Kevin Bronson on March 8th, 2022

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L.A.’s favorite mavens of motorik, Automatic, are back, swinging from their stylish heels at topics as weighty as crass consumerism, corporate greed and the alienation they induce.

The trio — Izzy Glaudini, Lola Dompé and Halle Saxon – today announced the June 24 arrival of their sophomore album, “Excess,” via Stones Throw Records. The trio time-stamps the album, with its deliciously grating synths, robotic beats and impassive vocals, on the edge of the ’70s underground and the corporatized ’80s: “That fleeting moment when what was once cool quickly turned and became mainstream, all for the sake of consumerism.”

And so it goes on the first single, “New Beginning,” which takes a swipe at space tourism (“In the service of desire / We will travel far away”). Director Ambar Navarro’s video — an homage to the Swedish sci-fi film “Aniara” — takes the trio on one of those adventures before … well, things happen.

Should we expect “Excess” to be freighted with dire warnings, then? Not necessarily. Says Glaudini: “The record is about what happens to our psyches when we’re conditioned to certain values, the consequences of those values and a desire to resist them.”

||| Watch: The video for “New Beginning”

||| Live: Automatic open for Parquet Courts on April 18 at the Wiltern (tickets). They also play May 14-15 at the Cruel World Festival.

||| Previously: Quarantunes playlist, live (with Bauhaus) at the Palladium, “Strange Conversations,” “Too Much Money” / “Calling It”