Album Review: We Got a Love by Shit Robot

Shit Robot's Marcus Lambkin proved on the project's first album, 2010's From the Cradle to the Rave, that he was well-versed in a myriad of electronic music styles from four-on-the-floor techno to funky house to electro-pop to synth pop. With the help of some of his DFA friends, he made a really promising, really fun album. The follow-up, 2014's We Got a Love, cashes in on that promise as it utilizes some old DFA connections, looks a bit farther afield for collaborations, and digs into a few more styles with equally impressive skill.

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There's no doubt that Shit Robot (a.k.a Marcus Lambkin) belongs on DFA Records. From his unbridled sense of adventure to his knowledge of vintage electronic music, and even his age (43), Lambkin seems more in line with the James Murphys of the world than the James Blakes. On We Got Love, his sophomore LP, the Irish knobturner has managed to produce a coherent album brimming with ideas, styles and guest musicians.Working off of thin '80s drum machine beats, disco keyboard chords and Juno swooshes, We Got Love keeps the energy high and tight.

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Disco is back in vogue, as if we didn’t know, from Daft Punk and Nile Rodgers’ rewiring last year to this year’s We Got A Love by Shit Robot. The less-than-flattering moniker is the mask which Marcus Lambkin hides behind, and he has been actively spinning mirrorball music since his 2010 album From The Cradle To The Rave. Bonding with LCD Soundsystem’s head honcho James Murphy and releasing on his DFA label cements a shared love of clunky, funky disco with a punky edge, one that guarantees you’re never far from a cow-bell interlude.

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Marcus Lambkin, the Irish producer who records as Shit Robot, is part of a lineage that runs through James Murphy's DFA empire. The pair met when Murphy was setting up a studio in a New York building where Lambkin had an office, and the latter has released music as Shit Robot sporadically in the years since. The title of his first full-length, 2010's From the Cradle to the Rave, hinted at his status as a lifer at this game, but few of his musical fascinations venture outside a small set of dance music influences.

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Shit Robot is a guy who likes to do things his own way. This is still only Marcus Lambkin’s second full-length album and, having waited until his early forties to get started on the first, it’s clear style is not something he’s prepared to compromise on. And for an album entering the murky catch-all genre of ‘electronic’ you couldn’t hope for more.What’s immediately noticeable in listening through the album for the first time, is just how well crafted the whole package is.

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DFA records ain’t dead. Yes, the Rapture recently broke up, Hot Chip’s last album was released on Domino, and of course LCD Soundsystem is no more, but that doesn’t mean DFA doesn’t have some producers primed for dancefloor releases. Take Shit Robot for example. The profanely named Irish artist (also known as Marcus Lambkin) has been releasing singles with DFA since 2006 and now he’s released his second full length album, We Got a Love, a rather mixed bag of oddball disco tracks.

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Shit Robot – We Got a Love (DFA Records)Through a friendship based in Mario Kart, vodka and dance records, Dublin ex-pat Marcus Lambkin aka Shit Robot began a mentorship with James Murphy, leading to Lambkin’s 2010 release, From The Cradle To The Rave. That album features members of the DFA collective, such as Juan Maclean, Nancy Whang (LCD Soundsystem, The Juan Maclean), Alexis Taylor (Hot Chip) and Janine Rostron (PlanningToRock). The focus and feel of those tracks explore 4/4 with the sterility-trying-to-learn-to-be-human of Kraftwerk circa The Man-Machine, haunting synth lines à la Gary Numan and Deep Techhouse at 115 BPM.

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Even before you press play, you pretty much know what you’re getting when listening to something on DFA records. Recent albums from Factory Floor, Holy Ghost! and tracks from their secret weapon The Juan MacLean all slotted into their kinda indie/kinda dance/kinda tech sounds of choice, and Marcus Lambkin’s second album as shit robot – four years after his debut, 2010’s From The Cradle to the Rave – fits right in. There’s the ESG-influenced one, a couple of nuevo disco cuts, the really camp one you can’t decide is a joke, and of course the obligatory ‘featuring Nancy Whang’ credit.

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