Bio
Organic acoustic based music with live instruments, electronica and layered vocals on some tracks. Cello (both bowed and played like a mini double bass), mbira (African thumb piano), autoharp, organ, live brush stick drums, electronic beats, deep soul vocals, funky percussion, home-made wierd instruments and asylum sensibilities. Experimental indie-tronica for space cadets.
Welcome to the dawn of 'uneasy listening'. Imagine a hybrid of Tom Waits, Aphex Twin, and Debussy, and you have your finger on the tip of Automated Acoustics' creative iceberg. Experimental electronica and avant-garde beats, collide on his new album, 'Love To The Dedicated Listener', creating over 65 minutes of "the most inventive music you're likely to hear this year" (Dancenova.com).
Automated Acoustics is a self-taught multi-instrumentalist extraordinaire. On this album, in addition to writing and providing all the vocals, he plays autoharp, cello, mbira (thumb piano), organ, violin, marimba, glockenspiel, drums, steelpan, percussion, piano, keys/synth, guitar, bass, singapore whistle, beatboxing, body percussion, the world's weirdest guitar, and many more. There's not one recorded music sample to be found, and he only uses homemade or old instruments, picking them up from charity shops and car-boot sales, and modifying and repairing them to his satisfaction.
Automated Acoustics grew up in the UK and spent "a large proportion of my early teens tripping in the woods with a portable recorder". At 15 he enrolled early in music-college. Three courses later, he went on to teach music production, while being a regular face at the infamous South-West free-parties and dodging the ever-curious gaze of the local plod.
If you prefer your music to challenge your cerebral cortex, then 'Love To The Dedicated Listener' is the album for you. Vocal tracks such as 'The Healing Air', 'Angels Come Back', 'Show Your Faces' and 'All I See Is You', come across like a young Tom Waits, delivered with the kind of startling musical backing that veers between glacial electronics and grinding, industrial jazz.
Remaining experimental at the core, some of his latest material has a more electronic, dance vibe, featuring a variety of female vocalists. It is a natural progression from the gritty electro-blues of "Ejector Seat Blues", through the industrial jazz of "Love To The Dedicated Listener".
