| | An album of electronic music created for VW commercials, "Automotive" has a dark, driving feeling throughout, like you're driving through the city after midnight, a little faster than you should, with the city lights washing over the shiny roof of your car as you cruise along, somehow managing never to hit a red light.
I had to buy this album after seeing Neill perform live (opening either for Goldfrapp or Supreme Beings of Leisure, I can't remember which). He himself was quite the sight onstage, coaxing strange colored line graphics on a projected screen by handling his large, bizarre electronic "mutant trumpet" with which he could apparently produce just about any symphonic sounds he desired.
The real show stealer for me, however, was Andrew Montgomery's digitally enhanced vocals. Real-time synthesizers gave them an unabashedly feminine, ethereal, heartrending quality that just made you stop whatever you were doing and go "ooo." They went perfectly with the dark electronic backdrop of Neill's driving trumpet symphony.
Rather unfortunately, Montgomery's voice only appears in a few of the songs on the album. I had been hoping that Neill would do a full album with Montgomery after "Automotive," but fate does not seem to have decreed that this should occur. Dommage.
So, the two or so tracks with Montgomery are the real emotional heart of this album, but the rest will still stand you in good stead if you find yourself cruising the city some dark, glistening night. |
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