Robots and Electronic Brains Issue #11 featuring 10P 1 Play companion CD For more information, visit http://www.come.to/robots

For the uninitiated, Robots... is the brainchild of Englishman (and Splendid contributor) Jimmy Possession, whose excitement for the sounds that surround him doesn't hinder his ability to write intelligently about them. And like the brave people here at Splendid, Thomas doesn't discriminate and includes cassettes, CDRs and vinyl in his pursuit of discovering the best music circulating through the indie-underground. Robots... reads like an old-school zine with all the respect and ideological brouhaha that comes along with such a pronouncement. High on content, low on design, Possession's approach to layout is essentially advanced cut-and-paste stuff, but (as old man Zahora decreed in his review of the last Robots..., it kind of has to be that way -- the spirit of the venture dictates it. Two-thirds music zine comprised entirely of reviews and quirky interviews, one-third "zine" in the traditional sense of the word (i.e. first person, diary-like narratives), Robots... is most notable for the inclusion of 10P 1 Play.

The compilation disc gets special attention within Robots... with a track-by-track annotation of the album, featuring Thomas's concise and expert analysis and an explanation of its availability (a number of the tracks are exclusive to 10P 1 Play ). No claims are made concerning the compilation as designer accompaniment to the reading experience (although it suits the practice just fine). Instead, Robots... presents the artists in clusters related to the labels responsible for their appearance, each section introduced by a synthesized computer voice saying the label's name. Beatsforsale offers three tracks from MC Mike D, each composed by a different collaborator but all falling under the drum'n'bass banner. Catchpenny's Y Camerau Cyflymder are a Welsh outfit that practice straight ahead post-punk ("Rhy Ychydig, Rhy Hwyr"), while compatriots The Duckworth Lewis Method come off as the Welsh version of Avalanches with the playful "Gwneud Paratoadau". Elsie and Jack introduced me to one of my soon-to-be new favorite albums, September Plateau's pastorally beautiful and quite haunting Occasional Light (1999) (the featured track, "Thinking of Storms", has appeared on every mix I've made for friends for the last two months). Static Caravan immediately prove their endorsement of 10P 1P is a hefty one by offering an exclusive track previously only available on vinyl. 4AD electro-hipsters Magnetophone (a band whom I feel are criminally neglected by the alternative music press) volunteer "I Hear Blond Falcons (edit)" from their forthcoming album. It's a perfect illustration of their self-reflexive, deconstructed pop aesthetic that should bring them to the fore sooner than later. Just as noteworthy are Hard Sleeper's "Rightleft" and Vector Lovers "Neon Sky Rain" (which fits nicely in the Morr Music mold), two down-tempo digi-drone pieces that somehow function as more than mere sonic wallpaper.

In my younger days, I lived and breathed the zine culture...but I was always disappointed. I was never really interested in these little booklets being used as confessionals for their creators. Instead, I saw it as an opportunity to share ideas about music and art with like-minded scenesters. My favorites were always those that directly acknowledged the music that had inspired them to create the zine in the first place and talked about music many would never have a chance to hear unless the few that had the cassette tapes and limited-run 7" singles used their clandestine distribution circuits to circulate their discoveries. Robots and Electronic Brains is precisely the sort of zine I hoped for my entire teenage life. And while I've grown out of the routine and am now all but disinclined to search out similar efforts with a similar spirit, the inclusion of 10P 1 Play with Jimmy's book makes his words come to life.

-- Mike Baker