likewise, this is mildly interesting in a base, aesthetic sort of manner, but the songs don't really exist beyond the cliches they're created around.

https://automatic-band.bandcamp.com/album/signal

i kind of like shopping on a base aesthetic level, as they write these very efficient, catchy pop songs with a bit of a baroque edge. unfortunately, a consistent truth throughout their discography is that they contain their musical explorations in an exceedingly disciplined manner, which often has the effect of making their recordings seem sort of light-weight, or perhaps even dumbed-down.

i'd like to hear them toy with more elaborate compositional devices.

this show would likely not have made sense to go to.

it's like do make say think, without the grit, or tension, which i'm really missing. where a dmst think track would weave through multiple patterns and often even shift tempo a few times, this tends to just kind of sputter in place in these kind of harmonically tidy patterns that have come to define the most generic places in post-rock.

then, when they let go, they do it in every direction all at once, rather than together - the latter being something that dmst was also very good at, playing together.

so, i doubt that i would have made it out to this, unless it was a connecting show, which it was not on this night.

https://aberdeentheband.bandcamp.com/