Petland’s “Miss Roboto”
is an experiment with melding sci-fi and music together in the
hopes of creating something new. Music is commonly known as an
emotional outlet that speaks to the soul, while science is an
attempt to simplify and explain our environment in rational
terms. By molding the two together, Petland has found a way to
express emotions in simple technical phrases. They tackle such
emotions as unattainable love, adopting new frames of mind, and
false appearances.
“Miss Roboto” is Petland’s (name of
a pet store, perhaps?) second release. The band first formed in
1997 but went through a juggle of band members before their
first release, “Antenna” in the summer of 1999. They have
been featured on the BBC’s extreme sports show “Rad TV”
and on “The Chili Factor.” Currently they are on tour across
the East Coast.
The songs vary from placid synth- pop
about love gone bad to electro-dance mixes with samples from
classic horror films such as “The Crawling Hand” (James
Whale, 1963) and “The Bride of Frankenstein” (Herbert L.
Strock, 1935). There is a definite electro-pop sound similar to
the David Bowie’s 1997 release “Earthling.”
The songs express emotions as mechanical
in thought, though human in reaction (We put our code together/I’ve
got a little program passing through my skull/ dream of turning
off/ metal heart and perfect skin, I love your gear, you're so
human).
The song “I Blame it on My Robot” is a
moody recollection of a past relationship in which he uses
technical terms in order to portray detachment. All the circuit
diagrams blown up/ antenna broken off/ I based my love on the
engineer’s claims.
Their remake of Cole Porter’s 1936
classic “Under My Skin” is smooth and soft with indie warmth
to it instead of exhaustive electronic despair.
Petland’s electronic approach is well
blended. They have just the right combination of unique sounds
to give it a sci-fi feel. With bells, whistles, electric waves,
horror film samples, and experimental guitar, “Miss Roboto”
is both ambient and active.
Though symbolic and consistent with the
theme, The lyrics were still droning .
If you put ideas in technical terms, I
guess they lose their ability to rally human emotion because the
lyrics didn't seem to add anything to the music. Besides flat
lyrics, the subjects are done to death. Bad relationships and
pining for girls is tolerable for only so long.
