Automatic Man came out of nowhere in 1976. The front cover of their debut album had a simple yet eye-catching blue alien staring out from space. A close look at the four-man lineup on the back sleeve, however, shows highly-respected ex-Santana drummer Michael Shrieve. But the brains and chief songwriter behind Automatic Man was keyboardist Bayete, whose real name is Todd Cochrane. ------------------------------Automatic Man were a progressive rock quartet which also featured funk and Santana-inspired fusion playing. Formed in late 1975 by guitarist Pat Thrall, drummer Michael Shrieve, keyboardist Todd Cochrane AKA Bayete, and bass player Doni Harvey. Despite a promising 1976 eponymous debut album Automatic Man, the line-up of Automatic Man was not cohesive and after a second album Visitor, the band split in 1978, with Pat Thrall joining Pat Travers band. ----------------------------------------Cochrane was a graduate of Oxford University and had recorded two unsuccessful albums on the Fantasy label in the early '70s. He teamed up with Shrieve soon after Shrieve had departed Steve Winwood and Stomu Yamashta's Go project. These two were joined by two other Bay Area musicians who had also played with Go, guitarist Pat Thrall and bassist Doni Harvey. The debut album by this assemblage reveals a strange and eclectic mixture of space rock, funk, and Jimi Hendrix-inspired guitar, powered mainly by Bayete's dreamy keyboards and vocals. It was a promising debut, but after Shrieve quit (he later formed Novo Combo), the band lost its way. The second release had a pink alien on the front sleeve; unfortunately, the music revealed more funk but less imagination. Thrall later joined the Pat Travers Band and guested on a Narada Michael Walden album, and Doni Harvey went back to working with his brothers Regi and Chris on their power trio HARVEY. The Harveys released records on their independant label and they played with some of the best bands in the world, just didn't have major coverage by the media. Plus Bayete' went back to using his name Todd Cochran, playing jazz and producing and composing. So, just like Michael and Pat, they have been busy, just in a different area of media recognition. ---------------------------------Automatic Man with guitarist Pat Thrall and bassist Doni Harvey from Stomu Yamashata's Go. They have throw in the almost mythical, and mystical present of keyboard maestro and smooth vocalist Bayeté and an explosive quartet is born. The album was released in 1976, and if sci-fi rock was a genre taken seriously by revisionists. ------------------------Quality songwriting and taut musicianship help Automatic Man to thrive as an album. It displays a sound that manages to keep its footings firmly in the mid-seventies, whilst simultaneously oozing an air of futuristic soundscapes that render it ripe for evoking mental imagery. Bayeté's lush keyboard arrangements add a reverberating layer of an almost alien-like displacement around the recordings, and this is aggressively perforated by the guitar-play by Thrall and Harvey and the pounding drumming by Shrieve. This isn't a loose jam session or an indulgent double-album, this is an album driven by strong songwriting. Power numbers Comin' Through or My Pearl demonstrate the closest Automatic Man came to crafting singles for radio; The riffs even give you the impression that Hendrix has been brought back from the dead to appear, or even cloned! Meanwhile, breezier numbers such as One 'N One and Newspapers exhibit a more futuristic as if lying on a beach on Pluto (does Pluto have beaches?).FIRST ALBUM 1976 AUTOMATIC MANALBUM VISITORS 1977..
