I Am Robot and Proud, Vitaminsforyou, Montag

Review of electronic pop concert by I Am Robot and Proud, Montag and Vitaminsforyou at Montreal's Lambi Club on June 30, 2006.

I arrived a bit late at Lambi and caught the tail end of the Vitaminsforyou set - sounded very Postal Service – less experimental and more pop than the last time I saw him with Ghis Poirier and Montag at Blim in Vancouver. Then he was building up loops with saxophone, banjo and other instruments. Last night it was a full-on electronic pop sound with anthemic beats and vocals. Very nice.

Next up was I Am Robot and Proud – I was worried that this was going to be another boring guy standing in front of a laptop doing essentially nothing, but in fact he sat at the keyboard the entire time and showed off his very impressive technique – jazzy chords and pretty, fast, snaky runs and complicated textures on top of his beats and synths. His music is both beautiful and fun and it translated well to the live environment, especially because it was an intimate setting with a seated and very appreciative crowd. Very impressive.

I had to leave at the beginning of Montag but I caught the first part of his sunshine-electronic pop set, jazzed up with mallets on cymbals and chimes and vocals.

A nice night of electronic music, all three artists representing the current, much-needed trend of moving away from strictly computer music and into the real world of human beings, traditional instruments, and voice. Fans of pretty electronic music would do themselves a favor by checking out Montag on Carpark, the new Vitaminsforyou, The Legend of Bird’s Hill on intr_version and I Am Robot and Proud’s brilliant The Electricity In Your House Wants to Sing on Darla Records.

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Gordon B. Isnor