Revival and Revenge of the Robot

Old Robot Dead - Long Live New Robot!

The Revenge and Revival of the Robot

"Catz" comic strip was a regular feature of the Chicago area newspaper The Illiana Beat. The above strip was first published August 6, 1984 by young cartoonist Rob Lattin. This cartoon is apt to go with the release of the Revenge of the Robot Part 1 & 2, dontcha think?

Last year, on the Fantom Phactory site, this article appeared about a new version of the song The Robot:

Revenge of the Robot: Son of Robot 3.0 Released

Digging in the vault of broken parts and dusty vibes, we found the extended version of TeknoGeek's The Robot (2009). The Robot 2.0 (also known as The Robot Returns) was a variation but this recent discovery extends the song into another "realm".

Hence, the song which crawls out of the original would be aptly called "Son of Robot 3.0."

Alternative title is "Revenge of the Robot". It's pretty cool, especially with the added segue of the intro music to "Son of Pumpkinstein Theme".

Well, 2016 brings a different surprise! We recovered a wave of the original Robot which had the Teknogeek nerds discussing their plot. Originally called “The Plot”, the vocal dialog was deleted and a cymbal crash began (and ended) the song.

The idea was to have these geeks who sounded like Steven Hawking, who had no musical talent, to come up with a dastardly plan to create rock music to make them famous since they failed at their tech jobs. The plot was to kidnap Led Zeppelin’s Jimmy Page and force him to record music for them. However, they wimped out and noticed that their neighbor also played electric guitar. Apparently, they had created a robot in which to become a musician but that failed (as the robot destroyed everything - so the story was supposed to go).

Anyway they decide to use the Robot to kidnap their guitar playing neighbor. The song The Robot (originally distributed by Tunecore) then led into the title track of their album “The Abduction of a Rock Guitarist”. This album was released in 2009 and was no longer available in the US after 2012.

The plot thickens, naturally, as this scenario led to the creation of Dr. Pumpkinstein’s Monster, fondly called Son of Pumpkinstein, released by the Fantom Phactory on the spooky album "Lonely Ghost"..

So when we remixed and remastered the Revenge of the Robot in 2015 we added part of the theme of Son of Pumpkinstein at the end of the extended version.

The Fantom Phactory article about the Robot continues:

Most of the TeknoGeek GoonSquad songs (soundtracks) were to be chapters in their story relating to the discovery of the Robot, going to Seattle, plotting to kidnap Jimmy Page, and discovery an old cassette player which had a tape that plays screams of the dead. Pretty frightening.

Fast forward to April 2016 - with the discovery of this slightly different version (wave and digital live) take of our friend the Robot, we kept the nerd dialogue, removed the cymbals and remastered the Latin rhythm backdrop. My original guitar tracks were re-inserted, as well as a remix of the Robot's voice. Cool!

Then, re-recording and remixing the second part, we added more dance rhythms, as well as robot sounds and an ominous undercurrent. Yes, he’s really a bad, bad robot.

With this discovery and re-mixing, etc, we have titled the song “The Revenge of the Robot Part 1 & 2” and it can be heard on YouTube in its entirety. The video isn’t about being a video, but a means to listen to the song so if you want to comment, please comment about the music and not the visuals.

Here it is everybody - don’t you just love the digital music freedom?!




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LINKS

Lost in Space Robot
Can Robots Dance?
Robby the Robot
Bad Robots of Dr Who??
Good Robot of Dr Who? Dr Smith!

Experimental Music: When The Government Hires Mad Scientists

Welcome to my Mad Experiment

It's A Mad World
Because WE ASKED
For It.
And We Got It


What happens when the government hires mad scientists to conduct tests on humans?

Well, it has happened in the last 100 years by some totalitarian nations, Germany and Russia to name a few. But how about in the US or Britain or even Australia? Well governments are getting out of control as voters have become zombified in this gimme gimme society.

And so the government gives, and it takes as well. Without getting into the political debate about what is going on in reality, let's imagine the near future should the regimes continue to usurp more power than ever before.

Let's say they not only use humans as guinea pigs with your seal of approval, but they actually employ mad doctors and scientists to conduct atrocities on you. Lobotomies, amputations and grafts, and shock treatment, all these things return and there's no stopping them. No one can save you.

It all started with indoctrination in the public schools and overflowed into total control of the media outlets. You only know what THEY want you to know. And that point is emphasized in my new song "The Edge of Nonsense", which should be available this year for you to hear. There I sing what Big Brother wants you to see, eat, feel or live.

 The extension of this idea is captured in the instrumental "Mad Experiment", which this blog is also based on. This song has the robotized nurse instructing you what is going to happen to you. If the test fails, it done over again, until the results are achieved. If you die, your family will be notified. Similar to Obamacare, eh?

 Listen carefully to the under-sounds and you'll hear some wild shock treatment going on. This song is actually a horror song as it is too close to reality. But, it's also a dance song! All you zombies out there can dance to this while the poor lab rat, (me), gets experimented on.

Enough of the serious stuff. I composed and arranged this tune to have sort of a jazz feel, with a little rock guitar thrown in. There are brief reliefs in the song for a drum breather with added sound effects to keep the thing interesting. After all, I'm strapped to a bed in a buildling in the middle of nowhere while 10,000 volts are being shot through my skull and that can be boring after a while. So it's OK to dance to this song.

 Here's a little info about this ditty at soundcloud:

Mad Experiment is about the near future where an overreaching government controls peoples lives, like "The Island" where Number 6, John Drake former secret agent is a prisoner. All the nutty professors and mad doctors operate on your brain to control your mind. Instead of testing laboratory rats or creating robots or even a monster like Frankenstein, they just want to play with your mind and body. This song tries to tell that story.

Here is that song:


Let me know what you think? frightening? boring? danceable? imaginative? SHARE THIS:

Rajneesh: Song About the Adventures of a Lovable Indian Boy

From Wikipedia:
Khan as "Raji" in Maya, circa 1967.

Updated May 20, 2015

What can be more interesting than the mischievous adventures of a lovable Indian boy?

Some of the greatest music comes out of India. Most of what I have heard where from old LP's, India TV, and 90's pop videos. I fell in love with the sound and found a great radio station in Chicago that played contemporary Indian music.

As a composer, my catalogue would feel incomplete if I did not have a song which is about India, with Indian influences in the song itself. So what better reason to write an Indian song that could be a soundtrack for an action adventure song about a young Indian boy, like a young Sajid Khan, and how he gets in and out of trouble in the big city. Let's say he was from Kerala and moves to Bombay.

So I want to reintroduce this story and the song. No song would be complete with this genre if it didn't include elephants contributing to the beat and feel of this exciting song. And, being a guitarist, it has to have guitar in it to help support it edginess as well.

Here's Rajneesh: The story of a young boy from southern India who had a hypnotic power over the animals of the jungle. His saga starts when he realizes that he has this power and is trying to control it.
 


Personal note:: This is still one of my favorites. I always loved the music of India - it's chord progression, the love story duets, and even the retro pop songs. This song is intended for soundtrack use but is also the perfect song to dance to.

Yes it's also a dance song!

photo credit: Wikipedia

related links:
Sajid Khan
The Times of India (for latest news).
Bollywood Radio
Top 10 Movies About India



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