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Get to Know: NOBOT

Music that sounds like a robot will never get old.

Electronic music is all the rage now. How it became hip is a completely different story, but now you can't go into your local record shop without seeing the debut album of some new indie electronica band. Most of the bands out there should not be touching a laptop and synthesizer, but there are some newer acts that deserve to blaze into futuristic music. In Minnesota, that band is NOBOT. NOBOT grew out of the Minnesota electronic womb in 2006 as a three-piece act. Their sound is different than most bands that are coming out of the Midwest at the moment. The trio combines live music with laptop manipulation and sampling to create their live and studio act. The band has also gained notoriety after collaborating with fellow label mates Estate, where each band performed and recorded a cover of each other's song for the NOBOT & Estate Magical Remix Project. Currently Kyle Vande Slunt and Adam Tucker are pulling double duty within the band, filling in for guitarist Matt Masurka who parted ways earlier this year. NOBOT is touring only in the Midwest at the moment, stationed in Minneapolis but also venturing to Wisconsin and Illinois for gigs.

Power Today! bursts with electronic goodness, full of robotic voices and trippy noises which mesh well with Masurka and Tucker's live recorded tracks. As the band's first effort at an EP, it's extremely well put together musically. There is never a moment that sounds too kitschy or too empty. Every space is filled with music and never to the point where it's too busy. NOBOT's remix of Estate's "Let Her Know," also featured on the EP, is just as good as the original song. The band manages to distort the song to the point where the origin is apparent but the song becomes more of the style of NOBOT. The product is a unique sound, a mix between digital mastery and live rock and roll.

Their latest musical creation "The Pefect Day" is a good representation of NOBOTS's work sans Masurka. It still sounds like most of the songs off of Power Today!, but "The Pefect Day" has a softer edge that breaks down into a full digital get-down by the end of the song. With the same vocal distortion that makes NOBOT recognizable in the beginning followed by synthesizers that sound like laser guns, this song makes you think of the future where robots live in peace with humans and we all have a hover craft.