@ (pronounced at) may hold the record for the least SEO friendly band name of all time. The duo of Victoria Rose and Stone Filipczak (both of whom have a long legacy in east coast DIY circles) started out as a long distance musical collaboration, but by the time they started work on their latest album, Autosmile, both were living in Philadelphia. They still largely followed the same playbook, preferring to work on songs individually rather than coming together in the studio. While it may seem unconventional, whatever they’re doing works. The end results sound fully realized, a psychedelic folk odyssey that’s familiar and alien at the same time.
On first listen, I thought Autosmile was perfectly pleasant but it didn’t really stand out. It’s melodious and clearly in the psych folk tradition, reminding me of everything from 70s private press curios to freak folk from the early aughts. However, as I started to dig deeper things got more interesting. The harmonies on “Love In The Dark” start sweet before briefly blurring together into something robotic and dissonant. Monkey howls pierce the opening moments of “Punish My Mind”. The proggy “I’m Not In Pain” grinds itself to a halt before eventually racing forward into a closing wicked guitar solo. These moments are where the music really started to come alive for me, blink and you’d miss it glitches in the matrix that reward close listening.
The deeper you dig, the weirder and weirder their music becomes. Songs like “Judgement Farmer” operate on their own dream-like internal logic, vocals and instruments seeming to push and pull each other in different directions. Even the more straightforward songs on the album like lead single “Autosmile” build from seemingly disjoint elements like whispered vocals and a flurry of guitar notes to a full fledged folk-rock epic. It’s incredibly difficult to make music this idiosyncratic sound this lived-in. With Autosmile, @ have succeeded in twisting these familiar sounds into new and astounding shapes.