AUTO-AUTO
‘Dancing Through Dark Times'
OUT OF LINE

Now on their third album the Swedish trio of Erik Frankel, Elliott Berlin and Johan Hellqvist AKA Auto-Auto offer up perhaps their most intriguing offering to date. Never ones to stick to tried-and-tested genre blueprints the band reconstruct the expectations of what synthpop can become with ‘Dancing Through Time'.

The melodic and digitised vocals are present and so are the standard synth voices we all know and love. Add some steady dance beats and you already have guaranteed club-play. But scratch the surface and you begin to expose the more subtle rebellion in the band's arsenal of alternative-electro influences with funk, disco, breakdance and even a little outlaw country rears its head on ‘Rabbits Of Belgium'.
Songs like the previously mentioned ‘Rabbits Of Belgium' as well as ‘Black Disco Ball', ‘Someone Out There', and ‘Mimick' show off the multi-faceted talent of the band with each song on the album working perfectly both individually as well as part of the whole.

The tongue-in-cheek charm combined with the conviction of fundamentally good song writing ability is reminiscent of The Faint, and like The Faint, Auto-Auto could really assert their individuality in a genre which still suffers from the over-cloning of acts.

[4/5]