Customer Reviews

Future Perfect

5 star:		(32)
4 star:		(7)
3 star:		(1)
2 star:		(2)
1 star:		(1)

 

 

Being a fan of Failure, I was instantly interested in listening to this album. It grows on you very fast and doesn't get old. If you like your music to have that spacey feel with interesting singers (yes, plural) and a lot of distortion, this is perfect. Future perfect, perhaps. hahaha, I'm lame. I know.
Yes, there are remnants of Sonic Youth and My Bloody Valentine here, but as you listening to them more, you are hardly reminded of either.
The album flows beautifully. There's no denying that. Compared to the eight song demo, the sound is more refined. If you listen carefully to Greg on guitar, the quantity of sounds he produces is astounding. It's just him up there.
I highly recommend this album. It's one of my favorites of 2004.

Let's face it, alternative music, or what we thought of as alt-music is pretty dead, baseless, and derivative at this point. However, this album will make you howl with pleasure at first listen. Listen to it LOUD. This is an amazing band from Los Angeles/Silverlake area who formed in late 2000 and to their fans, this album has been expected for a few years after their signing with DMZ. It's hard not to listen to this record and not hear how soaked it is with swirling effects, noises, ground-shaking low end, and crashing cymbals. From the opening drums of "Turnstile Blues" to the Star Wars esque ending of "Capital Kind of Strain" this record will delight and make you put away your instruments saying "I give up." It's hard not to like a record with the guitar of former Failure bassist/guitarist Greg Edwards, who of course has been credited with a lot of the writing and creativity after his heroin induced spark of creativity on the classic Failure album "Fantastic Planet." The band is rounded out by Eugene Goreshter on bass and vocals, previously in Maids of Gravity and also played on the Beastie Boys track off of "Ill Communication" called "Eugene's Lament", and Carla Azar on drums and vocals who previously played drums in Ednaswap, and has worked on drums for Elvis Costello as well as writing songs with the late Jeff Buckley ("What Would you Say"). I guess the record has it's roots in 90's alt rock, especially 90's L.A art-alt-rock like Failure and Medicine, even some My Bloody Valentine could be picked up on first listen. It's hard to nail down standout tracks because they all seem to be amazing, but I guess I would say tracks like "Great Days for the Passeneger Element", "Blanket" with it's amazing guitar effect in the chorus, as well as "Here Comes Everbody." don't sleep on this album, it's the best one you'll hear this year, and for a few years to come. And catch them live, it's very loud, and if you're epileptic, maybe take your medicine before hand. Enjoy!

This album is a shock. It is a surprise at every moment. It's like the last five years never happened. The first three songs are wonderful. It takes a reinvents all sorts of music from the past twenty years. It is not a rehash. There is some futuristic element to this band. It is very arty music. It is elegant music. Every element and every sound seems really worked on. It's like fine chiseled sculpture. "Sugarless" and "Blanket" are some of my favorite songs. These songs are unforgetable. I am surprised that I have not heard of this band before this year. I saw them play in November and it was amazing. This album is ultimately very satisfying. It's exciting that T. Bone Burnett was involved. Some bands are brash and rock out. It is really exciting to see something done with such style. Autolux is unique.

Autolux - Future Perfect.

I was first introduced to this group when they were opening for The Secret Machines during their 2004 tour. Both groups were amazing.
Future Perfect opens with catchy melodic sound that just demands to be played at the loudest. There are a couple things about this album that you can consider in obtaining it.

First, It is shoegazing and rock at it's finest. The music is loud and beautiful, yet it feels a bit restrained. See "Robots in The Garden" Raunchy guitar noise, see "Asleep At The Trigger" for beautiful guitar noise. The entire album is beautiful, catchy and different.

Second, the music is unlike anything in music at this time. The comparisons made by critics and Amazon's "Recommended" and "Similar Artists" sections are disorienting. They have faint similarities to Sonic Youth, My Bloody Valentine simply becasuse Future Perfect sounds so old school and noisy. Eugene and Carla's voices are beautiful together, ("Sugarless"). The drumming is right on, Carla seems to be musically trained, since she holds the sticks like the kids in a marching band. Greg's guitar effects add a great depth to the music, creating what can be simply discribed as "edgy space noise".

They'll be touring later in 2005 with NIN and they routinely play in whatever little clubs in L.A. They've been touring like mad in the last year!

This is a fantastic album for a burgeoning band. I had a chance to see these guys open up for Secret Machines in DC and they were outstanding. I know a lot of people will have the tendency to compare them to Sonic Youth and MBV, but at least they did their homework (those are two of the best bands ever!)

Honestly, if you enjoy rock that lingers in and out of distortion with solid melodies, basslines, and drums--as well as dreamy vocals--you will love this album. Give it a listen a couple times and I can't see any rock fan being disappointed. This is pure dream pop!

This album would deserve TEN STARS... if it had been released in 1989. Now, it gets 4. It is true, they take a page from Sonic Youth, MBV, and I even hear some "Gish" era Smashing Pumpkins in there. But they do pull it off well. It is a nice easy listen with very few weak moments. If you are looking for new and exciting music, might be best to move on. If you want to hear a great reminder of what you loved about some of the best elements of 90's pre-grunge then break out your Converse One Stars, douse yourself in patchouli oil, drink a bottle of robatusin and give it a listen.

this album is exceptional. i wasn't surprised when i read they opened for nine inch nails. they are right in the vein of trent reznor's musical taste along with the dresden dolls.
the vocals are very androgynous, and the guitars and bass have some really crunchy fuzz, which i am glad to hear a band that has enough balls to dirty up their guitar, adding a whole new dimension to their style (kinda like the rentals or even deadsy). most of the album is acoustic guitar, distant "garage-sounding" drums, followed by intense moments of distorted pop. there is a heavy shoegazer influence which is unmistakable, that pretty, bittersweet, mysterious, cool sound. "cool" is the perfect word to describe the sound of this band. and "sugarless" is one of the coolest pop hooks i've ever heard.
from reading the other reviews, many have compared them to sonic youth and my bloody valentine, and yes, that's correct. that's what i thought of when i listened to them. that's what a lot of other people thought to. however, it's a very broad statement, you really have to listen to them to understand.
if you are into this, you might want to check out failure (of course), folk implosion, imperial teen, stereolab, dandy warhols, elliot smith, deathcab for cutie, "tiny music" by stp, broken social scene, any shoegazer, girls vs. boys, slint, giant drag, the breeders, unwound, the the, and anything "art-rock" if you feel like being a little trendy.

Future Perfect stands before you today as one of the very best records of 2004. For any fan of alternative noise rock, art rock, space rock, shoegaze, or any other blanket genre classification, Future Perfect is a must-have. As Autolux's debut and only LP, it's a great (and the only) place to start for a newcomer to the band. Autolux has an incredibly appealing and original style, using sparse instrumentation, spacious reverb on the guitars and drums, and ample noise to create a very signature sound. Though they're often compared to My Bloody Valentine, Sonic Youth, and Smashing Pumpkins, I find Autolux provides something that I've never really heard before, though you can certainly see where the band's influences are.

I won't talk about single songs, because this album is about the ALBUM, not any individual track. Nonetheless, the songs are fantastic. If the first three tracks don't get you hooked, check your heartbeat: you're probably a rotting zombie corpse. If you want to call this space rock, and if this is in fact the perfect future of music, sign me up. I'm still anxiously awaiting the band's long-coming follow-up to this phenomenal record. A serious must-have for any music fan.

This is a great album. See other reviews for a rehash.

BUT if you ever get a chance to see this band live...YOU ABSOLUTELY MUST. It is the most amazing experience. Orgasmic. Heavenly. I don't know why, but the way the album is mixed doesn't reflect the evil, crunchy, powerful sounds that come out of the live show. I've seen many, many concerts and theirs rates in my top 10 of all time. In DC, I can tell you they play at clubs like 9:30 and Black Cat. Unfortuntely, I didn't see a space on their webpage that listed upcoming shows. But you should really check out your local indie clubs to see if Autolux is coming.

Say what you want about Autolux sounding like 'Sonic Youth' or any other band, I feel that they really have something new going on in this album. "Here Comes Everybody" blew me away when I first heard it, and I subsequently enjoyed everything else on this album. Screw every other reviewer who claims that this is the same old recycled crap, they're just disgruntled old folks. This album is definitely worth buying for any fan who appreciates the old days of 'grunge' and Smashing Pumpkins, or any other fan of distortion guitar-rock and 80's "punk."