Darlaland

Based in Toronto, I Am Robot And Proud is the name Shaw-Han Liem works under to create his singular brand of hypnotic, beguiling electronic pop music. Grace Days is the full-length follow-up to his 2000 debut album The Catch.

Following the initial burst of colour and texture that The Catch offered, Grace Days amplifies and extends it, allowing form and structure to be abstracted, as on tracks like 'Mexico City' and 'Friction On Teeth', with fantastic results. Shaw-Han also manages to invest an even more depth and emotion to the melodies than before. The beautiful delicate harmonies on 'Her Version' lull you into a warm, inviting trance, and the title-track opener brings together acoustics and electronics in a way that would make you re-consider how the two styles could ever have been divorced from each other for so long.

At nine tracks, Grace Days is a compact, perfectly formed fabergé-egg of a record. A sweet, fragile, opulent work that will subtly draw you in, making you wonder how you lived without I Am Robot And Proud before.

1. Grace Days, 2. The Mood You're In, 3. Winter at Night, 4. Friction on Teeth, 5. Mexico City, 6. A List of Things that Quicken the Heart, 7. Quick Life, 8. Her Version, 9. Learn from Mistakes