too often throughout the disc.
His lyrics are, however, humorous (at least on the first listen). “Indie Rockstar 101” pokes fun at hipster cokeheads while it is easy to imagine depressed teenagers rocking out to “Crushed,” in which the singer laments a giant robot killing his girlfriend. One of the better songs is a rap about a robot assassin. The verses are clever, but it has the same failings as most contemporary hip-hop: the refrain is repeated ad nauseam, making the song needlessly repetitious and the creative parts of the flow end up being overwhelmed. “Taking It For What Its Worth” provides an instrumental reprieve from the lyrical songs. The depression motif comes back in full force on “Hate Is For People With Hearts,” with lyrics like “you told me you loved me/ but there was somebody else/in the back of your head/now your wishing that I was dead/I hate the way you make me feel.”
The album ends with a skit that amounts to little more than a chance for Gonken to talk about the size of his penis, something he calls “sledgehammer.” Like the title of his previous album Self Pleasurevation, this one is an exercise in onanistic indulgence, something he seems to know all about.
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