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2LP
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CPT 619LP
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The fifth album by the Berlin band Automat pours oil on the fire. Heat is more homogeneous, warmer and rounder than its predecessors. Intimate dub, rich bass, scrambled delays, deep blue trip hop, deep violet downtempo ballads, reggae/rap sparks fly here and there, all of which makes Heat a beautiful album. Heat stands for a process of change: both in the line-up and for the energy and passion of the new line-up. After a longer break due to Corona, the leave of guitarist Jochen Arbeit, the entry of keyboardist Max Loderbauer and producer Ingo Krauss as well as the ingenious reinforcement by Scott Montieth (Deadbeat), singer Barbie Williams and the guests on the microphone Gemma Ray and both reggae legends Prince Alla and R Zee Jackson, the new Automat is running like a machine. Automat are: Achim Färber (Phillip Boa & The Voodooclub, Skip McDonald), Georg Zeitblom (wittmann/zeitblom), Max Loderbauer (Ricardo Villalobos/Sun Electric/Moritz Von Oswald Trio), and Scott Montieth (Deadbeat). Black double LP with black inner sleeves. Includes download card.
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12"
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CPT 564EP
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Automat's Modul Remixes #2 package presents the heavyweight producers Acid Pauli, Detroit's own Terrence Dixon, DeWalta, Shahrokh Dini, and Dubvisionist, from the respected Echo Beach label, blurring the boundaries between peak time club music, dub, techno, electronica, and house.
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2LP
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CPT 558LP
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Automat -- Jochen Arbeit (Einstürzende Neubauten, Die Haut), Achim Färber (Phillip Boa & The Voodooclub, Skip McDonald), and Georg Zeitblom (wittmannzeitblom) -- operates like a well-oiled machine: it buzzes, it whirrs, it follows an unswerving course. Together with modular magician Max Loderbauer and Paul St. Hilaire, aka Tikiman, Lydia Lunch, and Mika Bajinski on vocal duties, they now present Modul their most varied and consistent album to date, on Compost Records. On their fourth album, the trio shifts down a gear, further refines its musical approach and partners with other figures from the world of adventurous music. The eight pieces on Modul were written collectively based on a building block system that dynamically set the compositional process in motion and evenly divided responsibility between all participants. The result is a musical perpetuum mobile -- an album with the steady resting pulse of a dub production that always stays on the move. As an album, »Modul« captures a continuous process of transformation that was first to be experienced in the year 2018, when Automat presented an earlier version at the Pop-Kultur festival as part of a commissioned work. Having been invited by the curatorial team, Zeitblom, Färber, and Arbeit together with their guests St. Hilaire, Lunch, and Gemma Ray created a live set that was resolutely developed in the studio on the basis of single modular elements that were (re-)combined according to the principle of a resonance module: it's a to-and-fro between the individual members, structures morph and the sound incessantly takes on different shapes.
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CD
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BB 246CD
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From Detroit techno and hip-hop's early sampling experiments to Terre Thaemlitz, electronic music has long proven its political potential, even in instrumental form. With OstWest, Berlin-based electronic-kraut-dub trio Automat complete their trilogy with a deep and entrancing take on the failures of neoliberalism. Recorded in 2015 at Candy Bomber Studios in Berlin's former Tempelhof Airport at the height of the European refugee crisis, the band found itself neighbors of thousands of refugees from across the Middle East and Africa who were being provided temporary housing in the airport's former hangars directly below the studio. With the first two parts of the Automat trilogy centering on Berlin's airports, 2014's self-titled album (BB 161CD/LP), and dubs hardware of sonic space travel, 2015's Plusminus (BB 205 CD/LP), OstWest stands as a musical interpretation of the impact of these thousands of new arrivals within Germany and the EU, as well as the rise of xenophobic political movements spurned on by the Brexit. The result is a series of atmospheric and rhythmic meditations that provide the foundation for swirling electronics and the bass-heavy sounds of a changing Europe - from the musical perspective of longtime Berlin residents who have already experienced the destruction of post-Cold War optimism shortly after the fall of the wall. More driving than previous recordings, OstWest is made up of a series of first takes. While the opener "Ost" features a melange of samples, meandering organ and synth stabs that recall both Count Ossie and Basic Channel, it's with the second track "Fabrik Der Welt" that the band's kraut-y push - also featured later on "Europa" - charges forward. Where historically Europe has been used by the likes of Kraftwerk and Cluster as a metaphor for space and freedom of travel, Automat recast it as a dark rain ride to refuge, shaped by the sounds of claps and samples that race past the listener on the way to an uncertain future. The feeling of stylistic exploration remains throughout OstWest in the loping riddims and acid-jazz-like "Tränenpalast" and "Tempelhof", with the former ("Palace of Tears") named after a border crossing between East and West Germany, and the latter a shelter for new immigrants to Germany. The band's continued collaboration with Max Loderbauer is reflected in touches of modular synthesis, which augment the melding of acoustic drums and electronics. Automat is: Jochen Arbeit, Achim Färber, and Zeitblom.
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LP+CD
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BB 246LP
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LP version. Includes CD. From Detroit techno and hip-hop's early sampling experiments to Terre Thaemlitz, electronic music has long proven its political potential, even in instrumental form. With OstWest, Berlin-based electronic-kraut-dub trio Automat complete their trilogy with a deep and entrancing take on the failures of neoliberalism. Recorded in 2015 at Candy Bomber Studios in Berlin's former Tempelhof Airport at the height of the European refugee crisis, the band found itself neighbors of thousands of refugees from across the Middle East and Africa who were being provided temporary housing in the airport's former hangars directly below the studio. With the first two parts of the Automat trilogy centering on Berlin's airports, 2014's self-titled album (BB 161CD/LP), and dubs hardware of sonic space travel, 2015's Plusminus (BB 205 CD/LP), OstWest stands as a musical interpretation of the impact of these thousands of new arrivals within Germany and the EU, as well as the rise of xenophobic political movements spurned on by the Brexit. The result is a series of atmospheric and rhythmic meditations that provide the foundation for swirling electronics and the bass-heavy sounds of a changing Europe - from the musical perspective of longtime Berlin residents who have already experienced the destruction of post-Cold War optimism shortly after the fall of the wall. More driving than previous recordings, OstWest is made up of a series of first takes. While the opener "Ost" features a melange of samples, meandering organ and synth stabs that recall both Count Ossie and Basic Channel, it's with the second track "Fabrik Der Welt" that the band's kraut-y push - also featured later on "Europa" - charges forward. Where historically Europe has been used by the likes of Kraftwerk and Cluster as a metaphor for space and freedom of travel, Automat recast it as a dark rain ride to refuge, shaped by the sounds of claps and samples that race past the listener on the way to an uncertain future. The feeling of stylistic exploration remains throughout OstWest in the loping riddims and acid-jazz-like "Tränenpalast" and "Tempelhof", with the former ("Palace of Tears") named after a border crossing between East and West Germany, and the latter a shelter for new immigrants to Germany. The band's continued collaboration with Max Loderbauer is reflected in touches of modular synthesis, which augment the melding of acoustic drums and electronics. Automat is: Jochen Arbeit, Achim Färber, and Zeitblom.
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CD
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BB 205CD
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"In my desperate attempt to free art from the ballast of objectivity, I took refuge in the square form and exhibited a picture which consisted of nothing more than a black square on a white field. The critics and, along with them, the public sighed, 'Everything which we loved was lost. We are in a desert...' But the desert is filled with the spirit of non-objective feeling..." --Kazimir Malevich. "Anyone endeavoring to free music from such weight inevitably lands at dub, the analog mother of all minimalist pop. The studio as a black cube, devouring all that is dispensable or banal. Rhythm and sound prioritized over melody. Repetition reveals itself as a form of change; focus gravitates to important details. It was under this premise that Berlin-based trio Automat recorded the follow-up to their 2014 self-titled debut (BB 161CD/LP). Denser and more unflinching than their debut, Plusminus recalls the monolith in Stanley Kubrick's 2001 (1968). There's nothing here to hold on to, and yet so much of it that the listener is transported into a kind of trance. While its predecessor featured prominent guest vocalists like Lydia Lunch, Blixa Bargeld, and Genesis P-Orridge, here it is the studio that speaks -- the 1950s analog technology of Candy Bomber Studios, Tempelhof, Berlin, where Automat recorded the album over three days, without much rehearsal. First takes were final -- limitation as strength. Most track-titles come from devices and effects units used during production: 'EMT 140' is a two-meter long reverb-plate and 'H 910' is a harmonizer that defined the sound of David Bowie's Low. Automat member Zeitblom had been searching for this unit for ten years; his perseverance paid off. The thunderous bass lines, delirious rhythms, and hypnotic sounds of Plusminus make notions of categories and genres superfluous. Of course, we're not dealing with classic dub reggae here. And the Detroit techno of musicians such as Terrence Dixon is another story. Yet oscillating between these poles is a music that also draws from jazz and other genres without compromising its autonomy. One can follow this development through previous productions, including a 2014 split single with Schneider TM (BB 178EP) and a 2015 EP with Max Loderbauer (BB 197EP). But with Plusminus, Automat has succeeded in creating their interim masterpiece" --Jürgen Ziemer. Automat is Jochen Arbeit (Einstürzende Neubauten, Die Haut), Achim Färber (Project Pitchfork, Prag, Phillip Boa), Georg Zeitblom (Sovetskoe Foto).
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LP+CD
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BB 205LP
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CD
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BB 161CD
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Three pilots. A recipe. A construction manual. Machine. Apparatus. Jochen Arbeit, Achim Färber, zeitblom = Automat. Arbeit, Färber, zeitblom have been collaborating under the name Automat since the end of 2011. Their debut album features Lydia Lunch, Genesis Breyer P-Orridge & Blixa Bargeld. A Berlin Affair. Just to untangle the threads: Jochen Arbeit, the guitarist who came to world prominence with Die Haut and Einstürzende Neubauten; Achim Färber, a sought-after drummer with the likes of Project Pitchfork, Prag and Phillip Boa; and finally, the bassist zeitblom, known from Sovetskoe Foto and through his award-winning radio-play works, especially in collaboration with author/publisher Michael Farin, with whom the piece "Kyffhäuser/Unternehmen Barbarossa/Träume vom Tod!" was musically adapted by Automat for the Berlin Volksbühne in 2012. Automat, a constant groooove. An album, as you would imagine flying to if you have never flown: a steady glide from leaving the apartment to reaching the destination. No waiting, no queuing, no turbulence; a smooth check-in, easy border controls, unhindered boarding. Take a seat and take off. Automat tells of Berlin, once a city with four airports. "Tempelhof" makes the start: reverberating cowbells, an urgent bass sequence, chopped meanderings, an evil recollection that reminds of THF in its heyday. "Schönefeld," where the guitars flange and the delays bounce. "Gatow" swings to the Ebow. And "Tegel." No question. "Tegel" grooves most elegantly. Three narratives -- of a lake with a menacing name, of an enchanted mountain, of strange roads -- feature within Automat's otherwise instrumental epic. Three guests, three additional voices and storytellers to speak to us: Lydia Lunch, Genesis Breyer P-Orridge and Blixa Bargeld. Guests, yes, but actually they are much more: old acquaintances, good friends, trusted colleagues. You can hear how they work their way into the pieces without taking them over, but lending that certain something and thus contributing to the idea of a band. Lighthouses. Automat is naturally the sum of its parts, and all of them have learned and taught during the post-punk era. One may recall the time during the mid-1980s, when the UK industrial-oriented artists discovered dance music. Automat docks onto that -- sawing, ringing guitars and dub-reggae bass lines meet in empty hangars with harsh, slow breakbeat rhythms garnished by ticking percussion instruments from the most exciting and remote places on earth -- and takes the dance into the present day.
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LP+CD
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BB 161LP
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LP version. Pressed on 180 gram vinyl. Includes a CD copy of the album. Three pilots. A recipe. A construction manual. Machine. Apparatus. Jochen Arbeit, Achim Färber, zeitblom = Automat. Arbeit, Färber, zeitblom have been collaborating under the name Automat since the end of 2011. Their debut album features Lydia Lunch, Genesis Breyer P-Orridge & Blixa Bargeld. A Berlin Affair. Just to untangle the threads: Jochen Arbeit, the guitarist who came to world prominence with Die Haut and Einstürzende Neubauten; Achim Färber, a sought-after drummer with the likes of Project Pitchfork, Prag and Phillip Boa; and finally, the bassist zeitblom, known from Sovetskoe Foto and through his award-winning radio-play works, especially in collaboration with author/publisher Michael Farin, with whom the piece "Kyffhäuser/Unternehmen Barbarossa/Träume vom Tod!" was musically adapted by Automat for the Berlin Volksbühne in 2012. Automat, a constant groooove. An album, as you would imagine flying to if you have never flown: a steady glide from leaving the apartment to reaching the destination. No waiting, no queuing, no turbulence; a smooth check-in, easy border controls, unhindered boarding. Take a seat and take off. Automat tells of Berlin, once a city with four airports. "Tempelhof" makes the start: reverberating cowbells, an urgent bass sequence, chopped meanderings, an evil recollection that reminds of THF in its heyday. "Schönefeld," where the guitars flange and the delays bounce. "Gatow" swings to the Ebow. And "Tegel." No question. "Tegel" grooves most elegantly. Three narratives -- of a lake with a menacing name, of an enchanted mountain, of strange roads -- feature within Automat's otherwise instrumental epic. Three guests, three additional voices and storytellers to speak to us: Lydia Lunch, Genesis Breyer P-Orridge and Blixa Bargeld. Guests, yes, but actually they are much more: old acquaintances, good friends, trusted colleagues. You can hear how they work their way into the pieces without taking them over, but lending that certain something and thus contributing to the idea of a band. Lighthouses. Automat is naturally the sum of its parts, and all of them have learned and taught during the post-punk era. One may recall the time during the mid-1980s, when the UK industrial-oriented artists discovered dance music. Automat docks onto that -- sawing, ringing guitars and dub-reggae bass lines meet in empty hangars with harsh, slow breakbeat rhythms garnished by ticking percussion instruments from the most exciting and remote places on earth -- and takes the dance into the present day.
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