THE NATUREBOT

Hello World!
(Pleasure Boat) 
recommendedrecommendedrecommendedrecommended (Out of 5)

The Naturebot (Seattle producer/multi-­instrumentalist Ian Scot Price) possesses one of the most refined musical minds in our city. Besides his obvious talent as an electronic-music artist, he champions an idiosyncratic array of fellow electronic musicians with his Pleasure Boat Records imprint, and his DJ sets for the Prog! and Voltage Control (a night dedicated to pre-1983 electronic music) biweeklies at the Living Room always contain treasures by both known and obscure acts.

Price's rather interesting brain produced the outstanding 2009 debut full-length The Schnebly, a sprawling collection of what some nerdy dudes used to call IDM (intelligent dance music) infused with a deliriously playful spirit. Like an American Bogdan Raczynski, the Naturebot loaded the CD with freewheeling, hummingbird-winged rhythms and melodies that replaced your worries with sunshine and smiles. Hello World! finds the Naturebot easing away from the dance floor (as askew as it seems to be in his world) and opting for a more song-based approach. The ebullience that marked many of The Schnebly's tracks appears here, too, but the emphasis is more on pure songcraft. The Naturebot reveals himself to be a tunesmith with a keen ear for pastel melodiousness and endearing whimsy. That said, Price's affinity for kosmische fantasias in his DJ sets surfaces in some cuts here, nicely chilling things out between the up-tempo pieces' sugar rushes. One exception is "Fort Hart," an exercise in pachinko-parlor fireworks blown out to symphonic proportions and hastened on with fast, pounding kick drums. But overall, Hello World! offers a new twist on the idyllic summertime album, containing more nature than bot, and enough good vibes to fill the Gorge. recommended