Must Hear Tracks: “mq9” “Is It Now?” “Don’t Wanna Dance”
Some bands just sound like their name. Los Angeles trio Automatic fulfills this phenomenon to a tee. As their name suggests, they are a well-oiled machine, cranking out precise and danceable new-wave with mechanical precision. In their finely tuned sound, you hear traces of The Bangles, The Go-Gos, Can, and a healthy serving of DEVO. But Automatic strip their setup down even further, forgoing guitars altogether and rolling with this minimalist setup: synthesizer, bass, drums, vocals. With so few moving parts, the parts that do move better move right. Every band member’s contributions are under the microscope, and every instrument gets the prefix “lead.” Even the drum kit.
These are the goods that hip-hop producers salivate over. Lola Dompé’s hypnotic drumming begs you to dance with every crisp snare and freezing hi-hat. But Dompé’s not a drum-machine. On tracks like “mq9” and “Is It Now?,” her melodic fills provide intrigue, giving these potentially robotic rhythms some human flair. The real warmth comes from Halle Saxon’s bass, though. (As a bass player myself, I really dig her stuff.) She is Automatic’s groovemaker. With synthesizer handling “lead guitar” and atmosphere, and drums providing the metronomic bottom, her bass lines alone fill out the midrange. Plucky and funky, she is the sole source of warmth in the icy soundscape that Automatic lives in. Even when she switches over to the Minimoog, her parts are the thickest of each arrangement. Together with Dompé’s crunchy drums, this rhythm section is impeccably blended; and always danceable. . .
. . . And dance Izzy Glaudini does (unless she doesn’t want to). Her nonchalant vocals waft from the driver’s side window of this lean machine. Draped with leather, wearing sunglasses at dusk, singing these tunes into her rearview mirror. Swaying to the beat. Radiating effortless cool. Taken with her chilly synth pads and booming, sometimes grating, lead riffs, Glaudini brings the bells and whistles to Automatic’s otherwise tight and efficient songs. On “mq9,” (my personal favorite track, if you hadn’t noticed), she emulates a doppler-effect ambulance. Her Prophet Rev2 slices through “Black Box” like a buzz saw. Glaudini, the entertainer. Saxon, the groove. Dompé, the heartbeat. Zero redundancy, and no need for more.
After hearing a few Automatic songs, scattered across their 3 LPs, it’s not hard to pin down their style. I laid it all out for you above. Though most of Is It Now? sticks to that tried-and-true format, it occasionally strays. “Mercury” sports distorted breakbeat samples that feel right at home. “Don’t Wanna Dance” is a slick interpretation of dub, complete with echoing synth blips, reverberating harmonica, and some super synthetic 808 hi-hats. It’s the most drastic departure from their usual neo-new-wave (or post-punk) (or whatever you want to call it), but it ultimately sounds like a lower gear on the same engine. No matter what experimentation they try, Automatic remains one of the most aesthetically consistent acts out there right now. Their band name, outfits, sound, music videos, and album art are all geared toward stripped-down precision. And these songs never fail. Is It Now? can just as easily soundtrack a trendy bar, a weekday commute, or chores on a Sunday afternoon. Is it going to change your life? Probably not. Will it still play just as smoothly 10 years from now? Probably. In short: minimal is timeless. Minimal is Automatic.
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