Material: Robot Nature comes from a genre extremely popular with the teen/college crowds of today, a melding of EDM and pop/ rock that gets everyone dancing and grooving to heavy beats and cool rhythms. Sprinkled with classical tidbits from way back in the day of Mozart and Beethoven, this music has a contemporary feel by way of the drums, bass and synthesizers going off in unison. The music is thick with sounds and colors coming from all directions, and that sometimes makes it difficult to tell what the song is about.
Musicianship: DPAK is a dual instrumentalist with a good vocal range and he can layer his guitar over massive amounts of synthesizer-infused rhythms. Parizer has his work cut out for him behind the keys seeing that his is the main musical, rhythmic focus of all the tunes. He is very active behind the keyboard as he pumps out pulse after pulse of soul-searching rhythms. Shadis, a good timekeeper, emulates some big-time drumming by the likes of Ginger Baker (Cream) and John Bonham (Led Zeppelin), hinting at some legendary drum tracks. Bassist Sklena is barely audible and almost nonexistent except for two songs, but when you could hear him he held the bottom end together nicely.
Performance: DPAK is fun to watch and at this show he was fairly animated and engaged the crowd with humor. He is confident about the music and his performance showed it. Shadis was difficult to see because he was surrounded by drums and was sucking down water as if it was going out of style (or was that a beer?). Parizer jumped back from one keyboard to another, sweating like it was raining manna from above, while Sklena concentrated on the bass as if in his own world.
Summary: Robot Nature had a good overall outing. The music carried this performance for most of the night, and although most groups of yesteryear and today usually pair up the bass and drums to make the rhythm section work, Robot’s rhythm was nicely taken care of by the drums, bass and keys. The singing is melodic and likeable and even though these songs are already generously layered, the violin adds a very appealing stratum to the overall range of the songs. A little more cowbell please––and a lot more bass.
Contact: 856-607-5133
Web: RobotNature.com
Players: DPAK, vocals, guitar, violin; Jessie Shadis, drums; Richard Parizer, keyboard; Michael Sklena, bass
