Automato was a

Brooklyn Brooklyn () is a borough of New York City, coextensive with Kings County, in the U.S. state of New York. Kings County is the most populous county in the State of New York, and the second-most densely populated county in the United States, be ...

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-based hip hop sextet formed in 1995. Its members were Nick Millhiser (drums), Jesse Levine (vocals), Morgan Wiley (guitar), Andrew Raposo (bass), Alex Frankel (keyboards), and Ben Fries (vocals). All six of its members are from

New York City New York, often called New York City or NYC, is the List of United States cities by population, most populous city in the United States. With a 2020 population of 8,804,190 distributed over , New York City is also the L ...

except for Wiley, who was born in

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Nigeria Nigeria ( ), , ig, Naìjíríyà, yo, Nàìjíríà, pcm, Naijá , ff, Naajeeriya, kcg, Naijeriya officially the Federal Republic of Nigeria, is a country in West Africa. It is situated between the Sahel to the north and the Gulf o ...

and moved to

Las Vegas Las Vegas (; Spanish for "The Meadows"), often known simply as Vegas, is the 25th-most populous city in the United States, the most populous city in the state of Nevada, and the county seat of Clark County. The city anchors the Las Vegas ...

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in his youth. Their admiration of multiple artists from disparate genres led them to

DFA Records DFA Records is an American independent record label founded in 2001 by Mo' Wax co-founder Tim Goldsworthy, musician James Murphy, and manager Jonathan Galkin. They previously had a production team called The DFA, consisting of Goldsworthy and ...

Tim Goldsworthy Tim Goldsworthy is a British record producer, DJ and recording artist. Career Originally a musician/producer for Unkle with James Lavelle, he later worked with James Murphy of LCD Soundsystem and was formerly joint owner of DFA Records. Go ...

and James Murphy. The group released their self-titled debut album on the Coup de grâce label in 2004, and it was produced by Goldsworthy and Murphy (d/b/a/ DFA). According to Frankel, the group "kind of fell apart" soon after releasing their debut album.

Critical reception

''Automato'' received generally favorable reviews from music critics, and prompted some to describe them as "the

Radiohead Radiohead are an English rock band formed in Abingdon, Oxfordshire, in 1985. The band consists of Thom Yorke (vocals, guitar, piano, keyboards); brothers Jonny Greenwood (lead guitar, keyboards, other instruments) and Colin Greenwood (bass) ...

of hip-hop" because of their frequent experimentation in their music. For example,

Robert Christgau Robert Thomas Christgau ( ; born April 18, 1942) is an American music journalist and essayist. Among the most well-known and influential music critics, he began his career in the late 1960s as one of the earliest professional rock critics and ...

gave the album an A− grade, describing its music as "Less accomplished and sensational than

the Rapture The rapture is an eschatological position held by some Christians, particularly those of American evangelicalism, consisting of an end-time event when all Christian believers who are alive, along with resurrected believers, will rise "in the c ...

’s." He also wrote that the album's music is "a lot trippier when it comes together and also when it threatens to jump the tracks, both of which happen plenty." On the other hand,

Pitchfork Media ''Pitchfork'' (formerly ''Pitchfork Media'') is an American online music publication (currently owned by Condé Nast) that was launched in 1995 by writer Ryan Schreiber as an independent music blog. Schreiber started Pitchfork while working ...

's Rob Mitchum gave the album a rating of 3.5 out of 10, criticizing the band for their "indie-rap dullness, horrible cybernetic-produce bandname, and absolutely atrocious MC." Jason MacNeil of

AllMusic AllMusic (previously known as All Music Guide and AMG) is an American online music database. It catalogs more than three million album entries and 30 million tracks, as well as information on musicians and bands. Initiated in 1991, the databas ...

gave the album 3.5 out of 5 stars, writing that "While not a terrific album, the good

n it N, or n, is the fourteenth letter in the Latin alphabet, used in the modern English alphabet, the alphabets of other western European languages and others worldwide. Its name in English is ''en'' (pronounced ), plural ''ens''. History ...

often outweighs the occasional filler."

Discography

*''Automato'' (Coup de grâce, 2004)

References

{{DEFAULTSORT:Automato American hip hop groups Musical groups from Brooklyn Musical groups established in 1995 Alternative hip hop groups 1995 establishments in New York City Musical groups disestablished in the 2000s