TRACK LISTING:
1. Focus
2. The
Single
3. My Casio
4. Walk Into The Light
5.
Gold Of Desert Kings
6. Cool Boots
7. Hollywood
And Vine
8. Capes Billowing
9. The Let Go
10.
How To Read A Person Like A Book
11. Hope
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Automato are a hip-hop sextet from New York. Without
mention of "niggers", "bitches", or even "ho-s",
Automato's refreshingly alternative take on hip-hop
screams originality and intelligence.
Focus introduces their style well, but it is track
two, The Single, that is the first real sign of
brilliance. With powerful bass and the sound of a
screaming soulful chorus, the listener is warned of
Automato's excellent musicality, and a clear confidence
in what they are doing. Indeed it is this song that
seems odds on to be the next single off the album.
Cleansed of gangsta clichés and obscenities, they
fill the vacant space with creative weirdness. Track
three, My Casio is structured around a portamento
bass-line that threatens to fall through even the most
heavily fortified of floors.
By the time debut single Walk
Into The Light is over, it is clear that Automato
are loaded up to the gills with creative juice, with use
of odd time signatures, complex rhythms, diverse
instrumentation and originality in form. Their debut
album becomes truly exciting to listen to at the
realisation of such expertise.
Further variation is brought with the moody drum 'n'
bass influenced Hollywood And Vine. Automato's songs
ooze confidence from every note, beat and bar. That
their songs are in no hurry to finish is testament to
this - Automato operate on a waste not, want not policy,
squeezing every last drop of creativity from their never
boring songs. They're not simply going to sit back and
stretch a song out of a nice chord sequence, they will
take it to within an inch of its life, poke it a few
times to check it's still breathing, then move onto the
next song. It is precisely this that makes Automato
sometimes hard to listen to, and this album is certainly
not for the musically closed-minded. That said, there is
never a dull moment here.
The album closes with the epic Hope, a journey
through noise where the excellent production is hammered
home. Automato's debut album is produced by the DFA (Tim
Goldsworthy and James Murphy), renowned for their
production prowess and they certainly haven't held back
their skills on this album. In fact, Automato's sound is
so vast that it takes something special to capture it.
This perfect marriage between artist and producer is of
the sort seen between Muse's
epic Absolution and Rich Costey.
Snippets of this album at times sound like Kid A /
Amnesiac era Radiohead.
Are they the Radiohead of hip-hop? Quite possibly -
Automato must be applauded for their imagination, skill,
and cold, hard creativity. They have done hip-hop a huge
favour, opening another door for it, and who knows where
it will lead? A must for any music enthusiast.
- Jamie
Harper |
