Automat
Plusminus
The Berlin-based trio Automat has now recorded an exceptional album. Denser and yet even more unflinching than the debut they released one year ago, PLUSMINUS recalls the mysterious monolith in Stanley Kubricks "2001". Theres nothing here that one could hold onto, and yet so much of it that the listener is transported into a kind of trance. While its predecessor was still characterized by prominent guest vocalists like Lydia Lunch, Blixa Bargeld and Genesis P-Orridge, here it is the studio that speaks. It is the 1950s analog technology of Candy Bomber Studios in Berlin-Tempelhof. Automat recorded all the tracks on the album within three days in January. Without much rehearsal, the first take was final-limitation as strength. Almost all the tracks on the album are named after the sonic devices and effects units that were the focus during production: "EMT 140" is a two meter long reverb plate, "H 910" is a harmonizer that defined the sound of David Bowies "Low". The Automat musician Zeitblom had been searching for this unit for ten years. His perseverance paid off. The thunderous bass lines, delirious rhythms and hypnotic sounds of PLUSMINUS make the notion of categories and genres seem superfluous. Of course, we are not dealing with classic dub reggae here. And the Detroit Techno of musicians such as Terrence Dixon is another story. Yet oscillating between these poles is a music that even draws from jazz and other genres without compromising its autonomy.