Kaskade - Automatic


Kaskade
Automatic
2015

Where did Kaskade go? Throughout his career he has been a progressive house trail blazer and crafted some of the best late night/early morning club tunes. His music was rock solid in its soaring highs and incredible vocals. Automatic is not that at all. On this record Kaskade instead ventures closer to the electronic dance music of the day with mixed results. It seems as though the temptation of pop stardom has influenced this record as Kaskade tries to move out from the dank clubs and into the bright lights of the festival scene but throughout the record you can tell there is almost no heart in this record. Beside the absolutely incredible voices he brings (Estelle. K.Flay and others) this record really has nothing to hold on to. It is not dreamy enough to be Odesza or Slow Magic and it is not drop heavy enough to be Skrillex or Diplo, it is somewhere in between which for this album is just not good. You keep waiting for a song to extend into a soaring crescendo or for something to get down and dirty but it just never happens.

Perhaps the aim of this record was something safe, and it really is quite safe. While existing in the middle Kaskade is not going to ruffle any feathers, but He also is not going to sway any fans over to the House scene, because this really is not a House record. "A Little More" and "Promise" are two of the better tracks on the album with "A Little More" incorporating strings giving us something somewhat interesting, but even those tracks drag and drag. The upbeat moments are so fleeting and rare that no amount of attempt at dreamy electronica can really help this album. More than anything on this record you get the sense that Kaskade is chasing the vanguard of the music instead of setting it. He isn't pushing anything forward instead he is more giving his take, which really we didn't need. Wishing an artist would go back to their roots is always a bit of a slippery slope, they do not want to be bogged down by their past but they also don't want to leave it completely behind, on Automatic Kaskade could have used a little dose of his own former goodness to pull this out from obscurity. Skip Automatic you will be glad you did.

4 out of 10 

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