Tracks for Projects Robot Boogie

Robot Boogie is a fun piece that can be performed as written or played as an interactive musical game, with elements of improvisation that are determined by participants in the moment. Whichever format is adopted, the scenario depicted by the music is the same: the setting is a robot factory, where a number of automata are nearing completion. They can be activated by sonic remote controls, each with its own, unique musical signature comprising a repeated motif. When activation occurs, the robot concerned dances to a boogie that is based on the musical motto generated by its remote control.

The recorded version of Robot Boogie opens with a montage of factory sounds: a background hum and whirr of hi-tech machinery against which robots try out their newly created gadgets (such as an energy ray) and freshly fabricated voices (which produce electronic sounds) and start to interact with one another. After around a minute, the first remote control is operated, and Alice Robot springs to life and starts to dance. Harmonically, her boogie follows a conventional 16-bar pattern.

Metrically the boogie defies convention, though, being in an additive 5 time (3 + 2 beats in each bar). This, together with the use of arcade game sounds of the 1980s, gives a playful, skittish effect.

After Alice’s boogie, there is a return to the sounds of the factory while Bharat Robot is prepared for his turn. The sounds of a remote control call him to action, and the boogie is repeated with different motifs. And so the process continues, with Connor and then Dada Robots duly performing their routines. Elfie’s boogie, which follows immediately after Dada’s dance, is in the minor mode, reflecting the fact that her personality software is configured differently from that in Alice, Bharat, Connor and Dada. Finally, the robots boogie together in a lively conclusion to the piece.

There are 16 tracks available to support learning and performances of Robot Boogie: