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Postcard CV

When the Senseless Things released their classic Postcard CV mini-album on Way Cool in 1989, I was but a slip of a lad interested only in gigs, band t-shirts, baggy shorts and 7" singles. What the title meant was something I gave no thought to whatsoever, I was instead fascinated by the fact that the 10 tracks (including the famous cover of The Slits' Shoplifting) whipped past at the kind of speed that could leave a bloke's fringe swinging for minutes. When the, erm, realities of life caught up with me and I realised what CVs were all about, the relevance of only having one the size of a postcard became apparent

I mention this historical note only in order to point out that calling this bit of Robots.. Postcard CV should not be taken to mean that the bands featured in it have got no qualifications. It's just a handy title for what is, in effect, a short introduction to bands we'll probably go on to feature more fully later on...even if most bands are thick as pig shit.

>>> The Abrahams - It's all about the songs with the Abrahams
>>> b-fab.u.k. - b-f.U.K. are the aural equivalent of a Peanuts cartoon
>>> Bear - a fringe-drooping prehistoric miserablist donkey's bray
>>> Big Eyes - entirely dreamy and excellent
>>> Bouvier - I'm not taking any more shit from you!
>>> BudNubac - Already a classic
>>> Ben Calvert - burger bars and broken hearts
>>> Canhex - Canhex have never met each other
>>> The Chemistry Experiment - a poptastic explosion of lo-fi scruffiness
>>> Chris T-T - grins sheepishly through a frankly astonishing beard
>>> Neville Clay - tender emotion, fragile songcraft
>>> Darky- old Video Game music
>>> De Stijl- you know rock'n'roll and they know rock'n'roll
>>> Digital Fiction- i have this ability to read peoples mind
>>> DSP - lubricating the whole event
>>> Electrelane - stylishly-shot 60s spy fiction with organ heavy soundtracks
>>> The Electroluvs - undeniably pish
>>> Farina - a bittersweet moment of transient happiness
>>> Fabiola- they have got a moog
>>> Fish From Tahiti- fucking up music for fun and profit
>>> The Fleshpeddlers - imagine the Beasties fronting NIN
>>> Future Airlines - chuckling speed disco
>>> The Gazillions - not since Warhol has an artist worn a wig as well as Hologram
>>> Groove Criminals - crunchy, funky hip hop beats and herbally-enhanced atmospheres
>>> Grover - Birmingham's Post-rock pioneers
>>> Haler Sound System - A sonic relationship with DJ's Shadow and Krush
>>> Jet Johnson - gorgeous mellow autumnal tunes
>>> Josephine - catchy (but scratchy), melodic (but shouty) post-Punk
>>> Laughtrack - dark music with cinematic leanings
>>> Lazarus Clamp - Lazarus Clamp takes a non-exclusive stab at everything
>>> leBLEU - Quirky and an undeniable romantically moody sounding
>>> Lightspeed Future Lullaby - sonorities halfway between Broadcast and Plone
>>> A Lion - to be labelled 'commited' or 'unlistenable'
>>> Los Nachos - musical horizons wider than yr mammas ass
>>> Maladroit - splatter other people's tunes across plastic like vomit
>>> Marshall Star - we would like to make nice songs
>>> Meme - it's hard to dance to
>>> Misterbuster - madly brilliant shit
>>> Monkey Boy - unique, stop start concoction of punk, blues and something else
>>> Montana Pete - the God of Thunder on Bass
>>> Moon - the noise a Moog makes as it slowly dies
>>> Motormark - third rate Euro-pop
>>> Muleskinner Jones - some suspicious lumps under the floorboards
>>> NPB - It's garage. As in garage rock
>>> Octavius - very, very cool and very, very fucked up
>>> Portal - think Durutti Column, think Cocteau Twins
>>> Quetzatl - otherworldly drum'n'nbass
>>> Daniel Patrick Quinn - I have died and gone to folk-drone heaven
>>> Rhysical Pheck - Comedown psychedelia of a most hellish variety
>>> Saloon - folksiness and electronica with viola, theramin and spacey synths
>>> Scissorkicks - the sound of a crazed kid loaded on Sunny Delight
>>> The Scratch - Aye, it were alreet
>>> Shining Reserves - herky-jerky indie/post punk amalgamation
>>> Shizo Fun Addict - Fighting the forces of evil in a bozo nightmare
>>> Skinflowers - there are young ladies with laser guns handing out ice cream!
>>> 2nd Gen - extreme noise terror
>>> The Starlets - known to make grown men cry
>>> The Stars of Aviation - quiet subtlety says more than any burst of loud guitar
>>> The State Of Samuel - it is low of fi, straggly and untidy and somehow magical
>>> Sweet Venus - expect world domination come 2000
>>> Tin.RP - so violently anti-commercial it makes Kid 606 look like, erm, a kid
>>> Trilemma - utterly bereft of positive attributes
>>> Ultrasound - very sad and melancholical but in all its sadness beautiful
>>> The Various Artists - Hum'n'space, perhaps
>>> Vic Twenty - m/f b-box cnth POP! vg :-)
>>> The Visit - expressive without being at all wanky