Schrödinger's Unfortunate Discovery

Autolux - Pussy's Dead
Feature Track: Listen to the Order
Notable Mention: Brainwasher
Keep Listening: Change My Head


My kind of guitar solos! Noise, with only the bare essentials of a hook to hold it together. Sound portrayed as music.Beginning with the break in the first track, Selectallcopy, Autolux lays out the thesis for a collection of songs that breaks from the 'Pink Floyd-esque' ideas of their back catalog. With Pussy's Dead, Autolux solidly steps foot into a new evolution of hook.

Noxious bass lines that reflect off of the pads like a craggy old tree on a winter lake. This band will fool you into thinking you are listening to just another house track. Then, suddenly, it will be an ugly pop song screaming with urgency, breaking free from the pablum. A contemplative album that ebbs and flows with brave expressions of rhythm and granular synthesis.

Deadly unproductive drone tracks such as Brainwasher more than make a nod to The Beatles, but in a way that highlights the power of that McCartney turn rather than try to directly exploit it. Listen to the Order promises A Wolf at the Door kind of high and delivers in less than two minutes with the first guitar break. I am getting blindly and wonderfully disoriented into the world of the drummer during this track. at 2:30 when the rest of the animals come out to play I am beyond elation.

Reappearing sounds like a 60's summer beach song with played in 3 different keys at the same time. Their complete disregard of the currency that is harmony brings a warmness to my soul.

Change My Head is a masterpiece. It sounds like they used a speed-affected sample at different speeds to imply a bass line. These muddy sounds are replaced by an actual bass guitar for the meat of the song, which plods along like kurt kobain trying out a new progression.

Don't let the above comparisons come off as diminutive towards Autolux's accomplishments with this album. I see this band as one who is working to understand the new language of alternative/psychedelic music. This language has rapidly developed  in the last 15-20 years as main-stream rock, alternative rock, EDM, classic rock, hip-hop, jazz and classical have all started to blend together as influences of popular music. It is an ever shifting and ephemeral dialogue and Becker is as fine a punctuation as any to end any significant statement. Such as, Pussy's Dead.