Few bands view the world through a lens as sharpened as Automatic. Last we caught up with the Los Angeles alternative band, a steady buzz of beats n’ treats soundtracked a journey through a corporate dystopia that’s only grown more dire in the three years since. Now, the trio of Izzy Glaudini (synths, vocals), Halle Saxon (bass, vocals), and Lola Dompé (drums, vocals) return with a low-hum buzz through “Black Box,” a hypnotic new single that not only sets up Friday’s third album Is It Now?, out via via Stones Throw, but should also sound dope when they play Brighton Music Hall in Allston with Sextile tonight (September 24).
“Black Box” comes correct with a galactic trip-hop beat and tense atmospherics, a tumbler of an alt-pop tune that emits a signal of cautionary grayscale under a colorful groove. It’s a portal into a reflective world view, and places a price on how we’ve positioned art as a capitalist commodity.
“The title ‘Black Box’ refers to the black box in a crashed plane,” says Glaudini. “The repetitive synth is supposed to suggest a plane gliding as it crashes — an alarm distress call. I was listening to the Leonard Cohen album The Future a lot around the time the lyrics were written. It’s a pretty straightforward critique of people that have sold-out on a large scale, specifically within creative industries. Thierry Mugler said, ‘art used to tell money what to do, now money tells art what to do’ and the world is a less interesting place because of it.”
Dance to it with a full mind tonight, vibe to it with an empty feeling below.
AUTOMATIC + SEXTILE + NUXX :: Wednesday, September 24 at Brighton Music Hall, 158 Brighton Ave. in Allston, MA :: 7 p.m., 18-plus, $44.50 :: Event info :: Advance Tickets