JUNOBOT: The Nature of Technology

Junobot

The Nature of Technology

© 2005 R9 records (791381830828)

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Analog synthpop melodies with hooks and solos.

tracks

1 honeycouch
2 without you
3 free enough
4 would you like to kiss me?
5 smile
6 plastic
7 baby
8 u r not me
9 you'll never get anywhere
10 17
11 love me
12 now you've gone away
13 laurel
14 Smile - (Radiant Sun remix) by the Duke from Freezepop
15 Love Me - (Odyssey II remix) by LeMansElectro
16 17 - (Forms in Flux) by Crackbaby and Junio Dragon

notes

Cameron Macdonald (Grooves Magazine, Sacramento News and Review): "instant hooks, rubber-banded synth melodies and mid-tempo beats set one bare foot in the early Reagan years and the other in the less naive '00s."
Eschewing the simplistic, 'cut-and-paste' aesthetic of current digital electronic music, Junobot uses his motley band of vintage synthesizers and drum machines to channel a solid update to the synthpop genre. The way Junobot idolizes 80's synthpop, you might expect a mash of Vicious Pink and Naked Eyes. Instead, he promises a style all his own with The Nature of Technology; electropop with meat on it's bones, electroclash without the irony, industrial with feelings. Taking the pulsing one-finger basslines of Erasure's Vince Clark and the minor-key despair of Depeche Mode's Martin Gore, Junobot moves deftly between dancy melodies that lodge in your head and darker song subjects. On "Plastic", he sings "...just give me something/something to live for/just give me something/but don't give me plastic..." The line rings out like a plea for substance in the often tasteless sea of modern electroclash- which is not to say he isn't a fan himself, indicated by the track "Love Me." Dressed up with an eighth-note octave bassline and moog-y melody to boot, the track is a plaintive robotic cry to a lover-to-be with analog chirps in the chorus. "U R Not Me" rocks the hardest here with a vocodered request for understanding trembling above the dark layers of synth pulses and driving early industrial-like bass drums. Other standout tracks are the remixes by Lemans Electro and the Duke from Freezepop (whose 'Radiant Sun' remix of Smile delivers airy vocals conjuring warm spring days with "...the cute one in the corner..")

reviews

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  • ...delivers rubbery funk...
    author: Larry Tee

    Junobot delivers rubbery funk that reminds me of why I like underground electronic music. Watch these guys!!!

  • ...thoroughly enlightened practitioner of high-quality 'robot music'
    author: Textura

    Many synth-pop releases end up disappointing for one reason or another: sometimes it's the sameness of the analog-heavy sound, other times it's a one-dimensional songwriting style. On the evidence of his Junobot outing The Nature of Technology, Sacramento-based Nathan Crow falls victim to no such missteps and instead shows himself to be a thoroughly enlightened practitioner of high-quality 'robot music' (having acquired a collection of vintage '80s analog synthesizers and drum machines, he named himself after the Juno keyboard). First of all, though the froggy croak of a vocoder repeatedly appears, he doesn't use it on every song but rather alternates treated vocals with a natural croon that's not only serviceable but downright appealing. Secondly, he realizes that glossy synth arrangements amount to very little in the absence of strong songwriting; needless to say, Crow's material teems with infectious, rubber-band synth melodies. Song styles range across sparkling electro-synth pop (the squelchy, acid-tinged “Honeycouch” and the sashaying “Without You”), churning industrial (“17”), new wave (“Free Enough”), and even disco (“Would You Like To Kiss Me?”). Though Crow takes his inspiration from groups like Orchestral Manoeuvres in the Dark, New Order, Depeche Mode, and Human League, Suction-styled 'robot music' in general (with its dark, aggressive ambiance and pulsating synth patterns, “U R Not Me” is Suction to its technoid core) and Solvent in particular are Junobot's closest analogues, with “Laurel” a song one easily could mistake for Solvent. At times the music flirts a little too brazenly with accessibility (“You'll Never Get Anywhere”) yet, even in those moments, it's hard to resist its pop allure. Many albums start to drag by the time the twelfth song (the hour-long The Nature of Technology includes sixteen songs) appears but the irresistible chug of “Now You've Gone Away” prevents that from happening here. The album's also the rare instance where the remixes are uniformly strong as opposed to middling add-ons: The Duke from Freezepop spotlights Crow's feathery vocals most prominently on the radiant, disco-fueled “Smile” remix, LeMansElectro gives “Love Me” a steaming industrial-disco overhaul, and Crackbaby and Junio Dragon boost “17” with heavy drum breaks. Admittedly, Crow's no Auden (consider this couplet from “Smile”: “And all I really ask is for a smile / From the cute one in the corner”) but typically the hooks are so strong and the arrangements so rich you'll hardly notice the lyrics' generally naïve caliber. Having said that, it is hard to imagine that lyrics like “Just give me something / Something to live for / Just give me something / But don't give me plastic” (“Plastic”) aren't meant ironically given the wholly synthetic context the song's vocodered vocal is couched within. Perhaps that's precisely the point Crow's attempting to make, that despite the pristine electronic sheen of his music, it's a human heart at his music's center that beats loudest.

  • italo disco automatonic beatbox
    author: J1

    Back to the basics electro: Vintage Arpeggiations, Vocoders, and Reflective lyrics. More in common with the Erasure, Kraftwerk, Data 80, and Postal Service lineage than the Avenue D., Peaches, Gravy Train vibe, Junobot makes an extremely focused choice and sticks with it. The CD is worth the price of admission just for Love Me, Smile, and U R Not Me.

  • ...goes for barely domesticated electricity of analog synthesizers, with a synch
    author: Cameron Macdonald

    Nathan Crow is an oddity in the Sacramento music scene. In a town that usually favors electric guitars and turntables as weapons of choice, he goes for the barely domesticated electricity of analog synthesizers, with a synchronized light show to boot. Hence, Crow horrifies a few venue owners. “People are afraid of me playing my keyboards through their PA systems,” he lamented at a table in Sacramento’s Fox & Goose. “They think I’ll blow them up.” Ironically, Crow’s music pulls you up a chair and buys you a drink without shouting into your ear. As Junobot, he conjures up the asymmetrically groomed ghosts of Depeche Mode, Human League and Erasure--reviving the “feel-good” personality of 1980s synth pop, while adding a 2000s edge. Witness his ritual at the Townhouse this Friday. Suzuki and Molly Ringwald sowed the seeds of Junobot. At age 6, Crow learned piano with the Suzuki “Learn by Ear” series, through which the General Motors of student instruments sent him several tapes that he imitated on the ivories. But along came his next muse: the Pretty in Pink soundtrack on his brother’s stereo. Crow became engrossed with Orchestral Manoeuvres in the Dark and New Order’s synth-pop contributions that sang to Ringwald. Those songs’ keyboard-chiseled precision of interlocked melodies, which followed pop music’s call for chord changes and rhythms that never feel redundant, all minted the now-25-year-old’s current aesthetic. “It’s really easy to just throw [sound] loops together,” he remarked about the current time, when many electronic musicians eschew keyboards in favor of computer sound files. “But that’s not a song to me.” Crow gathered a motley collection of vintage ’80s analog synthesizers and drum machines, naming himself after the Juno keyboard. “I just like the truth and rawness of analog synthesizers. ... Today’s [digital] keyboards sound bland and mass-produced,” the purist explained. Crow titled his upcoming debut album The Nature of Technology, inspired by how his analogs appear to have minds of their own. “They sometimes don’t work like how you want them to,” he marveled. Garnishing the music is his vocoder, a vocal toy that makes anyone sound like a bona-fide robot, as demonstrated by Afrika Bambaataa on “Planet Rock,” or Peter Frampton’s “Show Me the Way.” Crow’s vocals switch between a vocoder-ized gurgle and a bedroom-eyed croon, and they usually address “past and current relationships.” In his single, “Baby” (found on the compilation CD Hear You Soon: Part One), the vocoder disguises him as a teary-eyed android that begs for its ex-lover’s forgiveness, while bouncy melodies assure it that everything will be OK. Such balladry dwells in The Nature of Technology where instant hooks, rubber-banded synth melodies and mid-tempo beats set one bare foot in the early Reagan years and the other in the less-naive ’00s. Nothing is tainted by the pretension of “electroclash,” an early-’00s synth-pop/house hybrid that ironically emphasizes the decade of greed’s sleaze for hipsters who are too young to remember it. “None of that appeals to me,” Crow remarked. In the studio, Crow records everything on a computer, where he draws together bits from a catalog of more than 50 recordings into coherent songs. Onstage, he replays his songs live on two keyboards, a drum machine and a setup of lights and dry-iced fog that trigger on cue. “I’m a one-man band, so I try to make my show really interesting to watch,” Crow explained. “Some people just stand and stare at the lights.” His seven years of performances include a rave and a set with fellow keyboardist and local favorite Dusty Brown. Overall, the Junobot sound is sheer comfort music, much like Crow’s choice of cover art for the demo version of Nature he gave me. It appeared to be snipped from a waiting-room rag at a doctor’s office. The front image is a cozy, pastel drawing of a farmhouse, and the back features a list for “What to Do if You’re Concerned About Your Loved One’s Driving.”

  • “The Nature of Technology” obviously worships mellow electro pop and 80s synthpo
    author: bardot

    "“I am Junobot, a robot from the 1980s transported here through time,” proclaims “N. Crow”, the mystery man behind the robot. From the very un-robot city of Sacramento, Junobot’s full-length “The Nature of Technology” obviously worships mellow electro pop and 80s synth pop. Armed with a motley band of vintage synthesizers and drum machines, he switches from plaintive human delivery to emotionless vocoder goodness within the melodic digital compositions. Junobot’s self-described “electro pop with meat on it’s bones, electroclash without the irony, [and] industrial with feelings” switches from both dancy melodies to dark subjects. While there’s neither nothing really spectacular nor adventurous with the album, it’s still a nice little excursion back into the 80s when synth pop was robot king."

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