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Run Robot Run: live and clicking

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Ten years after the creative collective known as Robot started their sprawling and somewhat ad hoc collection of club events, multimedia and publishing, the whacky crew are finally setting the stage for bigger things.

Best known for DJ-ing and hosting avant-garde club nights, their side project of playing live has until now been restricted to an annual slot at the Rockit festival in Victoria Park.

But as the crew has grown over the decade, their musical dabbling in the studio and on stage has morphed into a finely tuned, seven-piece band that composes their own music. Tomorrow, they play their first Central gig, at the Fringe Club, and they have an album due out later this year.

'We're putting a lot more effort into it now and we have more of a complete sound,' says founding member Jay Forster. What started as 'arsing about' has become a serious and time-consuming endeavour.

The live project began when Forster and bandmates Mike Hill and James Chan began tinkering with computer software six years ago. They soon added real instruments to their cut-up experiments and, by the time of the first Rockit festival in late 2003, they were ready for their live debut.

Three years on, the Robot live experience has developed into a unique form of entertainment. The sound comprises dub electronica and deep tech-house blended with a weird array of real instruments, while visually there's a performance art element that includes video, animation and comical theatrics.

On Saturday, for example, tracks will be interspersed with one-minute clips from their documentary, based - no doubt loosely, if experience is any guide - on the theme of evolution, while Forster will at one point play a sewing machine as he makes a glove.

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