Band: Various Artists
Album: Blood Mixtape
Label: Robotic Empire
Year: 2014
Tracklist
01. Torche - Andy Low *
02. Passing Phases - In The Dark, In The Fire *
03. The Ar-Kaics - No, No, No
04. Tideland - Let Me In *
05. Big No - Turn It On *
06. Taiga - Excelsius *
07. Tilts - Thomas Jefferson II
08. Gull - Susquehannd (Cut) *
09. Christian Blunda - Faraway *
10. Hollow Sunshine - Stay Down
11. Big Hush - Wholes *
12. Snacktruck - Miracle Ball *
13. Wrong - Call It *
14. Decades/Failures - Blank Clocks *
15. Jaye Jayle - Space Girl *
16. Alpaca - Dark Lands
17. Society - Sympathised
18. Mustard Gas And Roses - The Hard Road *
19. Some Stranger - Cosmic Dust (Call 911)) *
20. Hell Night - Black Hornet
21. Chris Taylor - Train of Thought *
22. Crooked Son - Hum *
23. Medusa - Crack & Bleed
24. Nicholas Sadler - You Don't Know Where You Are Anymore
25. Idolands - Back Pocket *
26. Ancient Sky - Mistakes *
27. Light Yourself On Fire - Get Got *
28. A Storm Of Light - Effigy *
29. Howling Void - The Moaning Ache of a Time on the Edge of Collapse *
30. Pygmy Lush - Serve the Servants (Acoustic Demo) *
Download
* denotes previously unreleased
Robotic Empire continues their 15th year celebration with a 30 track free collection of brand new, rare and/or previously unreleased material spanning the vast alumni of artists the independent label has worked with over the years.
Founded in 1999 under then-moniker Robodog Records, the label changed names 3 years later to Robotic Empire, exploring a wide range of genres and formats over 100+ releases. The longrunning independent label has carved out a reputation as one to push the envelope and a multitude of genres to new limits.
With this 15-year-celebratory free digital compilation simply titled "Blood", a significant amount of the Robotic Empire's illustrious musicians are represented through their current, side and solo projects.
With contributions from repeat offenders Torche, Tilts, Pygmylush, Hollow Sunshine, Tideland and Alpaca, this sampler also spotlights a swath of new material from members of historic Robo bands Pg.99, Daughters, Isis, Capsule, Red Sparowes, Crestfallen, Young Widows, Stop It!!, Dial, Ultra Dolphins, A Storm Of Light, Verse En Coma and many more.
The lead track from 10-year label veterans Torche is oddly-enough named after Robotic Empire label owner, Andy Low. When asked further about the song, Torche vocalist/guitarist Steve Brooks commented:
"This is a lost track we recorded for the "Songs for Singles" record in 2010. We weren't completely satisfied with how it turned out and planned on rewriting it one day. One of the riffs got used in "Letting Go" (Harmonicraft). It's a tune I kinda forgot about until Andy Low (pack rat) sent us a copy asking if we'd be into having this on his new comp. Sure, why not? If it wasn't for Mr Low, Rick and I wouldn't have met, Torche might not have existed and who knows where we'd all be today? We decided to call the song "Andy Low" to make him uncomfortable/feel strange about his name as a song title AND because we love the hell out of him. "Andy Low" is for our boy Andy Low/Robodog/Robotic Empire Records. Enjoy!"
Quote label founder Andy Low in reaction to assembling this release:
"I'm truly humbled and fairly weirded-out to have a song named after me. But far more importantly, I'm blown away by the sheer talent that surrounds this free 'mixtape' release. Every song included amazes me in some manner, and the culmination of all this material yields the same kind of excitement I felt on the cusp of releasing our most influential records through the label's history.
If you can, please take the time to check out the full release, especially the songs by bands you haven't heard before. It was sequenced with a classic mixtape feel in mind, and set to flow as best possible with such a wide variety of material! With two tracks for each year of the label's existence, there is a plethora of great new tunes lurking in here, which I hope you'll find and enjoy.
A genuine and hearty thank you is due to every artist who is a part of this, it means the world to be celebrating 15 years as a label with such amazing musicians, and their projects past, present and future!"
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