Samarah: Robots Smile Too
Belladonna Records

Samarah follows up her Falling Away full-length with Robots Smile Too, a 15-minute EP dominated by a rather oddball and hazy mix of off-kilter melodies, android voices, and lurching rhythms. She typically pairs a given song's ‘slinky glitch-pop' underside with her whispered vocals. “Strip Mall Romance,” a bleepy love song for androids (“I first saw you at the strip mall / In the arcade playing pinball / You were wearing new sneakers / A catchy song was on the speakers”), is the EP's most successful piece. Less satisfying are “Get it Right” (where the vocal should be sensual, it sounds tired, like she's on the verge of falling asleep) and the CD-only “Static Patterns,” which perpetuates the marriage of half-awake, whispered vocalizing with glitchy accompaniment. A free mp3 version of the EP is available from the Belladonna site or a copy can be purchased that's packaged in an old-styled floppy disc and includes the bonus track.

January 2007