AUTOMATO

Automato marks the first hip hop artist on Dim Mak and an explosive introduction to boot. We at Dim Mak are very proud this is our hip hop debut. On goes the story:

New York City hip hop group Automato is Alex Frankel, Ben Fries, Jesse Levine, Nick Millhiser, Andrew Raposo and Morgan Wiley. Completed in January of 2003, their forthcoming debut album was produced by James Murphy and Tim Goldsworthy of the DFA.

The goal was to make an album that sounds and feels like the sample based hip hop records they love, yet capture the un-hip hop 'band' element of the group. They not only succeeded at this, but surpassed their expectations and the result is a testament to Automato's willingness to go where other hip hop groups will not. Automato's interests and aspirations lie beyond the pigeonhole of genre rap or underground hip hop and seem to branch into whatever the fuck they were feeling that day.

In the process of making the album, the DFA and Automato were never without a point of reference and everyone was listening to as much music as they were recording. It was common to find Nas' Illmatic, Can's Tago Mago, Pixies' Surfer Rosa, and David Axelrod's Songs of Experience vying for time on the studio's record player. Automato's is an album that, like any good hip hop record, is a product of its influences.

The vocals are somewhere between Cannibal Ox, Andre 3000, Jay Z, and Ghostface, while the beats recall a mid-nineties Pete Rock remix of Talking Heads covering Kraftwerk.

Points: Jumbo from The Lifesavers (Quannum- DJ Shadow's label & crew) does a remix for "Walk into the Light" Produced by The DFA.

Dim Mak Releases:
DM055: "Walk into the Light" 12" single

Press

08/03/04 Updated



Automato- The true sound of the underground.


Laura Wozniak


In a time when not-so-fly-as-that rapper 50 Cent and his G-Unit clowns have
become the Emperors of the Hip-Hop Empire, ultimately because of the
beefcakes’ connection with Dre, it is understandable that you’re starting to
drastically lose faith in Hip-Hop. But fear no more, Automato are here to
replenish that faith by creating a fresh, intelligent and highly creative
style of hip-hop.
There are multiple reasons why Automato deserve recognition. Firstly, and
unlike the rest of the Hip-Hop World, New Yorker Alex Frankel and his fellow
musicians prefer live instruments to turn-tables which contributes greatly
to the authenticity of their music. Lyrically, Automato challenge the
traditional hip-hop convention of using ‘niggers’ or ‘ho’ in every sentence
and instead opt for other intelligent manners of expression. Finally these
authentic Hip-Hop beats and thought-provoking lyrics are perfectly sewed
together by none-other than DFA, the production masterminds behind ‘The
Rapture’ and other electronica-influenced artists.
In all honesty if it wasn’t for these New Yorkers I would openly state, like
DJ Shadow did in ‘Endtroducing’, that ‘Hip-Hop Sucks’. Automato are the real
thing, go check them out!

"Hi'"

WALK INTO THE LIGHT REVIEWS

XLR8R MAGAZINE
"Now that Cannibal OX has bitten the dust, look out for crews like Automato to take up the mantle of edgy rap. These guys' advantage: their jumbled lyrical blend of dream imagery and sexual frustration is backed with arrangements by mega-talented dance-punk production duo DFA. So check for LA DIFFERENCE: those yearning piano chords in the distance, that skip in the beat, that yelping shred of guitar...and contrast it all against the flipside's equally impressive, straight ahead funky space-hop remix by Jumbo of the Lifesavas. Compelling shit."
Ron Nachmann

SPLENDIDE ZINE
The latest model to fall from the DFA's gold-plated mold-a-rama of hitmakers, NYC sextet Automato are returning hip-hop to its organic roots, bad jumpsuits and all; their pot boileth over with over-modulated Moog, stealthy funk bass and brusque disco drumming. There's a sanguine ingenuity to "Walk Into the Light" that belies the group's 11211 zip code -- they're not simply rehashing the past, but forging a new tomorrow from the ashes of a thousand forgotten streetcorner rhyme hustlas and boombox assassins.

The flipside features Jumbo of the Lifesavas' intergalactically funky "Walk Into the Light (Revolutions Remix)", which dips the original in a vat of lunar lard and doesn't let up till the track is sufficiently southern-fried. Instrumental takes on both the original and Jumbo's demix showcase the varying points of view, and the spooky a capella take returns the song to its brazen origins. Once their full-length drops Automato are gonna blow big. Make sure you get in on the chance to hear tomorrow's superstars today.
-- Jason Jackowiak


DUSTED MAGAZINE
Artist: Automato
Album: Walk Into the Light
Label: Dim Mak

Automato are an interesting beast. Ostensibly a hip hop band, a la The Roots, Youngblood Brass Band or Dujeous?, this is true insofar as they operate their own instruments. The differences, however, abound. Unlike their peers, Automato do not use hip stage names, a cardinal sin in marketing, if not exactly in hip hop. Their full roster simply reads Jesse Levine, Ben Fries, Alex Frankel, Nick Millhiser, Andrew Raposo and Morgan Wiley. Levine is the microphone controller, and the rest play a diverse mix of bass, guitar, keyboard, drums, sampler, etc.

Its this wealth of instrumentation that makes their debut single Walk into the Light an entity in its own right. Eschewing the simple loops and heavy bass formula of rap, they opt for a more tonally focused arrangement, keeping their ideas rhythm-centric while incorporating shifts from guitar riffs to bass lines to piano loops and beyond. This creates an evolving and interesting soundscape, but one which does not illicit the usual head nod
you’d expect from the genre.

Levine's lyrics bring his crew back into the genre's fold, but his penchant for abstraction won't win him a Source expose. His flow and rhymes are decent enough, if a little hard to penetrate (e.g., I know "Walk into the Light" has something to do with sex, but that's about it). To complicate things further, Automato are produced by Tim Goldsworthy and James Murphy of the DFA. In a culture where producer simply means "beatmaker," this is not only unusual, it adds a rare aura of refinement.

Between Levine's lyrics and the other members instrumentation, Automato have created a pastiche of hip hop rhythm and rhyme, added to it a rock sensibility, and come up with what I can best describe as jam band rap...

Jumbo the Garbageman from the Lifesavas supplies the beat for the remix, creating a stark counterpoint to Automato's sound. Utilizing heavy drums, sparse horns, and a nice reverbing synth sample, he brings the head nod factor back with a vengeance...

By Owen Strock


#11 on INSOMNIAC MAGAZINE compiled from over 200 radio reporters nationally!

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