Review Summary: Nothing less than an essential contemporary math-rock album!
You may be tempted to link Auto! Automatic!! To Giraffes? Giraffes!! by the same punctuation pattern of their band name, the weird nonsense song name and the mathrockish sound that characterize them. Yes, A!A!! sure is a math rock act (and a great one if I may add), but there is still a bunch of distinctions between the smooth, mellow and not so distorted guitars of A!A!! and the noisy-aggressive and experimental math of G?G!. Is A!A!! a technical post-rock band? Or a moody and melodic math-rock band? Honestly, we coudn’t care less as more than anything, they are simply a great band.
To see that, just slip the first song into your record player. In Oder Aus describe the band perfectly. We got that weird sounding guitar in the beginning; using all sorts of technique and then, about a minute and a half in, the main riff comes in; a melodic and kind of simple basic riff, but with a lot of sweet fills and variations, both on the drums and guitars. I can just imagine how fun it must be to play this live and just jam around this cool pattern. We notice instantly that we are in the presence of heavily talented musicians. They use typical math-rock structure with constant change of tone, but they always make sure it stays pleasant for the casual listener, whether it’s with great melodies or with shifts to other melody and groovy bass lines in between some technical jams. And while it applies to the entire album; I’m still just in the first song!
Premature Esongulation (tell me about that song name!) continues in the same vein; the ultrafast and technical intro riff is like an ambient cool sound; nothing too aggressive here but just a perfect blend of inventiveness and atmosphere. The shifts are still perfectly in place to give our ears (and brains!) a rest when they’re starting to implode.
After the minor but nonetheless fun Suzanne Cook is A Saint (thanks to the great bass line and fills), Honey Mustard in the Chem Lab With a History Book (I think now you realize why I specify the name of all the songs) kicks in with weird experimental guitar and heavy post-rock rhythms. Soon after, it kicks into the main riff; a typical A!A!! structure like the first song with good and addictive riffs filled with fills and variations (in rhythm, structure, pace and distorted vs clean guitars) and the same formula is unsed in F.Y.F.
Two Girls, World Cup, aside from being the best song name of the album, start with a slap-bass driven riff and, even if the typical A!A!! sound comes back fast, it’s still bass driven for most part. This is another reason why they stand out in my opinion; math-rock bands too often focus only on guitars and drums and bass players are left aside as a complement for the rest of the band. But not in Auto!Automatic!! The bass playing here is really awesome and most of the time, the bass could just play by itself and it would still be amazing. This is also true in the next song, Who Am !? King of the Dick?? (another contender for best song name on the album); the rhythm and melodic section of the band just blend perfectly. They may be just a trio, but Auto! Automatic!! sound as complete and coherent as any four or five-part band.
In my opinion, this records needs to be considered nothing less than an essential contemporary math-rock album and doesn’t shy any comparison to the likes of Giraffes? Giraffes! or The Bulletproof Tiger, and if you don’t believe me, give a shot to the equally wonderful Another Round won’t get us down.
! I have a radio show in Montreal that plays math-rock and we've played your music a bunch of times.
