How could I not listen to a record with a cover like this? Then I turned it over:
They're a mixed race band, 1977, Island records, what could this possibly sound like? I threw it on and not only was I pleasantly surprised, I was a little floored. It sounded like a prog rock version of Funkadelic... dope.So I did some research, turns out they're a San Francisco band, the drummer used to play with Santana in the 60's (he's the drummer for Santana's Woodstock performance) and if you look on Amazon.com you'll see nothing but rave reviews for this "lost classic" and its follow up LP.
This was the single off of the first LP:
taken from their myspace? (whoa):
Automatic Man came out of nowhere in 1976.
Automatic Man were a progressive rock quartet which also featured funk and Santana-inspired fusion playing. Formed in late 1975 by guitarist Pat Thrall, drummer Michael Shrieve, keyboardist Todd Cochrane AKA Bayete, and bass player Doni Harvey. The line-up of Automatic Man was not cohesive and after a second album Visitor, the band split in 1978, with Pat Thrall joining Pat Travers band.
Cochrane was a graduate of Oxford University and had recorded two unsuccessful albums on the Fantasy label in the early '70s. He teamed up with Shrieve soon after Shrieve had departed Steve Winwood and Stomu Yamashta's Go project. These two were joined by two other Bay Area musicians who had also played with Go, guitarist Pat Thrall and bassist Doni Harvey. The debut album by this assemblage reveals a strange and eclectic mixture of space rock, funk, and Jimi Hendrix-inspired guitar, powered mainly by Bayete's dreamy keyboards and vocals. It was a promising debut, but after Shrieve quit (he later formed Novo Combo), the band lost its way. The second release had a pink alien on the front sleeve; unfortunately, the music revealed more funk but less imagination.
Thrall later joined the Pat Travers Band and guested on a Narada Michael Walden album, and Doni Harvey went back to working with his brothers Regi and Chris on their power trio
HARVEY.
The Harveys released records on their independent label and they played with some of the best bands in the world, just didn't have major coverage by the media.Automatic Man, the album, was released in 1976. Quality songwriting and taut musicianship help Automatic Man to thrive as an album. It displays a sound that manages to keep its footings firmly in the mid-seventies, whilst simultaneously oozing an air of futuristic soundscapes that render it ripe for evoking mental imagery. Bayete's lush keyboard arrangements add a reverberating layer of an almost alien-like displacement around the recordings, and this is aggressively perforated by the guitar-playing of Thrall and Harvey and the pounding drumming by Shrieve.
This isn't a loose jam session or an indulgent double-album, this is an album driven by strong songwriting. Power numbers "Comin' Through" or "My Pearl" demonstrate the closest Automatic Man came to crafting singles for radio. The riffs even give you the impression that Hendrix has been brought back from the dead to appear, or even cloned! Meanwhile, breezier numbers such as "One 'N One" and "Newspapers" exhibit a more futuristic sound, as if lying on a beach on Pluto (does Pluto have beaches?)
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