The Automatik

Self-Released, 2003

This is the first CD I’ve reviewed in a while which I didn’t actually purchase. Long gone are the zanier, zinier times, of trudging through crappy “punk” 7 inches and weird, under-produced cassette tapes. Hopefully my comments won’t cause it to be the last CD I am sent to review.

Perhaps the worst, yet most honest, thing that I could say about this album is that it didn’t do anything for me. Marcil is definitely a capable guitarist, and it all starts off innocuously enough, but then it keeps being just that. “Magna Carta” is perhaps the best track because it does grab you a bit more than any of the others, but for me it’s too much jangle and not enough thrust.

I don’t want to be mistaken for the kind of person who only listens to music that makes one’s eardrums bleed, as I consider Cocteau Twins and David Sylvian among my favorites of all time. Yet there’s a depth to those artists’ offerings that is missing from Rich Marcil’s pleasant strumming. Perhaps I just don’t “get” it, not being a fan of Celtic music or anything, and it may not be Marcil’s intent to rock anyone’s world. It could be that my lack of enthusiasm just means his style is not my thing. Yet it’s not Schadenfreude that draws me to Sylvian or the Cocteau Twins, it’s the knowledge that there’s something else lurking beneath the ethereal surface.