ANOTHER ROUND WON'T GET US DOWN

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