Captain SIB
Ballad of a fading robot
You never know what you’re going to hear next with this band and that’s one of its many charms.
Here we have some of the classic Captain SIB components: driving rhythms, tasty synths, and that voice which feels like it’s coming from the best of the punk era.
This track is a slow burner, starting with tribal electronic percussions and a Rhodes keyboard highlighting the main motive. The Rhodes is firmly anchored on the right, leaving space for the distorted synth that’s going to complement it on the left side during the chorus. The middle eight of the track is stripped down of the percussions to add to the poignancy of the message, and indeed the tale of this robot is a sad one: “he's just a robot flying up there alone, control his destiny his fate is not his own” – and that keyboard motive really brings the voice of that robot.
When the track finally explodes after that section, at its apex it reminds me so much of Peter Gabriel with that kind of blend of distorted synths and driving percussions, and the final drop is really adding to that impression with the digital distortion fading out into the last words and then it’s “the best time to say goodbye” – I love how that last word is said alone, which reminds me of a similar trick used on a Pink Floyd’s “Goodbye Cruel World” (on the same word, incidentally!). In any case, it’s really cleverly done, Captain!
Verdict: 5/5 beards
Captain SIB can be found on Soundcloud, and you can even download this track here: https://soundcloud.com/captainsib/ballad-of-a-fading-robot
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