Rebbeca Simpson

Robot Drama is the inaugural CD release for Toronto bedroom punk label Die!Venom, as well as the first material from ex-Mudpuddle Rebecca Simpson in ages. This fresh start on both fronts opens with the skittering balladeering of "Serendipity," where we're introduced to Robot Drama's half-conventional, half-dubbed-out mad-cabaret vibe; an approach not completely unlike Stina Nordenstam's similarly singular grafting of cherubic vocals onto dark instrumentation on Dynamite and People Are Strange. Both the reverb and the jauntiness are upped on the weirdly bouncy "Ballad of the Paradigm Shifters," whereupon things drift off into cheerful tin can, zombie waltz territory on "From Beyond the Triangle of the Lost," only to revert to dub serenading on "Strive To See, Yet Escape Drowning." Right down to the minimal printed and hand scrawled black packaging, creepiness has rarely felt so endearing.