Thursday 19 November 2009

Dan Mangan - Robots

Last month we posted Dan Mangan's The Indie Queens Are Waiting for your viewing and listening pleasure and subsequently reviewed a live show (here) We also hinted that his single Robots would be released in the UK soon.

Now the video for Robots has arrived. Inspired by early eighties gang movies it tells the story of two rival groups who engage in their own back-alley version of robot wars, pitting one robot against the other in a battle to the finish, but when one robot chooses compassion over malice, the gang members are forced to question their own hatred and animosity towards one another. It’s love over war in the same time it takes to make a cup of tea. Who needs blockbuster movies?

The song shows that it isn’t only electronic bands that can sing about robots and androids, bringing Mangan’s trademark gruff pirate vocal and acoustic sounds to a chorus that is silly yet deeply sincere, even if you have to wait for two and three quarter minutes for it to float in. You’ll probably be humming it all day long. The tune has just been nominated in the Candian Radio 3 Bucky Awards for best song, and Mangan himself has also picked four other nominations for best lyrics, vocals, live performance and sexiest musician.

It seems a shame that at this moment Mangan is getting so little buzz or press in Breaking More Waves home country of the UK, when he is a singer songwriter of such quality. Maybe this will change next year when his second album is officially released in the UK. For the moment though, we’ll keep Dan Mangan as our own little rough diamond.

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