New Orleans-to-Brooklyn duo Collin Ruffino and David Gross traffic in electronica as Home Video, but it can be tricky to say what kind of electronica. They’ve had releases on famed experimental label Warp Records (QRO live review of 20th anniversary), but decided to self-release their latest, The Automatic Process. At times on the new record Home Video sound run-of-the-mill, but other times evoke that little-known band Radiohead (QRO album review), and yet other times do other things entirely.
Comparing one act to another, unrelated act is always fraught with pitfalls, and only more so when the act being compared to is one of the biggest bands in the world, and (still) the biggest alternative music act out there. But there are tracks on The Automatic Process where the similarity is unmistakable, and the comparison puts Home Video in a positive light. The evocative darkness of "Business Transaction", the cutting pressure of "I Can Make You Feel It", and the restrained to beats-and-background effects "Description of a Struggle" aren’t quite Kid A, but they sound strong in the same way as that seminal album. Even the synth-cheese of "No Relief" grows into something much more – more Radiohead-ish, and more meaningful.
There are some less impressive efforts on The Automatic Process, especially in the more indietronic vein, as opener "Accomplished But Dead" is too balanced between haunt and beat, while "An Accident" is forgettable. But Home Video don’t have to ape Radiohead to work well: "Beatrice" is some really solid sad dancetronica, the loss to "The Smoke" is palpable, and closer "You Will Know What To Do" brightens nicely to finish out the album. If you’re going to be compared, be compared to the best, but do something more as well, as Home Video have done on The Automatic Process.
