ANOTHER ROUND WON'T GET US DOWN

The feminine side of Math Rock

While many math rock bands are unrelenting in speed and complexity there are still a few ones that don't go by the book. Some of these bands prefer to keep things simple (as in easy listening and not very demanding) and accessible to wider audience. One of these aforementioned bands is Auto!Automatic!!

Post-Rock with density is a nice description of Auto!Automatic!!'s music. The music has the sweet and candy-like melodies and atmosphere of the average Post-Rock band. The difference here is their approach to it. There's no spacey ambient sounds or soft guitar picks growing louder and louder. The music here is meaty and full with guitar notes going everywhere and anywhere, while still having enough discipline and respect to make approachable melodies. The music is quite punchy at times and always catchy. Another interesting aspect to their music is the electronic touches presented in their songs giving the music a dance-like feel to it, but they're very mild and rarely go to the spotlight.

Songs like "That's Some Sick Mouth and Knee Coordination" are great representation of their sound that's ear-friendly and complex with subtlety. They remind me alot to Ahleuchatistas, but Auto!Automatic!! has that human feel that Ahleuchatista lacks (Not a bad thing. I love Ahleuchatistas for the same reason). So people who didn't liked Ahleuchatista for this reason should stop by and listen to Auto!Automatic!!'s brand of math rock.

This is light Math Rock. Auto!Automatic!! is easily the most accessible band in the genre. They're always melodic, positive, cheery, and rarely aggressive. Auto!Automatic!! are nowhere near the "ugly" and jagged math rock bands like Tera Melos, Don Caballero, Oxes, etc.

Another Round Wont Get Us Down is good place to go if you're having trouble enjoying this kind of music because of their total lack of consideration for the public. Sometimes its better to stop fighting it and just sit down and enjoy a nice cup of tea with Auto!Automatic!!

Well here’s an interesting band. Auto!Automatic!! are supposed to be a math-rock band, and a sense of that eventually emerges on this, their debut album. But before that happens the listener is treated to a wide range of what can best be described as club-inspired music, complete with dance tempos, synthetic rhythms reminiscent of the ‘best’ eighties and early nineties electronic-pop bands, and really just some very catchy, melodic and upbeat music.

I guess that’s not a bad thing, especially for a band of this genre where extended, depressing, and precociously complex (although sometimes self-indulgent) instrumental compositions are pretty much the norm.

A!A!! take different route, one in which they clearly aren’t taking themselves all that’s seriously and seem to be content with music that sounds like a mix of aural ear candy and self-amusement. Some of the themes are fairly self-evident, among them the sampler-sounding “The Party Beat” and the lazy “Owl Do It Later”. Others seem to be all about the idea of being clever. Song titles like “”\\\\\\\\”, “///// ///” and “>>>>>>>>” are cute, but the music on those tracks is largely fluff and pretty undeveloped at around a minute long each. Cute joke, but it wears thin after listening to those songs one or two times.

“4182333461...dance!” (apparently a reference to the phone number of someone in Escoumins Canada) is one of the more complex tunes with some interesting tempo shifts and weird time signatures that catch your ear if nothing else.

The other tune that is worth considering is “Immediately Upschteined?... Ish Don't Think So” which is energetic with complex tempos and manages to build to a thundering climax that includes guitar fuzz and an original finale. Otherwise this is a mildly interesting departure from more traditional math/post- rock, but I’m not sure the band will be able to sustain themselves once the fairly narrow novelty of their sound wears off. Two stars, but not quite three because I have a feeling not too many people will be spinning this one a few years from now.

peace

This only album from US band A!A!! is interesting because it is different. I mean different from what you are usually expecting from albums under Post Rock/Math Rock label.

First of all, there are not only complexity and cold demonstration of perfectly calculated abilities of band members, but more accent on some melodic and warmer ( in the border's of genre's rules) sound. Plenty of influences from electro-pop bands (from 80-s), but cleaned from pop-component. Possibly because of this legacy sound is a bit simplified and vintage- like.

Again, whenever quite interesting music for researchers or heavy style fans, it doesn't looks that similar works could attract bigger amount of fans. More raw material for some future music, than final value, I think.

Auto!Automatic!! are a math rock band from the US (where most math bands seem to be from). This is so far their only album. Made up of a trio of guitar/bass/drums, there are some electronic elements to the music once in awhile. There is also a post-rock vibe as well as indie/alternative influences. Basically this is melodic math rock with great drumming. There are three short electronic tracks with no proper titles. All three are different and good. Three of the songs on this album you can stream here on PA. There are no vocals.

"Samurai Showdown At The University Of Tampa" starts off sounding like 1980s U2 meets electro. Some overdubbed percussion enters and then leaves the mix. Then the song changes to some great melodic math rock. Over halfway it really starts to rock hard for awhile. The numbers in the title of "4182333461...Dance!" are supposedly a phone number somewhere in Canada. This is one of the better songs. The bass really stands out here. This track is made up of a number of different sections, all of them join each other almost flawlessly. "E-Break" is a repetative track that features lots of start/stop playing. Over halfway switches to some kind of instrumental indie.

"The Party Beat" has a riff on guitar that starts out sounding very 1980s American pop/rock or country. Before long it gets mathified. "A!AA!! @ A/A, Eh?" is another song that has multiple sections that all fit together. Some drastic tempo changes near the end. "That's Some Sick Mouth And Knee Coordination" is a highlight for me. Very memorable and catchy guitar playing here, including more of that '80s pop/rock/country sound I was referring to earlier. The song goes in a few directions before coming back to the catchy playing again. "Immediately Upschteined?... Ish Don't Think So" begins with a trip-hop style beat and some post-rock style guitar playing. The bass gets more active and some cymbals can be heard. Guitar and bass gets more melodic with the electronic beat still going.

After 3 minutes the tempo increases and then drums soon enter with some steady hi-hat. I like the way this song flows, it takes it's time to slowly build up. Later on some almost metal guitar playing before the trio goes into what sounds like a metal band trying to play punk. I'm no math rock expert by any means but I think this would be a great place to start with this type of music. Like most math rock there is all kinds of angular twists and turns, but this kind of math rock is a little more melodic and catchy than most. I wish they would release another album in the future. I'll give this a 3.5 rounded up to 4 stars.