autodrone
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autodrone

New York City, New York, United States | INDIE

New York City, New York, United States | INDIE
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"some of the best new shoegaze-esque music being created these days."

When I made my sojourn from Babylon (read: Los Angeles) to the worn streets of NYC I was excited about all the great music to explore and discover throughout this great city. I’ve seen what feels like millions of bands, and stumbling upon a band like Autodrone always makes my heart sing and makes it clear what a smart move it was.

Only in NYC can a band be this good, with a unique sound so fully formed and on the verge of releasing an excellent album, Strike A Match, and still not be signed. They have a palette of great songs that swing from dark-tinged, MBV-meets-electro-rock all the way to big, inspiring numbers built on a huge bed of sound. There’s a touch of pop-melodicism sprinkled throughout, but only when it feels necessary: the hooks are there, but they never dominate the tracks.

The record has a big, dramatic swath, yet it’s completely devoid of histrionic posturing and swings from mysterious, brooding tracks to brighter songs with a natural ebb and flow that never feels forced. The album alternates between the charging immediacy of tracks like “Can’t Keep These” with its tearing lead guitar and dance-rock bass rhythm with a selection of churning, ambient guitar tracks. The most successful of these experimental interludes is the alluring “Moth of July” which teases with a mash of beautiful sounds that threaten to coalesce into a firm melody before slipping away into the ether.

The excellent, and undeniable, “Final Days” starts with a mysteriously expectant guitar line before climbing into a stomping march of a chorus complete with vocalist Emily Varlas’ haunting, but commanding voice. The track ultimately grows into a shuddering, noisy finale before collapsing down into a sea of feedback.

As the album moves into its last quarter we’re treated to a pair of songs that appear as a brighter turn after the record’s darker beginnings. “With Arms Raised” and “Of Home” churn into towers of sound lead by the inventive guitar work/sounds of guitarist Jeremy Alisauskas. They’re uplifting but realistic, hopeful yet cautious, and shining examples of some of the best new shoegaze-esque music being created these days.

This is the kind of band and the type of record that keeps me hopeful. The idea that music this strong is out there, under the radar, makes my frequent sojourns out into the city worthwhile. This is a band worth seeking out, worth listening to and most of all, getting excited about.

Strike A Match, their new album will be available circa late November through iTunes and inSound not long after. The moment you hear these songs, you'll realize how ridiculous it is that Autodrone has yet to get signed--though it seems that can hardly last for long. - Sonicfrontiers.net


"One of the best albums I've heard this year"

Autodrone - Strike a Match
Reviewed by - Joshua Pfeiffer

Well... this just came out of nowhere. One of the best albums I've heard this year was dropped in my lap a week or so ago. Some of you might recall Autodrone from one of our older "Notes From the New Underground" comps. Their song "Forward Fever" was in my opinion one of the highlights of the compilation. I wasn't sure what exactly became of them following that E.P.

Apparently they were busily crafting one of the flat out coolest albums I've heard in quite some time.

The opening number "Strike a Match" starts off sounding like any number of Post-Punk revival bands, but within a minute the song kicks into a hyper-kinetic chorus and doesn't let up from there. One thing you will notice that pops up on most of the album is the walls of guitar feedback manipulated as a part of the background ambience. It isn't so overbearing as to completely overpower the rest of the music like My Bloody Valentine or Jesus and Mary Chain, but actually adds a unique texture that balances out perfectly with Emily Varlas very pretty vocals. This is the kind of thing that sets Autodrone apart from the increasingly crowded Post-Punk scene.

"Final Days" follows and is another great catchy track with some excellent thick synthisizer elements drifting over the top of the more traditional arrangements. The next track "100,000 Years of Revenge" is the first of a few experimental noise numbers on the album and unlike most bands that throw in noisy filler, this song actually fits into the album perfectly. In fact it transitions to the next song "Kerosene Dreams" flawlessly. "Sometime" flows right out of another short instrumental piece, and is as as good as any of the other songs on the album. Once again feedback squalls drift in and out amongst tribal toms, and dreamy guitar textures. "Through the Backwoods" follows and is probably the poppiest/catchiest song on the album yet. It has some classic Post-Punk dance elements and excellent melodic hooks. "Moth of July" is the next experimental number, and it's good for what it is. However I felt it could have been quite a bit shorter. Six minutes is a little long for an experimental track on a pop/rock LP. "Can't Keep These" is a nother good track, though it didn't particularly stand out to me. "With Arms Raised" on the other hand once again displays these guys melodic chops with some more excellent hooks and interesting arrangements. "Of Home" is yet another "good" track that didn't particularly grab me. Perhaps it just reminded me of some of the earlier songs on the album too much.

However the closing number "Pictures" takes a step away from the style of the rest of the album and is a lilting ballad with pianos buried under walls of drifting guitar feedback and squalls. But as I mentioned earlier the feedback feels more like a background effect and fades in and out of the song, and adds a sense of tension to an otherwise sweet, and pleasant melody.

So their's my review. Go pick up their album, it is that good. Oh and to any potential record labels looking for a band... these guys are believe or not currently unsigned! If I could ever get Movement Productions up and running as a label, I'd sweep these guys up in a heartbeat!

Records of Recommendation:

For once I can't really think of any particular bands to compare an album to. This is just too unique of a sound for me to try and do that. - post-punk.com


"mark barton on strike a match"

More knee knocking loveliness this time from New York’s Autodrone whose name for the more hardened and long standing readers among you may well remember us mentioning a few years via their debut demo EP which if we recall rightly had some thing of a Sonic Youth twist about its wares which had us pricking our ears up in admiration. There‘s no doubting the bruised beauty and intensely epic thorough breeding that pulses throughout the whole of ‘Strike a Match’. Over the course of the ensuing years Autodrone have honed their mercurial spirit to the point of an enviable fine art, all at once intricate and devastating, caressing and crushing, tender and turbulent ‘Strike a Match‘ is in one short word colossal and in another ravaged.

Within the grooves that weld together these 12 monolithic slabs Autodrone fuse sublimely the family tree roots that tie together the disparate generic dialects of shoe gaze, dream pop and psych along the way taking the unusual step of front loading the turbulence and attrition to morph and develop towards the close into a hitherto more stream lined and tender natured spectacle so that you have the contrasting book ended bridging of the opening salvo of the title cut the simmering strike a pose ’strike a match’ - (a hollowing crystalline and ethereal shade wearing fuzz fuelled tailgates of feedback induced cosmic interference peppered by momentary eruptions of hyper driven grinds a la Curve though ostensibly edgier in texture) - and the frailly majestically mellowing and softly unwinding stratospheric serenade of the blissed out and utterly touching key motifs of ’pictures’ (think hallowing hazes of Flying Saucer Attack shimmers scratching away at a distantly dreamy Sundays - nuff said).

From the almost Cathedral-esque framing of the darkly curdling mantra like ’final days’ to the spectral chill of the kaleidoscopic cruise controlled ’kerosene dreams’ with its wrappings of astral ambience and lunatic lightshow swirls all decoded and dusted in its seductive trestles of sonic embroidery deliciously looses itself in its own incubated igloo of mind expanding florescent fog, Autodrone indelibly craft out lush star crossed atmospheric landscapes dimpled with psychotropic accents occasionally breached by shimmering surges of shock treated raptures of grinding power driven bliss out grooves deftly masked in shadowy terrains that to these ears tap sublimely with enviable ease into worlds previously occupied by the likes of the Cranes, Heart Throbs, MBV (check out ‘through the backwoods’), Bleach and Bang Bang Machine the latter of whom are admirably arrested albeit as though shimmying up to mid 80’s era March Violets on the vibrantly sugar rushing effects laden dream coat that is the uber cool and refined ’Something’. Elsewhere the frazzled and fractured proto punk-a-delic death disco goo that is the unforgiving ’can’t keep these’ is certainly pre packed with enough sly knowingness to make Garbage turn green while the buzzing 60’s sourced bubblegum pop thrill of ’with arms raised’ is tastily festooned with a pulse racing feel good effervescence as though a face off between the sugary peppermint pop of Strawberry Switchblade had undergone a spot of re-spraying at the hands of Lush though personally for us we are quite smitten by the doom lashed bleakly barren austere grip of windswept cinematics bled through the drone drilled death rattle of the psycho-tronically opining and haunted ‘moth of July’.

Unquestionably recommended.

http://www.myspace.com/autodrone

Key tracks -

Moth of July
Kerosene dreams
Pictures
With arms raised




MARK BARTON

- losing today.uk


"Incoming (New York Press)"

“…the audio equivalent of what you see on a restless night as you just begin to touch the edge of sleep.”
-New York Press
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Moody, very moody. Alternately pretty and darkly intense, Autodrone have made the daring step of embracing influences from the 90s while the rest of New York is mired in 1968, ’77 or ’80. An unapologetic nod to the shoegazer bands of yore, but with a modern rock band’s pop sensibility, AD is the audio equivalent of what you see on a restless night as you just begin to touch the edge of sleep. - New York Press


"Plug In Music"

:: "Autodrone" by Autodrone
(Self-Released 2004)
Autodrone New York City's Autodrone are indie rock with instrumentation that makes it all worthwhile. While they claim a "drone" sound, they are not Earth, Dead Meadow, or Sunn. Autodrone rely on their nostalgic focused jam sound that is anything but outdated.

Drums speed on the darkly melodic "Forward Fever" while Susanna Melendez's vocals are delivered unhurriedly and with a hint of attitude. Autodrone draw you in with the repetitious retro indie rock of "Blue Mind." On "For Now" they are rhythmic, intense and almost poppy before "XO" gets right to business with tight instrumentation. Autodrone play with dynamics on "Entertainment," starting slow and catchy and then quickening their pulse, and yours, before closing with "Exit," a U2 cover that builds momentum and energy carefully.

Drums stand out on Autodrone’s self-titled EP as bass and guitar blend and follow suit, coming together for an organic sound. Artsy without excluding, Autodrone, in the end, remind you that this is still entertainment.

-Corinne - pluginmusic.com


"The Village Voice"

“…miasmic punks of mangled beauty.”
-The Village Voice
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..."Latecomers will miss zoning out to the mangled beauty of miasmic punks Autodrone"

-Bergman - The Village Voice


"NY Times: Urban Eye"

“like New Order without the techno fascination but with a great singer”
- MELENA RYZIK, The N.Y. Times - The NY Times


"Additional Press..."

Additional articles, reviews, interviews, mentions and blurbs in publications such as Spin, Spin.com, Time Out New York, L magazine, R is for Revenge, numerous blogs and many other publications. - Various


"MyMixTapes.org (10 out of 10 stars)"

"All attempts to make this an unbiased review are gone; I am in love with this album! Strike A Match combines the elements of indie rock, shoegazer and experimental music into an easy to swallow depth charge. Autodrone’s first full-length album is awash in contradictions, a single song can range from claustrophobic to a sweeping landscape of sounds in just a few measures. The song “Strike A Match” plays at both ends of that spectrum, at once melodic and upbeat as well as chaotic and searing. Between several songs are instrumentals that flawlessly bridge the gaps while allowing divergent themes to play out. The closest they come to a conventional pop song is the Throwing Muses meets Cocteau Twins “Through The Backwoods”. A beautiful, fast paced anecdote of adolescent memories. Followed by “Moth Of July”, a stunning six-minute instrumental dirge, distorted vocalizing accompanied by a mournful accordion (perhaps just a synth) and psychedelic guitar.

“Moth...” has a creepy Current 93 / Coil vibe, the kind of sound feels like an especially dark cloud has passed over the sun on a blistering summer day -- cold and unwelcome, but wonderful. “Pictures” rounds out the album on a heart-breaking note. A dramatic dance between guitar noise, piano and lilting vocals, a perfect end.

Strike A Match is required listening for fans of the post punk era. They have an unabashed love of the genre, but also have the talent to make it their own. The perfect playlist for a walk in a wet garden at night." - (10 out of 10 stars) Rev. Doktor Alejandro Fruitbat
- Rev. Doktor Alejandro Fruitbat


"absolutepunk gives Strike A Match a 9.0"

"Strike a Match is the first full-length release from Autodrone, it’s an astoundingly accomplished and confident piece of music from a band with a bright future. The record shows remarkably mature songwriting and very strong musicianship, and there’s a raw energy and very honest feel that permeates every song on the record. Strike a Match is so deep and diverse that in all likelihood there is something on this album for everyone to enjoy, and for those who love the louder excesses of shoegazing rock in the vein of My Bloody Valentine, this album is a must hear." - absolute punk


Discography

*ADep01 - 2002
*ADep02 - 2004
*Fuck Your Friends - 2006
*PANIC - October 31st, 2006
*STRIKE A MATCH (LP) - 11/11 2008
*Pop Noise Fest comp on Pathetico Records.

Photos

Bio

Full Press Kit / Bio Here:
http://www.mediafire.com/?u2xg996s2u0vu9w

Autodrone formed in 2002, based on a love of all things dark, atmospheric, and experimental, fitted with a dream-pop backbone. Autodrone Seamlessly meld the sonic dynamics of noise and pop with throbbing bass lines, jagged, angular synths, searing dark atmospheric guitars and urgent banshee vocals, Autodrone have no problem reaching out from the stage to the crowd, grabbing you by the throat, and screaming in your face, even when sometimes they are whispering.

Their shows are an intense emotional surge for the band and audience alike. Their self-released EPs and notorious performance art-colored live shows have quickly developed the attention of the UK and American Press garnering universally favorable reviews, while easily selling out of print.

The Strike A Match LP is Autodrone's latest studio effort. Their debut LP is darker, denser, and more experimental, yet more catchy and hook-laden than any of their previous work. The album has received a deluge of critical acclaim and has made it onto multiple "best of 2007" lists, though was at the time unreleased. Strike A Match caught the attention of the indie Label Clairecords, who released the CD November of 2008

Autodrone is composed of five lifelong friends, who are absolutely in love with music, they have toured both the East and West Coast in support of both the Panic EP and Strike A Match LP, and have played festivals such as Pop Noise, ATJ, NEMO, Northside Festival, SXSW, and CMJ multiple times.

Some of the bands who they have shared stages with along the way are:
THE SWIRLIES, GREGORY AND THE HAWK, HEALTH, WORLD/INFERNO FRIENDSHIP SOCIETY, RAINER MARIA, SONIC BOOM (of Spacemen 3), DIRTY ON PURPOSE, SERENA MANEESH, MATT & KIM, THE CLOUD ROOM, SCANNERS, OH NO OH MY, PARTS AND LABOR, AMPOP, OPPENHEIMER, A PLACE TO BURY STRANGERS, SUICIDE, THE FLESH, GEORGIE JAMES, TAKKA TAKKA and ASOBI SEKSU.