Shimmering dream pop. Spacey fuzzdrones from the future. Noisy walls of sound with 3 dimensional astral projection. Autolux lives somewhere between non-conventional means and outer space. But they also seem to have a distant love of the pop song format, to keep an appreciation on some level for accessibility. So just what kind of band are they? A diverse one. They weave through a variety of genres - indie rock, shoegazer, dream pop, noise, and sometimes jangly off-kilter kind of stuff.

So what you say? Lots of people mix genres these days and why should you care? Because it's the age of context and with Autolux it's how they put it together that's cool.

They deftly weave their way in and out of these genres and go back and forth between them. They have noise and loops between their songs. Off-kilter chords get played along side agreeable ones. It's complicated. It's like My Bloody Valentine joined with Sonic Youth to give you dream pop leanings.

Every new song brings a fresh combination. I keep waiting for the music to get played out, but it keeps getting more interesting with each listen. These are guys are passing what I call my Sonic Youth test - meaning that if the songs grow better over time with repeated listenings without becoming stale- then they are a deep and complex band.

But wait, theres more. Autolux does it with a distant appreciation for the pop format, so as deep and complex as the music is, there is still a certain out-of-the-box approachability about it.

I haven't even talked about any of the songs yet. So much for the Spacelab quick consumption format of short attention span writing. Bear with me.

So how did these get so revolutionary? The seem to understand how to abandon the past to forge into the future, based on right now. Yet the music seems timeless. They could have released this 10 years ago and been very successful with it. And yet they are doing well today with their recent Coachella appearance and all.

So on to the songs. It's all about the songs. The opener Turnstile Blues is slow and melancholy in its outset, but it keeps trying to build up energy. There's a mild blues overcover to it but it's mostly dream pop with some noise. It plays on with a determined plodding-on sense to it, with trippy noise coming in once in a while. They leave you wanting more, very saavy.

The stuff between the songs is as interesting as the songs themselves. Sometimes spacey Wonder bread loops of sound are mixed with the soundtrack like the ice cream man's song as he drives through your neighborhood. Sometimes it's just noise.

The serious rocking out begins towards the end of Sugarless. I'm experiencing a wall of sound kind of caucophony (maybe it's the volume of the song, but that's all part of it) as they start to rock out on a groove. It's noisy and chaotic, but again it's accessible in a good way. Maybe that's the defining notion of Autolux, they are great at bringing the fringe together with accessibility.

This energy continues into Blanket, and down to Robots In The Garden, a 1:50 workout that ends up as rocking as Nirvana was. And then comes the big single - Here Comes Everybody. This is a great mix of the Autolux everything. It's got all of the best parts of the band in one song. Noise, pop, a little rocking out, and that every-present spaciness.

So check them out. Buy their album, go see them when they play live near you. Do not pass Go, do not collect $200. Do it now.

Tracklist for Autolux - Future Perfect
1. Turnstyle Blues
2. Angry Candy
3. Subzero Fun
4. Sugarless
5. Blanket
6. Great Days For The Passenger Element
7. Robots In The Garden
8. Here Comes Everybody
9. Asleep At The Trigger
10. Plantlife
11. Capital Kind Of Strain

RATING: ***** 5 out of 5 stars

http://www.autolux.net/

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