AUTOVOICE - A Living Death
Songs: 13  Time:  53:01
While A Living Death by Autovoice is nothing groundbreaking, it still contains some effective musical elements that many newer bands lack.  One such element is a melody, which can be found on We Know What We Know.  Now I'm not talking about a jumpy, happy, Erasure-esque style melody, but rather a darker, foreboding kind of melody.  Prevent the Future From Happening lacks the melodic elements of the previous track, but makes up for it with jagged, distorted beats and exasperating vocals.  The vocals take another turn on Tension, becoming less harsh and jumping back and forth between distorted and natural.  While I do like the combination of vocal styles, the music on this piece is less complex and a tad repetitive.  Passing Out of Sight is more along the lines of an experimental track in that there is no beat present and the whispering vocals are used as the primary instrument.  Fallout has the potential to be a really good song, but it seems as if it was recorded at too low of a level and the vocals tend to get smothered by the music.  The following track (The Perfect Solution) contains a hard electro edge in the music, but the vocals come of sounding to gothlike for my tastes.  The highlight of A Living Death is Factor, a danceable electro piece with echoing vocals, a strident beat, and crisp electronic sequences.  Not at all like its name, Your Number One Dance Song is a monotonous track with an unchanging beat and steady electronics.  The vocals on this piece are mostly delivered in a spoken manner and are barely audible.  The final track, Collapse, aligns itself with the sounds of Apoptygma Berzerk in that its style lies somewhere between electronic dance and synth-pop. T he overall impression that I get from this CD is that Autovoice have some good ideas, but they need to remain in the field a bit longer in order to improve on their style.  I believe that after one or two more releases Autovoice will be right where they need to be in order to compete with the bigger acts.
      
FLAMING FISH MUSIC
9 Koidern Ave.
Whitehorse, Yukon
Y1A 3N7
Canada
e-mail: carsta@nns.sympatico.ca
FLAMING FISH homepage:
http://www3.ns.sympatico.ca/carsta
    
Autovoice is:
Steve Shoe / Johnny Space-Echo / Morse Code