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Automatic

Automatic announce new album "Excess" and share lead single "New Beginning". International touring announced with Parquet Courts, Tame Impala + Primavera Sound, Wide Awake Festival.

Automatic – the trio of Izzy Glaudini (synths, lead vocals), Lola Dompé (drums, vocals) and Halle Saxon (bass) – is back with their second album, Excess. They are sharing the video for “New Beginning”, directed by Ambar Navarro.

On Excess, Automatic synthesizes a new strain of retrofuturist motorik pop. The album rides the imaginary edge where the ‘70s underground met the corporate culture of the ‘80s – or, as the band puts it, “That fleeting moment when what was once cool quickly turned and became mainstream, all for the sake of consumerism.”


Using this point in time as a lens through which to view the present moment, Excess takes aim at corporate culture and extravagance via the medium of icy motorik pop songs. The overarching themes of alienation and escapism emerged as Automatic put Excess together, taking writing retreats to flesh out the new songs before decamping to the studio for sprint recording sessions with producer Joo Joo Ashworth (Sasami, FROTH).


On “New Beginning” – inspired by the Swedish sci-fi film Aniara – Automatic reject the false hope of leaving behind a scorched planet and searching for “a better place”, at a moment when the ultra-rich are eyeing manned space travel: “In the service of desire / We will travel far away”. Imagining the “nihilism and loneliness” of attempting to escape the planet once unchecked consumerism has reached its logical outcome, the song pictures being “stranded in a space-void with no connection to Earth or humanity.” ​​In the video directed by Ambar Navarro, a trip to space starts out fun before taking a dark turn.


The mirrored bodice on the album’s cover – shot at California’s Salton Sea, a site of environmental decay – reflects the present day Automatic explores on Excess: distorted and chaotic with a sleek sheen. But Excess’ final message is one of solidarity, rather than despair. As Izzy puts it,

"The record is about what happens to our psyches when we’re conditioned to certain values, the consequences of those values, and a desire to resist them."


Automatic will open for Parquet Courts and Tame Impala this Spring and play at Cruel World Festival, then will head to Europe for a run of shows including Wide Awake (UK), Primavera Sound (Spain), and Best Kept Secret (NL), before returning to open for Osees in September. More shows are to be announced; see below for a full list of dates.

Photo credit: Logan White


AUTOMATIC TOUR DATES

US (with Parquet Courts)

Apr 22 WA Seattle Showbox

Apr 23 BC Vancouver Imperial

Apr 25 OR Portland Crystal Ballroom

Apr 27 CA Oakland Fox

Apr 28 CA Los Angeles Wiltern

US

May 14-15 CA Los Angeles Cruel World Festival

US (with Tame Impala)

May 26 OH Columbus KEMBA Live! Festival Stage

May 28 NC Wilmington Live Oak Bank Pavilion


UK & EUROPE

May 28 UK London Wide Awake

May 29 UK Liverpool Future Yard

May 30 UK Leeds Headrow House

May 31 UK Brighton Green Door Store

June 1 FR Lille La Bulle Cafe

June 2 FR Paris L'international

June 3 FR Angers Levitation

June 4 ES Barcelona Primavera

June 5 ES Barcelona Primavera

June 8 IT Ravenna Beaches Brew

June 9 CH Aarau Kiff (with Choir Boy & Soft Kill)

June 10 CH Neuchatel Festineuch

June 11 DE Mannheim Maifeld Derbi

June 12 NL Hilvarenbeek Best Kept Secret

June 13 NL Amsterdam Bitterzoet

June 14 NL Nijmegen Merleyn

June 15 DE Berlin UFO Sound Studios

June 16 DE Koln Bumann & Sohn

June 17 BE Charlerois Fete De La Musique

June 18 NL Den Haag Grauzone


US (with Osees)

Sept 5 San Francisco Chapel

Sept 6 San Francisco Chapel

Sept 7 San Francisco Chapel

Sept 9 Portland Roseland

Sept 10 Seattle Neumos

Sept 11 Seattle Neumos


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