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April 24, 2008

The Talk Magazine, Feb. 2008 (York, UK) Reviews OPEN YOUR MIND


This four track demo originally from 2005 has resurfaced and demonstrates the decadence and commitment of New York's His Mighty Robot to their art-rock craft. In 007 His Mighty Robot is a four piece with a full album "The Conflict" in their back pocket. This recording is now a distant memory.


On this four track EP "Open Your Mind" the band is a three piece, made up of members Soda on vocals, H-Rocker adding a softer melody and some guitar, and Barratt, no longer part of the outfit plays electronic drums.


Opener, "Birth" is dark and haunting with toned down guitars akin to early Cure. The vocalist uses his proud but equally tormented register to describe the frustrating world in which he finds himself. Equally diverse are the vocals of his female counterpart H-Rocker who offers a soothing contrast to Soda's Thom Yorke like crooning.


"To Flourish, To Burn" is an altogether smoother affair, silky male vocals dominate while electro bleeps and H-Rockers winding acoustics blend nicely. One of the major criticisms here is that vocally, the pair too often stray between sounding as loud as lions or as soft as mice. Still the resonating mix of electronica and acoustic guitar will stay in the mind and in turn appease fans of both genres.


Follow-up "The Troubled Mind Of You", again demonstrates the pure talent of the band, stripping down the sound so that it becomes bare and personal. The song itself is an examination of the mind and uses physical aspects of the body to describe the internal deteriation, for example: "Falling to your knees, they are rough, you are lost." Midway through the song everything becomes slightly heavier and the electronic drums become faster and more frantic towards the end. Again, this is done to remind the listener that the songs muse is quickly loosing focus upon the world.


Final track is "All Faces Will Fade". Here raw emotion is each members comfort, the drive to make music and just want to be heard is clearly obvious. Fuelled equally by the influence of classic Pink Floyd and The Pixies more "punkier" work. The songs are at times pure works of art and sometimes rough and uneducated.


This disk is blatantly the first work of one of the finest bands never to be picked up by a major label. www.myspace.com/hismightyrobot / www.hismightyrobot.tv

For fans of: Darren Hayes, The Cure & Incubus. 

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