Music for Robots | ||||
---|---|---|---|---|
EP by | ||||
Released | 7 April 2014 | |||
Genre | Experimental, jazz, electronic, IDM | |||
Length | 23:23 | |||
Label | Warp Records | |||
Squarepusher chronology | ||||
|
Music for Robots is a collaborative project composed by Squarepusher and performed by the three robots that comprise the Z-Machines, released on 7 April (8 April in North America) 2014. [1]
Having been approached by the team of Japanese roboticists behind the three Z-Machine robots to compose music for the project in 2013, Squarepusher composed the piece "Sad Robot Goes Funny" which was used in a film of the robots performing directed by Daito Manabe - available to watch on YouTube.
Following the success of the initial piece of music, Squarepusher went on to compose and record the additional four pieces that make up the Music for Robots EP.
No. | Title | Length |
---|---|---|
1. | "Remote Amber" | 2:24 |
2. | "Sad Robot Goes Funny" | 5:14 |
3. | "World Three" | 4:39 |
4. | "Dissolver" | 7:16 |
5. | "You Endless" | 3:50 |
Chart (2014) | Peak position |
---|---|
Belgian Albums (Ultratop Flanders) [2] | 171 |
Chris Cunningham is a British video artist and music video director who directed music videos for electronic musicians such as Autechre, Squarepusher, and Aphex Twin and Björk. Early in his career he worked as a comic book artist. He has created art installations and directed short movies. In the mid 2000s, Cunningham began doing music production work, and has also designed album artwork for a variety of musicians. Cunningham worked on a never completed movie adaptation of William Gibson's cyberpunk novel Neuromancer.
A robot is a machine—especially one programmable by a computer—capable of carrying out a complex series of actions automatically. A robot can be guided by an external control device, or the control may be embedded within. Robots may be constructed to evoke human form, but most robots are task-performing machines, designed with an emphasis on stark functionality, rather than expressive aesthetics.
Stephen Michael Reich is an American composer best known as a pioneer of minimal music in the mid to late 1960s. Reich's work is marked by its use of repetitive figures, slow harmonic rhythm, and canons. Reich describes this concept in his essay, "Music as a Gradual Process", by stating, "I am interested in perceptible processes. I want to be able to hear the process happening throughout the sounding music." For example, his early works experiment with phase shifting, in which one or more repeated phrases plays slower or faster than the others, causing it to go "out of phase." This creates new musical patterns in a perceptible flow.
Michael Kenji Shinoda is an American musician, rapper, singer, songwriter, record producer, and graphic designer. He co-founded the rock band Linkin Park in 1996 and is the band's co-lead vocalist, as well as rhythm guitarist, keyboardist, primary songwriter and producer. Shinoda later created a hip-hop-driven side project, Fort Minor, in 2004. He has also served as a producer for tracks and albums by artists such as Lupe Fiasco, Styles of Beyond, and the X-Ecutioners.
Thomas Russell Jenkinson, known professionally as Squarepusher, is an English electronic musician, record producer, bassist, multi-instrumentalist and DJ. His music spans several genres including drum and bass, IDM, acid techno, jazz fusion, and electroacoustic music. His recordings are often typified by a combination of complex drum programming, live instrumental playing, and digital signal processing. Since 1995, he has recorded for Warp Records as well as smaller labels, including Rephlex Records. He is the older brother of Ceephax Acid Crew.
Daft Punk is a French electronic music duo formed in 1993 in Paris by Thomas Bangalter and Guy-Manuel de Homem-Christo. They achieved early popularity in the late 1990s as part of the French house movement, combining elements of house music with funk, disco, techno, rock and synth-pop. They are regarded as one of the most influential acts in dance music.
Hard Normal Daddy is the second studio album by English electronic musician Tom Jenkinson under the alias Squarepusher, released on 28 April 1997. The album was Jenkinson's first studio album as Squarepusher for Warp. A single for the track "Vic Acid" was released in 1997 prior to the album's release.
Mishima: A Life in Four Chapters is the soundtrack to the 1985 film Mishima: A Life in Four Chapters. It features music written by Philip Glass and performed by, among others, Kronos Quartet. Sections from the soundtrack have been featured in other films and TV shows, including the piece 'Mishima / Opening', which was used to score the end credits of Peter Weir's 1998 film The Truman Show in addition to an appearance on an episode of Mr. Robot.
JAM Project are a Japanese anison band founded on July 19, 2000, by anison singer Ichirou Mizuki. The band is composed of many vocal artists well known in the anime music industry. Aside from the many anime, tokusatsu, and video game theme songs the band has performed together, each member is famous for their own solo performances of Japanese theme songs. JAM Project is known to worldwide audiences for their theme music contributions to Garo and One-Punch Man.
Demon Strings are a British stringed instrument group. They are best known for being the in-house string section for musician Damon Albarn, having recorded and performed live for several of his projects including The Good, the Bad & the Queen, Gorillaz, Blur and Monkey: Journey to the West.
Yoichiro Kawaguchi is a Japanese computer graphics artist and professor emeritus at the University of Tokyo. Kawaguchi rose to international prominence in 1982 when he presented "Growth Model" in the international conference SIGGRAPH.
Isabella Janet Florentina Summers is an English Emmy-nominated film Composer, songwriter/producer and musician. She is best known as the architect of the sound of the 6x Grammy nominated indie rock band Florence and the Machine and spent 14 years writing, producing, touring, and composing her cinematic sound before making the jump from pop music to composing for film and television.
Solo Electric Bass 1 is a live album by Squarepusher. The album consists of twelve tracks recorded from Squarepusher's September 2007 live performance at Cité de la Musique in Paris, France, as part of the Jazz à la Villette 2007 festival. In contrast to Squarepusher's multi-instrumental performances, the tracks on Solo Electric Bass 1 were performed using only a 6-string electric extended-range bass guitar and amplifier. The release is limited to 850 copies worldwide.
Warp Works & Twentieth Century Masters is a 2-CD set consisting of live performances by the London Sinfonietta, released by Warp Records in 2006. It contains a mix of contemporary classical and minimalist music by John Cage, György Ligeti, Conlon Nancarrow, Steve Reich, Karlheinz Stockhausen, and Edgard Varèse, as well as instrumental versions of songs by Warp Records members Aphex Twin and Squarepusher. They were recorded live between 2003 and 2005.
"Shōjo Robot" is a song by Rie Tomosaka, written by rock musician Ringo Shiina. It was released as her final single before her hiatus, on June 21, 2000. The song was used as an ending theme song for the Nippon Television variety show Fun.
Kit Downes is a British BBC Jazz Award winning, Mercury Music Award nominated, solo recording artist for ECM Records.
Emanuel Gat is an Israeli choreographer of contemporary dance.
"Family Party" is the ninth physical single by Japanese singer Kyary Pamyu Pamyu. It was released on April 16, 2014, in both regular and limited editions. The A-side is used as the official ending song for the film Eiga Crayon Shin-chan: Gachinko! Gyakushu no Robo To-chan. The music video was released on April 8, 2014.
Shinkansen Henkei Robo Shinkalion is a Japanese toy franchise created by Takara Tomy, in association with the Japan Railways Group. It is a spin-off of the long-running Plarail model train franchise, with the toys first launched back at March 16, 2015. An anime adaptation by OLM aired in all JNN stations in Japan from January 2018 to June 2019. A second anime titled Shinkansen Henkei Robo Shinkalion Z aired from April 2021 to March 2022 on TV Tokyo. A third anime by Signal.MD and Production I.G titled Shinkalion: Change the World premiered in April 2024.
Jo Thomas is a composer, sound artist, producer, and performer of electronic music based in London. She works primarily with electronic sound, with a focus on fine detail and abstraction combining technological, biological and emotive thematic elements. Her work utilises a wide range of sound sources including field recordings, voice, glitch, and synthesised sounds from various sources, including her own self-built instruments.