It's time once again to revisit that wonderful decade which, besides questionable fashion choices, gave us, in my opinion, some of the most innovative music of our lifetimes: The 80s. As you know from previous posts (Vol. 1, Vol. 2), this robot tends to enjoy cover songs from this particular time period. Not only do they make for nice trips down memory lane, but they intertwine your memories of the past with the modernized noises of the moment, while validating your particular musical tastes.

Our first selection is the lead-off track from the just-released Bowie tribute compilation, Life Beyond Mars. Performed by the lovely and talented girls of Au Revoir Simone, Oh! You Pretty Things originally appeared on Sir David's 1981 LP, ChangesTwoBowie. Other artists trying their hand at The Thin White Duke's catalog include Joakim, Matthew Dear, Susumu Yokota and The Emperor Machine.
Au Revoir Simone - Oh! You Pretty Things

Track two comes to us via the French "bodypop" trio known as Celluloide. Originally released by Sushi & her Banshees back in 1980 (!), this tune can be summed up thusly: Quirky, analogue bleeps and beats with goth-y undertones = Happy robots dancing in the shadows.
Celluloide - Happy House

Now is when we crank it up several notches (to 11) by going with Cursor Miner's version of Van Halen's Ain't Talkin' 'bout Love. Technically not an 80's cover (the original saw its debut on Van Halen's eponymous LP in 1978), it still retains that trashy, metal vibe of early 80s Sunset Strip.
Cursor Miner - Ain't Talkin About Love

Getting grungier still, we progress to a cover of a cover with Electronicat's interpretation of Soft Cell's Tainted Love. Fred Bigot (aka Electronicat) gets double bonus points for changing the vocals to French (the language of love) and fuzzing out to the max (tainting, if you will) the melody. Akin to watching Pier Pasolini's Salò.
Electronicat - Amour Salé

The first of two songs on this list penned by his Purple Highness, this one came out during the height of the Electrocla$h frenzy, on Larry Tee's Badd Inc.: Luxury, Excess, Extravagance comp. Featuring a gay, robotic Prince (judging from the name of this artist).
Prance - Controversy

More Siouxsie, more guitars/synths run through the fuzzbox, more detached android vocals, lyrics about chicken chow mein and chop suey...
HKC - Hong Kong Garden

Co-founder of XLOVER, Bryan Black (also of MOTOR) used to be Prince's keyboard tech back in Paisley Park's heyday. This one features a guest appearance from yet another sexy member of the royal family, Princess Superstar.
XLOVER - Darling Nikki

As robots become increasingly useful, we've started to see them being deployed in the military arena. Today in Iraq, the first ever squadron of robot warriors are making combat safer for human soldiers in situations that portend an ambush or booby-trap. While one of these machines may look more like a small stripped-down tank than a Terminator or ED-209, it can be just as lethal. I'm reminded of the sentry gun scene from the Director's cut of Aliens. Together with the surveillance and tactical capabilities of pilotless drones, today's non-human armed machines have ushered in an era of remote control warfare. Controlling these killbots would be a first-person shooter aficionado's dream, for they are no mere killing-simulators; This kind of electronic warfare is the real deal.

Cursor Miner - War Machine
Anthony Rother - Destroy Him My Robots
Add N to (X) - Revenge of the Black Regent [with Allison Goldfrapp leading the charge]

More YouTube vids for your enjoyment! A couple uploaded personally.
Dirty Princess - Tampax [I tried uploading Jugaral Reves (NSFW) but got rejected mighty quick]
I Am Spoonbender - Replaced By Toys
Cursor Miner - Suicide Bomber
Goudron - Art School F*ckheads [live]
Mr. T - Treat Your Mother Right (Remix)
Laid Back - White Horse [Three cheers for White Boy Funk!]
Kraftwerk - Elektro Kardiogramm [live]
Kirlian Camera - K-Pax [Not an official video, but I love this song]
Digital Emotion - Go Go Yellow Screen [Even better than the song they ripped off]

Okay, so I've been going a little crazy lately with record buying. That's one of the problems of living next to what Rolling Stone [not that I ever listen to anything they say] calls, "The Best Music Store In the World," Amoeba Records. Then you have eBay and online record stores. Makes it waaay too easy for me to spend most of my disposable cash on shiny plastic groove-laden discs.

Here is a list of what's made it into the shopping cart recently:
SebastiAn - Ross Ross Ross
Detroit Grand Pubahs - Black Matters
The Consumer - Financial Advisory
Dynarec - Body Sequencer
Huggotron - Glasshouses
LaTour - People Are Still Having Sex
Egyptian Lover - Dance
Dexter vs. Cosmic Force - Noordhollandsche Ghetto Tracks
8bit & The Calculators - Hound Dog
Dsico That No Talent Hack - City Stirs
Jor-El - Space Tracks
Scan X - Wasteland
Automat - Preludes
Cursor Miner - The 4 Guardians
Debasser - KLS
Si Begg - Revolution
Armand Van Helden - Koochy / Phreeknik
Hong Kong Counterfeit - Counterparts
Kansas City Prophets - Grim Dubs Vol. 3
LFO/AFX - 4 Track EP
Life Project - Present Random Chance

In RobotSound's ongoing effort to keep you informed of what's going on in the electro universe, here are some recent and upcoming summer LP releases to be on the lookout for:

Anthony Rother - Super Space Model - Datapunk

"The stylistic blend of Electro with all other genres of the Electronic scene simply makes this music more interesting at the moment than ever before ‹ also in light of and despite the economically difficult general conditions in the music business. An end may be imminent here for some, but I definitely perceive the dawn of a new era ‹ no detachment of older structures, but rather the consistent construction of the next level."
Anthony Rother, 2006 [from Psi49net.de]

Cursor Miner – Danceflaw – Lo Recordings

Cursor Miner presents warped grooves beyond the call of duty as he delivers his most focused album yet. Those of you who bought the single will realise that the Miner really has stepped up his game coming at you like a steroid enhanced prodigy with a taste for electro's stiff funk and dirty gutter bass. He even manages to make the much maligned and pneumatic breaks genre seem like a good idea here by just adding a ton of filth and attitude.
[from lo recordings]

Thought this might be a good time to link to a few other great robot mixes out there in cyberspace. Grab these while you can - you never know how long they'll be around.