Automat:
Plusminus:
Bureau B:
CD/LP/DD:
Out June 1st:
★★★★★★½☆☆☆☆
Berliners Automat graced us with their presence last year with the guest-star laden self-titled debut. For all its grandiose arrangements, 'Automat' was a rumbling lumbering beast that lurched from genre to genre without really settling down. For 'Plusminus', guests have been eschewed and pretty much any hint of song structure has been tossed out of the window - this is denser, layered dub-informed and less likely to reach out to the same audience as before.
Eight lengthy, mainly instrumental pieces form an album designed to be ingested as one complete listening experience, rather than as individual tracks. No track is any more memorable than the last which doesn't necessarily mean that Plusminus is a bad listen, far from it. Reminiscent of later period Meat Beat Manifesto without the grinding guitars, Automat's blueprint involves a throbbing cranked-up bass, simplistic motorik rhythms and a few spoken-word samples and snippets.
Of the eight tracks here, the second quartet makes for better listening, in particular SST282 (Ursa Major Space Station) and the woozy EMT140 (Hallplatte) which closes the album in a stoned-out fug of dope-smoke and chin-stroking gravitas, while the title-track nestles within that easiest of critical comparisons, sounding a little like Kraftwerk with vocodered speech and a driving robotic beat.
Plusminus isn't the most challenging listen you'll ever experience but, if you worship Bureau B's ethic of keeping things minimal, tight and clever-clever, you'll warm to Automat's latest direction.
Plusminus:
Bureau B:
CD/LP/DD:
Out June 1st:
★★★★★★½☆☆☆☆
Eight lengthy, mainly instrumental pieces form an album designed to be ingested as one complete listening experience, rather than as individual tracks. No track is any more memorable than the last which doesn't necessarily mean that Plusminus is a bad listen, far from it. Reminiscent of later period Meat Beat Manifesto without the grinding guitars, Automat's blueprint involves a throbbing cranked-up bass, simplistic motorik rhythms and a few spoken-word samples and snippets.
Of the eight tracks here, the second quartet makes for better listening, in particular SST282 (Ursa Major Space Station) and the woozy EMT140 (Hallplatte) which closes the album in a stoned-out fug of dope-smoke and chin-stroking gravitas, while the title-track nestles within that easiest of critical comparisons, sounding a little like Kraftwerk with vocodered speech and a driving robotic beat.
Plusminus isn't the most challenging listen you'll ever experience but, if you worship Bureau B's ethic of keeping things minimal, tight and clever-clever, you'll warm to Automat's latest direction.