Autechre: Classic or Dud?

search: LP5

as for "inventive," well, the IDM list be damned, they pretty much defined how IDM has sounded for the past 4 years or so by dint of every semi-talented derivative jacking their style (phoenicia, entire schematics roster, everything i've heard on musik aus strom, especially the horribly derivative but not even close to the mark flagship duo funkstorung, etc, etc). their fault or their misfortune, you be the judge.

but in the last 6 months i've begun to change my mind, and i'm beginning to really love some of what they do (most of LP5, a lot of Chiastic Slide, and Clichi Suite are beautiful records i think).

it seems strange that it too such a long time for me to really like them, but then i did that with piano magic, happy mondays and tom waits too, and i love 90% of all their stuff too.

got tri repetae recently, but having difficulty getting into that one so far.

saw them at Brixton Fridge the other week, and they were excellent. every track seems to start off so uninviting, but gradually becomes wonderful

so, i think i'd head towards classic really

So there you have it: we're the new folkies! :) Let's all grow beards.

Just got sent this:

Autechre - 'EPS 1991-2002' WARPCD211
5 X Deluxe CD - 47 Tracks - 5hr 39min 59sec
47 track digital bundle available now
CD shipped & released 11th April 2011

Order CD with instant WAV/MP3 download at Bleep
Download MP3/WAV at Bleep (includes videos)
Download digital at iTunes

Visit Autechre.ws

(Made in The Designers Republic™)
CAVITY JOB, BASSCADEP, ANTI EP
(Disc 1)

Cavity Job
Accelera 1 & 2
Basscadet (Bcdtmx)
Basscadet (Basscadoublemx)
Basscadet (Tazmx)
Basscadet (Basscadubmx)
Lost
Djarum
Flutter

Tracks 1 – 2 originally released as Cavity Job (p)1991 Autechre.
Tracks 3 – 6 originally released as Basscad EP (p) 1994 Warp Records Limited.
Tracks 7 – 9 originally released as Anti EP (p) 1994 Warp Records Limited.
GARBAGE, ANVIL VAPRE
(Disc 2)

Garbagemx
PIOBmx
Bronchusevenmx
VLetrmx
Second Bad Vilbel
Second Scepe
Second Scout
Second Peng

Tracks 1 – 4 originally released as Garbage (p)1995 Warp Records Limited.
Tracks 5 – 8 originally released as Anvil Vapre (p) 1995 Warp Records Limited.
PEEL SESSION, ENVANE
(Disc 3)

Milk DX
Inhake 2
Drane
Goz Quarter
Latent Quarter
Laughing Quarter
Draun Quarter

Tracks 1 – 3 originally released as Peel Session (p)1995 BBC.
Tracks 4 – 7 originally released as Envane (p)1997 Warp Records Limited.
CHICHLISUITE, EP7
(Disc 4)

Yeesland
Pencha
Characi
Krib
Tilapia
Rpeg
Ccec
Squeller
Left Blank
Outpt
Dropp
Liccflii

Tracks 1 – 5 originally released as Cichlisuite (p)1997 Warp Records Limited.
Tracks 6 – 12 originally released on EP7 (p)1999 Warp Records Limited.
EP7, PEEL SESSION 2, GANTZ GRAF
(Disc 5)

Maphive6.1
Zeiss Contarex
Netlon Sentinel
Pir
Gelk
Blifil
Gaekwad
19 Headaches
Gantz Graf
Dial.
Cap.IV

Tracks 1 – 4 originally released on EP7 (p)1999 Warp Records Limited.
Tracks 5 – 8 originally released as Peel Session 2 (p)1999 BBC.
Tracks 9 – 11 originally released as Gantz Graf (p)2002 Warp Records Limited.

ooh, they've split the EP7s across two discs. Bad show.

(closes eyes, mutters 'i do not need or want expensive box-sets, i do not need or want expensive box sets...')

('I have all these tracks already, i have all these tracks already')

Seems a little odd not to include the Seefeel or Beaumont Hannant mixes of Basscadet, but maybe that can be justified. Putting "Anvil Vapre" before "Garbage" seems like flat-out bad sequencing.

?

Tracks 1 – 4 originally released as Garbage (p)1995 Warp Records Limited.
Tracks 5 – 8 originally released as Anvil Vapre (p) 1995 Warp Records Limited.

ah, my mistake!

This is disappointing. At least include all vinyl-only tracks, not only Cavity Job.

I don't feel this is worth the double-dip.

Sorry boothbrown, I already have all the original releases.

only own the Anti EP but not sure what I would do with this package - EP collections on several CDs just seem so impractical

This is disappointing. At least include all vinyl-only tracks, not only Cavity Job.

I don't feel this is worth the double-dip.

OTM.

Better to have the original Anti and break the seal on it to show what bollicks the Criminal Justice Thingy is.

http://thequietus.com/articles/10978-autechre-new-album-details-exai

I couldn't decide which C or D thread to pick so I made a new one

Autechre Exai

http://youtu.be/lC7LGzCZ-q0

classic

track at 18:00 is pretty sick

that whole video is rad, oh man that brings back memories, esp. the whistles and the whole dudes-with-long-fringe-swept-back-w-headbands thing, damn haven't seen that look in a minute

http://ge.tt/9ZkPRWw/v/0

more ore

http://p.autechre.ws/proxy?lnk=http%3A%2F%2Fwww.discogs.com%2Fartist%2F41-Autechre

Currently doing...something...on Alaskan radio:

http://www.ksuaradio.com/listen/

http://www.factmag.com/2016/05/18/autechre-alaskan-radio-appearance/

https://twitter.com/warprecords/status/732995434352873472

the one playing now is good

Man, I can't get this stream going to save my life

Me neither.

here ya go

with public radio PSAs :P

that SC bit is just a variation on what already exists in the 2nd half of most of the 'official' live sets..

Yeah this might be the first record that I don't preorder instantly

5 new, EPs, I guess? just landed:

https://autechre.bleepstores.com/

xxxpost: saved as Autechre ft. Paul Stanley, thanks

three tracks over 20 minutes? my god

over four hours! 4:07:38

separate thread for this?

yeah, this is more like 5 lps than 5 eps.

but i wasn't taken by the sample.

Dedicated thread up:

Autechre: Elseq

Autechre: Elseq (www.ilxor.com)

clElseq. and dud

clElseq. and dud

"Elsiq or Elsuq"

cool article if you're interested in Ae's art design:

http://artfcity.com/2016/08/05/a-brief-history-of-autechres-album-covers/

thanks frogs!

Not sure I agree with everything in there. For a start, the Tri Repetae 'khaki' cover was just one of several interchangeable inlays that featured the same robot stills as the Anvil Vapre EP. Also the article fails to mention that the Chiastic Slide-era artwork was made from images of famous architectural structures like the Brooklyn Bridge.

I've never been able to discern Brooklyn Bridge there. Falling Water on Envane is easy to see though.

It's easier to see if you tilt it towards the light -the silvery bits render it into something a bit more '3D'.

that Quaristice metal CD looks amazing

I would love to see a really in-depth breakdown of the Ae artwork though. I'd like to know what the Oversteps, Confield and Elseq ones are all about, especially. The Confield artwork is so disappointing, I just wonder what was going on there. Something about millennium-era CD cover design was this obsession with white space, minimalism, but it always made your CDs look horrible the second the screen cracked or got dusty.

A poll based on artwork alone would be interesting.

IDK, it works for me. Seems sort of like a visual representation of the way their music works.

it's the white border that annoys me. and the quality of the graphic within it looks cheap, like a printer running out and also the logo looks naff or not kerned right or something.

they skip the live lps. those triangles >>>>> the elseq circles and squares.

i wish the envane website was still live somewhere - was an interactive version of the sleeve.

Reissues of the first three on the way, with ... a bonus live set? It's unclear (to me).

Wish they'd reissue LP5 ...

I'd love to get Chiastic, LP5 and Draft 7:30 on wax.

yeah I would buy LP5 in a breath. especially if it came in a nice fancy sleeve

xp funny that whole it was seen as such an important mold-breaking album at the time, Confield feels more like a transitional album in the context of their catalogue now. you're right, I'd much rather repurchase Draft.30

... despite really not bring too into it at the time.

Wish they'd reissue LP5 ...

Had no idea it was out pf orint, physically.

Wish they'd reissue LP5 ...

Had no idea it was out pf orint, physically.

Yeah, it's strange - seems to be the only album Warp have let go out of print. I found it impossible to replace my CD copy of it a few years ago; even the standard jewel-case US version was out of print. In the end I got a decent used copy.

https://bleep.com/release/76372-autechre-autechre-repress-bundle

Paging the 'worst music writing ever' thread...

I'm getting a hunch these albums might have been out of print on vinyl since 2001, could be wrong though.

New tracks

https://touched.bandcamp.com/album/jnsn-code-gl16-spl47

from 2016 an 2014 Touched compilations

anD

Was 2016 the anonymous one?

(Touched put it a couple of enormous electronic music compilations a couple of years running, with, I think, 111 tracks the first year and 256 the second. The year after was just 12 anonymous tracks)

Oh oops - new to me? Either way, I was entertained.

2014 https://touched.bandcamp.com/album/touched-two contains spl47
2016 https://touched.bandcamp.com/album/touched-3 has SNSN-CODE-GL16

^ these two are for cancer research, buy these if you want to support the cause (the single isn't, as far as I can tell)

JNSN (man, I can't tpye today)

Ah, there was a third comp with 417 tracks! I don't think I bothered with that one, I probably still hadn't finished the second one...

ok - bleep newsletter: everything Touched releases supports the charity apparently.

"Touched Music For Macmillan Cancer Support release two tracks by Autechre.

JNSN CODE GL16 / spl47

Pressed to 12" vinyl.

One copy per customer.

No more words needed really..."

Speaking of Autechre vinyl, does anyone know if there are plans to reissue Chiastic / LP5 / EP7 any time soon, like they did with the first three albums?

i never know which of the 25 autechre threads to post on. anyway, some news, earthlings

http://www.factmag.com/2017/11/16/sonar-festival-music-space-contact-aliens-autechre/

the should all be merged, in random order.

Haven't those poor aliens suffered enough already? :(

https://www.nts.live/projects/autechre-nts-residency/

an internet radio thing?

So far so great.

yeah sounds like they are still in the zone. highlights at 40m and 75m. i'm leaving in 10 :/ i hope someone pressed play/record.

http://soundcloud.com/lampevening/autechre-nts-radio-05042018

This is wonderful.

Twenty minutes in, just delightful.

I hear quite a bit of reworked older stuff, e.g. Altibzz / Altichyre elements.
Just found out Ae are playing in my tiny city of Hobart, Tasmania in June - woo!

delightful. it just keeps on going

You know it loops after two hours... but three new two hour sets every Thursday for the next three weeks.

yeah, just like "it's gonna rain"

um https://autechre.bleepstores.com/

Lmao, 12xLP

Lucky I'm not into vinyl. Do I need the CDs given that I don't even listen to CDs any more?

Ans: no.

i've not even got the money for the WAVs just at the moment - maybe later in the year

so is this like a new set of live records such as AE_LIVE

might have to plonk down the cash for these then

"Physical version will ship approximately three months after the final show airs"

That soundcloud saved my sanity this afternoon. Great stuff. Soothing.

I hope these will be four unique sets.. the first one is a grower, there are some really badass + beautiful parts. Kinda stoked to have a proper Autechre album (8 CDs!) to put on the stereo, oh.

If you buy one of the formats you get downloads of the tracks straight after the broadcast, so part 1 is available and consists of 9 tracks.

t1a1
bqbqbq
debris_funk
l3 ctrl
carefree counter dronal
north spiral
gonk steady one
four of seven
32a_reflected

I know, looks like a pisstake but it's the real deal.

Gonk steady, baby
That's what I feel now
Just call the song exactly what it is
Just move your hips with a feeling from side to side
Sit yourself down in your car and take a ride
While you're moving, gonk steady

Almost signing up to WATMM to inform those guys that Humpty is NOT a fucking gonk.

I stopped going there (watmm) for a while and checking in recently for this, I was dismayed at the primary school sexual innuendo in every second post, wtf

from IDM fans of all people, tsk tsk tsk

Pre-ordered the CD version. Will I ever listen to it all the way through? Sure, since you get the downloads of each set the day after they air, or something like that, so it can be absorbed in chunks. To be totally honest, I mostly bought it because it will look pretty on my shelf. (And I'll probably forget all about it during that three-month window while I'm waiting for it to arrive.)

guys what's your favorite of the AE_LIVE albums or all they all kinda the same

All these live releases... they're turning into Pearl Jam

Ylw_LEDb.tr

Implying Pearl Jam's live albums are any good… (Are they?)

xp

If you like Pearl Jam, sure.

guys what's your favorite of the AE_LIVE albums or all they all kinda the same

they're all pretty similar, the last few shove a few more developments into the same space iirc. the project to listen to them all and categorise the various movements is on hold... that's why i'm pleased the new ones are split into tracks, much more manageable.

Ylw_LEDb.tr
― Simon H., Tuesday, April 10, 2018 1:47 PM (thirteen minutes ago) Bookmark Flag Post Permalink

++++

in all seriousness, while I love the last two official albums, I'd love it if their next phase were to be about reigning things in a bit. I just don't have the time or the patience to listen to all this material. Ae themselves are wary of that, and given the density of the material they're putting out they're sympathetic to the idea that it's not fair on listeners to be faced with this barrage of new material that gets released

Ha.

Ev.n F10

"We wanted to go back to the basics and make a record that was just the sound of two guys, sitting on their computers, dicking around with Ableton..."

VIII+4.706gY

(this is fun)

yeah goddammit Ae stop releasing so much excellent music how dare you?

It's all good, but jeez, I'm still wrapping my head round Confield on the best of days

They’re a jam band now, I’m here for it

^^^

Perl Jam

There's a name for yer open mic algorave event.

L-drly W.n Be-HIND t_Counter na.Small 2wn

this works great for me cos i have no idea what stupid Pearl Jam songs anybody's riffing on

except "Even Flow", i knew that one

i don't want to know tho, not asking for clarification

#y.fXyMPh&dl.MM.tm

stop

Googled 'pearl jam autechre mashup', no relevant results. Kind of disappointed in the internet now tbh.

IDM? PUT A GONK ON IT

Appreciating on a somewhat nerdy tech level the transformations the blippy riff kn 'four of seven' goes through, ending up in some territory like Stephen Mallinder's 'Length Of Time.'

The plucky arpeggiated bass sound reminded me of 'Shari Vari' or 'M3000' by Mandre.

That one, 'l3 ctrl' and 'gonk steady one' are the keepers atm. Long tracks but there's some sick stuff in there.

yeah just got my ticket to see the guys at the DARK MOFO festival in June!

That festival looks pretty amazing, never been to Tassie either - would be a perfect excuse!

Looks great but... I'd need to get a flight to Tasmania.

I grew up here from age 10-30 - in my teens I could not wait to get away, we were the dog end of the earth and no music or art came here. And then around the time I moved back in 2008, a kid from the tough end of town grew up and got rich working the odds ratios of European track betting - legally - and used his enormous wealth to build a Bond villain style art gallery dug into the rock under a vineyard. And filled it with transgressive major art. And made it free admission for Tasmanians - any time, as often as you want. And every year has curators put together massive music and art festivals in summer and winter, but only fringe and oddball music. It's run 6 times and I have seen Fuck Buttons, Sunn O))), Earth, Mayhem, Tim Hecker, Swans, Ben Frost, Philip Glass, Kaitlyn Aurelia Smith, Grouper, Klara Lewis, BORIS, Death Grips, The Necks, Flying Lotus, The Drones, Mogwai, etc., etc., etc. all in my little town of Hobart. And massive art installations in festival grounds, and so on. It turns the dog end of the earth into the centre of the earth for a week in the dead of the southern winter. And anytime I like I can load the kids in the car and drive 20 minutes to MONA and see incredible art, for free. The effect on the city and its feel has been unbelievable, it's almost too good to be true.
So yeah, this year Autechre, Merzbow, William Basinski, Alice Glass, Zola Jesus, Laurie Anderson, and on and on. Life's tough.

that's brilliant!

it is: https://www.theage.com.au/news/arts/the-collector/2007/04/12/1175971260216.html?page=fullpage#contentSwap1

("This is how you should start the story," he says, "David Walsh is a rich wanker.")

unrelated but I recently discovered this

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=RSyTVYsEYzU

I remember pointing that out in one of my many Autechre remix polls.

I remember when you could pick up that double pack all over (well, MVE & Reckless) for a couple of quids.

Bought the NTS MP3 bundle from Warp, and am about halfway through the first set. This is some of the most enjoyable stuff I've heard from them in a while. The opening track has an almost swingy boom-bap groove to it, and there's a compelling sense of playfulness to it.

I realise this isn't WATMM or Gearslutz, but anyone want to have a go at working out technically what's going on here? I know all their stuff is mostly Max/MSP but within that, what's happening? Sounds to me like they're rhythmically cutting between a lot of granular textures with some fast filter action? Feel free to ignore this if it's a nerd-out too far.

I'm sure the licensing issues would be far too complex to resolve, but it would nice to have some sort of comp of all those amazing mid-late-'90s Autechre remixes. The Beaumont H is new to me (I bought a few BH records at the time but missed this one... starting at £12 on Discogs for the CD single). Or maybe such a thing already exists. (Or perhaps there really were only a handful).

soulseek "Laxir Autechre Remixes" - someone organized them into a 7-disc set

xxp

Do you mean just that first track or on general with this set?

One thing about that track is there's a very definite transition point. It may well simply be an edit but it had me thinking of a setup where you could tag a number of parameters and then hit a morph or randomise button to have them all change at once or over a given period and within certain ranges.

Sort of meant in general. There's a couple of transition points throughout the whole set actually - didn't hear the original stream, so don't know if that's how it was or if it's been cleaned up for the album.

That's an interesting idea for a setup actually. Reaktor does snapshot morphing very well I believe. (I'm a total idiot when it comes to any of these programmes, but I'm a tiny bit more knowledgeable about Reaktor than I am Max).

Next set in one hour!

(Having got to the end of the NTS1 album, the ambient ending is glorious. The whole thing is a great listen.)

I've relistened and that middle section really slaps

(Or perhaps there really were only a handful)

more than a handful: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Autechre_discography#Autechre_remixes_of_other_artists

I was a completist up until 2007, looks like I'll have to get back onto the old slsk.

Boy, that list takes me back to the napster era, collecting the remixes and trying to weed out the falsies.

weren't Ae sort of infamous for having their albums "leak" ahead of time as some unknown's random glitch album

They were iirc. Though whole fake Boards of Canada albums took the cake. Wasted so many 14k4 mb's on that lol

haha, i made one of those fake BoC songs back in 2001 or something. it ended up on a few bootlegs

more successful than anything else I've ever done

best example is when Daft Punk's Human After All leaked months in advance and most of their fans immediately called it out for the obvious fake it actually wasn't

aphex twin got a compilation of remixes! they should release an autechre one

42 mins into the new set, they're screwing around with a sample of the iPhone 'message sent' tone.

Damnit DL, I could've been the proud owner of some dusty mp3s of your finest work! ;-)

I'll admit I tried it myself, was screwing around with trackers and my Juno60 back in the day. No-one took the bait ;_;

The beat that's playing live on the stream right now is SICK. I'm on the west coast so this is a curiously wonderful way to wake up and commute. Mulling over whether to just buy the digital release or go all out for the box set. Why didn't they do that for Elseq?!

This (presumably) closing passage sounds very very similar to Steve Roach, oddly enough.

on a side note, when are they gonna reissue Chiastic Slide, LP5 and EP7 on vinyl? it would make my year

so this new set is:

elyc9 7hres
six of eight (midst)
xflood
gonk tuf hi
dummy casual pt2
violvoic
sinistrailAB air
wetgelis casual interval
e0
peal MA
9 chr0
turbile epic casual, stpl idle

https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/en/thumb/0/0b/Captain_EO_poster.jpg/250px-Captain_EO_poster.jpg

i am overwhelmed by autechre. the onslaught of music from them is beyond my capability to sift through. sometimes i give it a shot, taking a little notes of the passages i liked, but then when i look back the next day i have an incomprehensible and useless autechre.txt full of seemingly random numbers and letters.

i'm sure at some point in this thread this has come up, but is part of Autechre's present M.O. to just obliterate traditional means of listening and enjoying music? clearly with these new epic releases - some of which seem to drift between their own music, others, and their remixes of others, often without a tracklist or any sense of progression - we're not meant to listen to it in the same way as you might listen to, say, Amber or Tri Repetae or even Confield. Confield was bewildering in its own way, but at least i knew how to put it on at the beginning and start to make sense of it. all of this new stuff...i hate to say it but they have leveled up way beyond my capabilities, they are operating on another plane and i can't even find a way in anymore.

but am i right to think they're purposefully overwhelming in order to change the way that their music is listened to? conceptually i am really intrigued by what they're doing, in the same way that i love reading john cage about his approach to making music, but often don't like listening to the actual music.

I was saying something similar upthread. Totally agree with it all - I know it's all great stuff but I have FOMO knowing I just won't get round to listening to it properly because I'm too much of a caveman who needs a set number of tracks, preferably with titles, to get it.

i suppose you could look at these sets a bit like a bunch of old skool hip hop mixtapes

they showed an willingness early on to deconstruct the role of musician and music with their Max/MSP approach, defining algorithms and sifting through the results, letting algorithms make algorithms, provoking the obvious "are they even the composers at this point?" kinds of questions. have they been taking this to the next level with the way they're collecting and presenting their music these days? it seems like the end goal is for autechre to have a catalog of 1 trillion songs, all of which can be recognized as autechre-like but difficult to define in terms of when it was actually released and how, pumping throughout the world in hidden speakers, like the music is just called "autechre" and no one really remembers where it came from, or something

xpost

I have FOMO knowing I just won't get round to listening to it properly because I'm too much of a caveman who needs a set number of tracks, preferably with titles, to get it.

yeah, exactly! i'm a caveman, too. i just can't even figure out what the hell is going on or how to approach them. like the NTS sets - i started listening and was digging it and i was about 20 minutes in. but i just stopped because i couldn't imagine myself playing this same NTS set over and over again, or having to jot down the timestamps of the parts that i really liked and skipping to them. and even if i did all that for one of them, would i then do it for all of them? i feel like i'm trying to stick a CD in a VCR or something

(sorry for too many longposts, i'm just amped up on coffee)

i'm reading underworld right now, and i'm still early on. but there was a chapter where it seemed like every paragraph completely changed subjects and POV, but yet the whole chapter made sense because it kept jumping between recognizable settings and characters and themes from previous chapters. so even though delillo would be talking about looking outside of a corporate skyscraper in one paragraph and then a deadbeat father leaving his family in the next, i could still follow it and make sense of it all in the end. is that sort of what autechre has evolved into, just this endless drift of recurring themes? i don't know wtf i'm talking about, sorry

it's like listening to a live improvisational performance, you just kind of let it wash over you

with the released tracks, you can do the same and then favorite the individual tracks and make a playlist or something

as loathe as I am to admit it, I read a pretty wicked burn the other day: "autechre is like phish for linux users."

it's the same dilemma you have if you listen to a lot of dj sets, which is even easier now when you can load them up as podcasts: if this section in the middle is something really appealing, and it turns out my love is not for a track that was played but some transition point between two completely different songs, how do you quantify that or capture it?

the answer is you don't, it's an ephemeral point that doesn't necessarily work outside of the context.

it's very seldom that you get that in an album unless there's an intentional transition, but there are definitely albums where I don't necessarily like song A or B, but the experience of listening to A blend to B is what I love

i just stopped because i couldn't imagine myself playing this same NTS set over and over again

thinking of musical experiences as something that need to be reproducible or even enjoyable more than once is pretty limiting! honestly, I listened to their first NTS show a few times and it benefits from the looping structure. just tune in at any random time, listen if you like it, if not.. come back later

that's how people used to experience movies in many theaters ("this is where I came in!") and it's foreign to us now, when we think of arriving at the beginning and leaving at the end having had a discrete piece of art delivered for our consumption

KM you know the 'released' version on CD/MP3 is gonna have these split into different tracks, right? This one is 12 tracks in 2 hours, pretty manageable

I know what you're saying of course, especially since their live sets tend to be so far off the studio albums that they'd practically be "new albums" if they were recorded properly (their Glasgow set in 2005 being the best example). So what is this, exactly? Is it mixed live, or what?

My attention wondered a bit around um, 'sinistrailAb air', but the first few were pretty exhilarating to hear 'live.' Whoops of approval may have been heard.

I wonder what the replay value will be; will 'xflood' be worth returning to for some time to come? There's a sense in which these releases are software upgrades that make previous iterations redundant. That's a weird thing to feel about music, and yet...

as loathe as I am to admit it, I read a pretty wicked burn the other day: "autechre is like phish for linux users."

as mentioned somewhere earlier in this thread, autechre is a jam band at this point. The main difference between them and other jam bands being that they make music I enjoy.

I mostly listen to autechre in bits and pieces these days. I listened to elseq over a period of a couple of weeks, I'm probably going to listen to this over a period of months. Somehow, despite feeling like I never really listen enough to truly get autechre, they end up always being among my most played artists every year. I never stop listening to them. I've been listening to a lot of Exai lately (I remember being overwhelmed by the length of that album when it was released!), I'm always a couple of albums behind with these guys.

Phish for Linux users or Acid Mothers Temple for baldies.

fun sounds for people who like sound

There's a sense in which these releases are software upgrades that make previous iterations redundant. That's a weird thing to feel about music, and yet...

LP5 probably the best example of this. first time I heard it, it was like something from the distant future, I immediately thought I was listening to one of the best albums ever made. coming back to it now...its like going back to Nintendo 64 or Windows 95..."Christ, did it always sound like this??"

I sometimes wonder if we're not missing anything by not seeing the patterns in max/msp or whatever tool they're using.

we're missing nothing

personally i'd like to see them just because i've always wanted to dabble in max/msp for other things and it would be neat to look under the hood

great posts upthread mh, btw. i guess i'm just wondering if the've ever openly discussed the disorientating way they release music

upgrades is definitely right. each new album sounds like a program you were just getting used to using and then the developers add a bunch of new features and you have to learn to navigate around all over again

There's a sense in which these releases are software upgrades that make previous iterations redundant. That's a weird thing to feel about music, and yet...

This is utter nonsense

Karl, Rob talked a bit about it when I got to interview him http://thequietus.com/articles/13899-autechre-interview-exai-l-event (brag)

from a learning how to make similar music viewpoint, you'd have something to learn

just listening to music, though, I've felt at times that seeing the process leads you down the path of analyzing what's going on rather than experiencing the music. I have limited ability to recognize things as far as the tools they're using because I've only played with them in passing, but in regards to the aforementioned dj mixing, it's a mixed bag. sometimes the result is "ah yes, blending A into B and then cutting the bass, brilliant result!" and other times it's trainspotting to think "ok, what are they blending into my favorite track here to get that result, *strokes chin*"

oh nice! i'll take a look. also, that's awesome! :)

xpost

apropos of nothing other than autechre, the twitter account for label ghostly international (or more accurately, "ghostly by night", the unknown night editor who makes ridiculous in-jokes and shitposts) had a running joke that apple after the return of steve jobs was completely inspired by autechre. a few funny ones in there

Autechre at Oakland CA's Club Indigo May 18 2001 = Zero Hour of Apple Design. Ive and Jobs in attendance. Like Sex Pistols in Manchester 76. pic.twitter.com/I1ZhtMzZY2

— Ghostly (@ghostly) April 2, 2017

argh it's "ghostly after dark" #gad

aphex twin got a compilation of remixes! they should release an autechre one

Plaid have a remix comp as well.

xp woah I might've been at that show!

Can neither confirm nor deny Ive or Jobs being in attendance though.

I listened to elseq as one thing for a month or so but almost all my listening for the last few years has been via big randomized playlists with auto crossfade and ae are almost always in the mix cos they work great in there

Re: 'upgrades' - I'd swap out elseq for this latest batch if I had to choose one set. It's clearly from the same ecology but almost entirely a refinement IMO, and I don't feel that attached to many of the older 'tunes' when there's something new and 'better' in any of those modes. Who's got the time for all of it? I'm happy to move on and I feel that's the spirit in which it's made as well.

That's both good and bad. I mean it means the music is improved as far I'm concerned, but also I paid for the last lot and it's non transferrable ;-)

Actually more prosaically maybe elseq could do with being remastered less obnoxiously squashed.

It's a pretty great time to be an Autechre fan, we went from long periods of toughing out the gaps between albums, to a release schedule which allows barely enough time to assimilate each release before something even bigger drops. Years of hunting down live recordings and the occasional soundboard (will anything top Glasgow Art School 2005, I doubt it) then suddenly a 9-set archive of soundboards. The last 3 longform releases have been 2 hours, 4 hours, now 8. After 20 years I've reached the point where I don't have to "get" any of this stuff, it's just their latest ideas using a vocabulary they've worked on for ages, here's some cold beauty, here's some shattered funk, here's the most fucked up hiphop bottom end paired with a sublime glacial drift. Listen to the kick degrade slowly. Can you still feel the pulse as the beats drift around the timepoints. I feel like they do a LOT of work to set up amazing spaces and foundations and parameters and turn their algorithms loose, then bring back the coolest shit they found. Never been an artist like it, maybe never will again.

will anything top Glasgow Art School 2005, I doubt it

just downloaded a copy - and all the remixes i was missing - as if i didn't have enough to be getting on with already.

i think the way they've released this stuff is great, the excitement of a shared experience plus a keepsake to take home and treasure forever, enchant the grandkids with. unlike elseq it does seem designed more like a live experience though, interesting to see if it will stand up to repeated home listening.

Holy shit this new set is great

a release schedule which allows barely enough time to assimilate each release before something even bigger drops...The last 3 longform releases have been 2 hours, 4 hours, now 8.

This reminds me of something I wrote about Anthony Braxton recently.

braxton is kind of a good analog, actually.. an unwieldy corpus of work... lots of hard hard thinking implied

.The last 3 longform releases have been 2 hours, 4 hours, now 8.

just as i expected, autechre's grand plan is to exponentially grow and become the universe. by the 30th release there autechre releases will be more than a billion hours long

I'm a total Autechre newbie, I just dived into everything a few months back and tried to make sense of it. The key I found to the last phase was the way they kept elaborating on Quaristice, releasing a double disc version with different versions, then an EP called Versions, then four more EPs with different versions. Yeah, it's jam bands, it's remixers, but it's also 'Versions' as in Dub-culture. It's like they're creating their own culture, a computer-culture, a sort of scenius of the singularity. Someone on here described Confield as portraying a planet in sound, but the new stuff portrays a city, a people, a species of aliens, for whom this type of thing makes sense. At least that's how I think of it, and even though I kinda don't belong to that tribe, I like that it exists.

Btw, I was listening through everything Rhythm & Sound released related to 'See Mi Yah' and it's a bunch of EPs all based on the same riddim, a couple of dub versions of some of the versions of the riddim, and then a bunch of remixes of the versions of the riddim, including a remix of a dub of a version of a riddim. I love that sort of thing.

yesssssss

(that was to KM but I like Frederik’s take too)
It’s interrsting to hear elements reused and track names more obviously referencing elements and feel - like we’re seeing more of their process these days.

god i love the na feh throw dub, so deeeeeeep

and i don't know how i only just heard this the other day: https://www.discogs.com/Paul-St-Hilaire-Ren%C3%A9-L%C3%B6we-Faith/release/188064

e.g. all the references to pendulu(m), casual etc. Also “violvoic” is obviously using a “voice” from Confield’s uviol when you listen to it.

it seems like the end goal is for autechre to have a catalog of 1 trillion songs, all of which can be recognized as autechre-like but difficult to define in terms of when it was actually released and how, pumping throughout the world in hidden speakers, like the music is just called "autechre" and no one really remembers where it came from, or something

I've always felt their endgame would be that right before retiring, they'd release an app that would generate tracks. You could, over time, influence the parameters genetically by approving/disapproving the output and have your own personal never ending Autechre releases catered to your tastes. There would be a whole culture around people's "discoveries" and grass roots curated collections of the "best tracks".

didn't Oval do something like that

It would be interesting to have a neural network try to create autechre songs

(maybe start with song titles)

decided to play Exai on this fine afternoon, its like getting a brain massage

the track that sounds like a woodpecker going to town on a piece of sheel metal owns

didn't Oval do something like that

― frogbs, Friday, April 13, 2018 12:02 PM (one hour ago) Bookmark Flag Post Permalink

yeah: https://www.soundonsound.com/people/oval-markus-popp

generative music is a thing

they could call it fauxtechre.

I mean it's been done before, but Ae would release something that would produce tracks with enough nuance, novelty and originality to rival their best work

I am of the sneaking suspicion that these last 3 releases are exactly that. "Sean, turn the machine on for another 4 hours, we've bills to pay"

"It's a pretty great time to be an Autechre fan, ..."

pretty much sums up the last several years. I don't see what's so problematic about this pattern of output - with something like AE_LIVE.. does it really warrant serious deliberation over how to index it, or feel the need to 'get to the bottom of it', conceptually? It's sound art / sculpture, and it's successful. Ae has been honing in on something marvelous. Sometimes it resembles the motion of weather / atmospheric phenomena, fluid shapes, complex machinery, or a malfunctioning electronic device. It brings to mind ideas of [any sort of] state variables, and the physical action that might entail.

Ae's music conjures fantastic imagery and movement, with sounds.. is it so unusual to sit with a piece of music for an hour or two? Listening to NTS 1 right now, it's all sticky techno, part of the structure disintegrating, becoming deformed and then composing itself through countless mutations. It's wild. It's a spectacle.

As somebody mentioned upthread, I've really enjoyed tuning in (NTS Sessions) at any point of the broadcast, knowing it's there (all the time), repeating. Take your time with it.

in case y'all were wondering I'm pounding Exai again while drinking beer and losing my ass in online poker. feels good

please pardon the corny sentimentalisms.. these NTS sessions are dope "af"

wondering which track sounds like a woodpecker hammering on sheet metal... is it Flep, or Fleure?

its Flep. coincidentally the one that's playing right now

Flep is wholesome.. it makes me think of scraping barnacles off the keel of a boat, or something like that.

Oversteps is so good. Like a glacial breeze

Loving the mellow, latter third of NTS 2... these tracks are really well-composed, beats all over the 2nd session.

still haven't tuned into these, been kind of obsessed with 'exai' lately, especially running to it. i'll cop the wavs when i can, because i love to listen to their stuff while i'm outside and moving. i'm totally on board with what they're doing, don't feel it's too much at all. i was obsessed with early autechre for a long time and didn't get the post-confeld stuff in spite of being into noise and sound art and all that but now i mean it all hits differently but it's a joy to listen to, such a wide range of moodiness from the hard as nails stuff to the flying atmospheric stuff. i like the long running times of their latest releases, you can listen to the release a lot and still pick up new pieces to focus in on and enjoy. my oversimplified take is that they're zooming in on a bunch of aspects of early electro and creating these very spacious and dynamic sound worlds out of them. anyway, really happy they're back with a bunch of stuff so soon after elseq.

of course they've always tended towards releasing long-ass albums with lots to digest but probably their label situation now makes it easier for them to really go for it, which i say rock on dudes

> their label situation

???

Has anything changed there? I'd figure this is all still warp but given that there haven't been physical versions of recent things it's kind of hard to tell.

(Oh, the new CDs do have a warp catno)

(I wonder how this stuff does commercially and all. They are one of the prestige warp acts, always have been, and have a loyal fan base that buys everything but is that enough? Does it provide them with a living?)

It'd fucking want to, with the amount I have spent on their vinyl and CD releases in the last 5-10 years.

and re the new session, what the HELL is going on with "dummy casual pt2"? shit is INSANE

a quick hack: https://github.com/acdean/fauxtechre

example output:

fauxtechre: [Baderoupre]
fauxtechre: [arideraet]
fauxtechre: [:NSterbqMal]
fauxtechre: [E.]
fauxtechre: [cer]
fauxtechre: [Ofa]
fauxtechre: [jadferlederlee]
fauxtechre: [7]
fauxtechre: [Jotrdetill.Caca]
fauxtechre: [e]
fauxtechre: [bqudeveast Bind]
fauxtechre: [deni]
fauxtechre: [Zewacouanons]
fauxtechre: [h90101)]
fauxtechre: [12]
fauxtechre: [wepchiiianterthavo]
fauxtechre: [bloias]
fauxtechre: [wocerestreeluas]
fauxtechre: [mal IVilit T tilatr]
fauxtechre: [wonc9X]
fauxtechre: [vilizeg]
fauxtechre: [Focal]
fauxtechre: [=0nceaumee]
fauxtechre: [l9 JYux)]

it picks a random start character and then randomly chooses the next letter based on the frequency of letters following that letter in the original track titles. repeat until it gets a newline.

code could be nicer and it needs to consider matching braces, i think. and perhaps a minimum length of 3 characters.

fauxtechre: [Focal]

wow!

I'm thinking of moving my Autechre CDs from the "Electronic • Dance" section of my collection to the "Out • Avant" section

wocerestreeluas

going for that experimental music/experimental condiment crossover market?

no gonk/casual, no credibility (but seriously: nice!)

Autechre are the only group of this ilk (IDM or whatever) that I've bothered to keep up with. Well, I guess Aphex Twin is the other one.

to the "Out • Avant" section

this is correct

it is also why their 20th century records are p. boring now

koogs, great work!

I like the NTS sessions so far, but it is pretty weird that their recent stuff makes me think of discs like LP5 as "their early, pretty songs."

it is also why their 20th century records are p. boring now

nah, i just picked up the EPs box set last year, and most of it holds up pretty well (!?)

but i don't have copies of any of that stuff, except for ep7

I put these on at bedtime yesterday and woke up in a sweat thinking something horrible was happening to the pipes or something in my apartment, but it was just the last few minutes of "violvoic"

I feel like Autechre got interesting for me starting at around LP5, which is where I came aboard when a friend loaned me the CD. I've gone back and played/bought the earlier stuff and it has its moments - some high points for sure! - but generally feel little desire to return to it.

(There were also some moments in their 00s work where I was shrugging, but reliably every album held some magic.)

I kinda seem them as at least two different bands now. Last ten years or so I listen everything from Confield and later a lot more than the classic 90's stuff.

One thing I'd love is a remix/master of their earlier records. Their sound from that era is far more sterile and doesn't really hold up well. Compare it to things like Urbin Tribe's Collapse of Modern Culture or some of their label mates on Warp of the time like Plaid.

i still try to play tri repetae more than anything else from back then, always thought it was a very lush-sounding record, but it's getting pretty thin by comparison to the last few

I'm gonna dig into Exai and Quaristice, neither of which I bothered with when they were new even though I liked Oversteps and Move of Ten a lot. Nothing's gonna convince me to revisit Draft 7.30 or Untilted, though.

Those records are wonderful - "surripere" and "6IE.CR" on the former are IMMENSE tracks, they need paint-peeling volume. Untilted is a weird little world unto itself but the laser cutlery noises of "fermium" and the incredible chaos at the end of "augmatic disport" are catalogue highlights for me.
Confield is the dividing line for me - I was sporadically into them around Tri Repetae and then LP5 / EP7 got me really excited, but nothing changed my musical world like Confield. Everything since has been an order of magnitude richer than the early work (which I also love).

untilted is so gnarly, it comes across like an extremely obscure and fucked up breakcore album imo

i still have a lot of love for the tri repetae era and think chiastic slide is kind of underrated - it has a blurry sound to it i love. they were really good (and are still good) at gridded beats and overlaying longer and shorter phrases to create syncopation. 'garbagemx' is this nest of phrases that is still really powerful imo. but yeah as far as sound design goes, everything from tri repetae onward is ++.

i still like amber ffs but i don't think they started getting really interesting until after that.

Amber >= Chiastic >>>>> Tri Rep

some more track title speculation (up to elseq even in the box on the left) http://autechre.wikifoundry.com/

(all autechre threads end up in this same argument)

I'm thinking of moving my Autechre CDs from the "Electronic • Dance" section of my collection to the "Out • Avant" section

I honestly find a lot of their 21st century material to be at least as challenging and intellectually engaging as a lot of academic electroacoustic music. I'm actually surprised that they have the audience and media coverage that they do. I have barely even listened to most of Elseq just because I'm still digesting Exai. (It's always a pleasure to digest.)

Sund4r otm. Don’t have anything to add other than ‘this thread rules’.

yea their stuff is definitely challenging and intellectually engaging but I also think there's this raw violence to it that makes it cathartic even when you're not trying to analyze the different patterns or really pay much attention at all. I'll crank up an album like Untilted or Exai for the same reasons someone might want to blow out their eardrums with black metal or grindcore.

It's just sound, I don't really get an intellectual thing out of it... is it like Bach or something?

'just sound' is an intellectual thing!! pythagoras!!!!

Sure it's all a matter of perspective

as loathe as I am to admit it, I read a pretty wicked burn the other day: "autechre is like phish for linux users."

and in classic linux style, it seems I'll have to figure out some weird workaround to do something pretty everyday and mundane on my old ubuntu fileserver, i.e. listen to the ae NTS sets that I just bought. the WAV and FLAC files are unplayable & even untaggable for some reason. there's a metaphor in here somewhere...

you just ha2ve to run aplay -l and 5fig3ure out which93 1card the s27ound devi5ce you34 want t3o3 use i1s 8on. then )sudo vim alsamixer.config an31d edit thea defbeepbeep2ult soundcard toboop the one you found !with 85aplay, rebo(@$ot (you mighafdsbleep booopt also need to edit2

lol

So did longform AI improv jam crew Autechre started with the 9 shows & Elseq, or was Exai pointing the way?

https://www.discogs.com/Autechre-Quaristicesubrangeepae/master/8570

Yeah Quaristice / Quaristice Versions / Quadrange was really their first major foray into jammed-out longform releases. At the time they described their workflow as having changed into more exploratory, loose approaches, e.g. http://www.themilkfactory.co.uk/st/2008/03/interview-autechre-life-cycle/

I’m in for the perlence variations on those

> the WAV and FLAC files are unplayable

Um, I was tempted to get the flacs but maybe not now. What does metaflac --list say? Or flac -a file.flac? I'm wondering if the bitrate or sample size is too high.

Does audacity open them?

That said, charging 50% more than the mp3s for the flacs is a bit excessive, usually it's only an extra quid on an 8 quid LP, say.

I downloaded it in wav, forgetting those don’t have tags and it was playable. Then I downloaded in flac and it was tagged and played fine. So uh, it’s fine?

no clue what issue bgm had

yeah, I didn't mean to make it sound like this is a potentially widespread issue or anything. probably something specific to my environment. but have never had this issue before with a library of about 13.5k albums. (not that I've listened to every single one...) weird.

clementine, puddletag, and my old squeezebox (via squeezebox server) all choke on the flac & wav files. I just grabbed the mp3s the other day and rolled with em since I wanted to listen to these albums and not troubleshoot audio issues.

but koogs - those commands spit out what you'd expect afaict. no errors and I see the expected tags running metatag. it looks like audacity does indeed play the files, and apparently, so does vlc. dunno.

given that it’s autechre are they 24 bit instead of 16 and your player doesn’t support it?

You can get either 16 or 24 bit WAV, and 16 bit FLAC. I got the FLACs, they transcoded flawlessly and all the metadata was perfect.

yep, 16 bit FLAC. which is supported by everything that didn't like playing these troublesome NTS sets.

the music is cool btw! I've still only listened to the first set but keep going back to it. first half is pleasant but kinda plodding? not sure if I've wrapped my head around what they're going for there yet. but the second half is more immediate and satisfying. "north spiral" is sick!

Classic that this is the thread where people try to figure out why they can’t play FLACs

If audacity can play them then try saving out new copies and see if the copies will play.

I made the executive decision to have ALAC as my backup format, working well so far

obviously the format inspired by autechre

just buy the CDs

but they don't ship until all the radio sets are over and we want them now

just realized Quaristice is 10 freakin' years old now. 10 years since "they've finally lost it for good"

celebrating now by listening to "The Plclcpc"....blip lipliplip liplilipp

If audacity can play them then try saving out new copies and see if the copies will play.

so, looks like this did the trick, thank you! fix verified on production and bleeps are blooping losslessly. let's close this ticket out.

I also ran into some weirdness with the files, and I just dropped them into XLD for some quick batch converting. No need to go one by one with Audacity.

just realized Quaristice is 10 freakin' years old now. 10 years since "they've finally lost it for good"

Funny I felt Quaristice was a warm return to form and appreciated their use of something other than raw percussive elements and abstract FM synth noises as part of their sound palette. Looking back now however, it's my least favorite release of theirs and I usually just listen to about 4-5 songs off of it as an "EP".

Quadrange > Quaristice Versions > Quaristice

album version of "90101-5|-|" > all other "versions" of it (it's a diff beast altogether). The "Plc ccc" is one of the very few improvements on the album versions of the tracks.

i'm thinking of The PlclCpC (versions), where they actually fleshed out the original track. my bad

Yeah those versions and Quadrange "EPs" never really did it for me

BTW, listening to NTS 3 right now... the track that just played was very..... Boards of Canadaish??! Whoa

Can't seem to get my download of

4:33.flac

NTS 3:

01 clustro casual
02 splesh
03 tt1pd
04 acid mwan idle
05 fLh
06 glos ceramic
07 g 1 e 1
08 nineFly
09 shimripl air
10 icari

Are there any albums that have a better ratio of quality to duration than these NTS sessions?

Sean's still naming tracks after his favourite chess moves, and has added his favourite tween TV shows

missed the last half hour but this one seemed excessively mid-tempo on first listen.

Are there any albums that have a better ratio of quality to duration than these NTS sessions?

most of them? including elseq. the 2015 live sets cover an extraordinary amount of ground and never stick with one idea for too long.

ok, thanks. I've heard most of them, and I think I disagree (and I was meaning more albums in general, rather than Ae, but that may be a separate thread).

I didn't like elseq or the live sets very much at all I'm afraid and had slightly given up on Ae as I hadn't liked anything since quadrange. I found elseq really trebly and annoying, and thought the tracks were way too long without justification. The live sets, as you've said, were the opposite. This NTS stuff seems, to me to find a middle ground that I'm absolutely loving.

ok i totally misunderstood the point of your question! my initial impression of these sets is that there's a lot of treading water - i love it when ae sound like a puzzle that you think you might *just* be able to figure out if you spend enough time in it, not really getting that here.

I thought the last track was riffing on vekoS from Exai so I went and had a listen to that and while it's a good track the new one is about 6,432 times more betterer.

I appreciate that some of these jams are only minimally edited, and while that might mean they seem to be 'coasting' a bit in places it's not clear they would work any other way and observing the process in process is part of it. Also there usually is change going even when it's masked by apparent repetition.

Those ultra submerged beat variations in that one ('icari') - probably starts getting really good around the 16 minute mark, but wouldn't be so cool without the rest of it.

Looks great but... I'd need to get a flight to Tasmania.

flights to Tasmania take about an hour and a quarter btw

Hobart Raving

the ferry takes 11 hours but is only about half the price

the flight to australia to catch the flight to tasmania takes a bit longer iirc

I found elseq really trebly and annoying

oh you really gotta hear it on something that can play it

and i don't mean like flacnerd quality, earbuds are fine, just, there's bass there to feel and to fill the room

it's definitely got some harsh his though, and some volume issues. it's slightly messy but i don't think that's out of sync with the emotional quality of the music.

i've been revisiting it and finding an absurd number of high watermarks for them. it's really.. there's a lot of emotion there. besides the obvious standouts i've been loving "spaces how V" and "acdwn2". but then "latentcall" and "mesh cinereaL" come on and i'm destroyed. "latentcall" in particular is so great, it's more straightforward beatwise but it never settles, it feels like it's constantly breaking down for 14 minutes, and i'm really moved by that lol.

i love it when ae sound like a puzzle that you think you might *just* be able to figure out if you spend enough time in it

yes puzzles but the bangers in NTS 1 are good too??

I find the post-Exai Autechre fascinating - there is a real luxury in tracks which take 20 minutes to evolve or orbit around a single idea. When Quadrange gave us "Perlence subrange 6-36" and it was an hour of massively slowed, distorting kick, a light went on in my mind and I thought, this is what I need. And the last two major releases have delivered that and more.
I don't find this music at all intellectual or challenging, it's just intensely aesthetically pleasing in a way nothing else is. Of course the process of learning what to listen for, which happened imperceptibly across 20+ years for me (and for them!) make stepping onto the carousel pretty daunting. But I guess I have to accept that they are my all time favourite musicians and that I will never be the same.

the flight to australia to catch the flight to tasmania takes a bit longer iirc

holy fuck whatever part of NTS 3 I am streaming now, 25 minutes in, waves of modulated static and that dry block beat from Draft 7.30 going nuts, trying to work but all my hair is standing on end

Through 3 of these sessions and I feel I could reduce the 6 hours to about 1.5 for a personal "mini album". I would disagree that this so far has a high quality to quantity ratio. That said - it'll be really easy for me to splice together 2-3 hours of tracks that are all highlights, but this is a lower ratio than elseq for sure.

third track on the release (tt1pd) is probably what you heard, Matthew. it's 22 minutes (!)

still going, fucking mental, love love love it

Assuming session 4 has as many highlights as the other 3, for a band to release 2-3 hours of incredible music 4 releases in a row (Oversteps/Move of Ten, Exai, Elseq, NTS) in a decade? That's pretty incredible

FWIW - icari is the crown jewel of Session 3 for me.

does nobody rate AE_LIVE_DUBLIN, or Utrecht? for real, these sets are f'ing beautiful.

now this is some proper radio

yes puzzles but the bangers in NTS 1 are good too??

yeah i dig a gnarly banger. but i listened to the 2005 glasgow art school set for the first time recently and that's like a puzzle that bangs *swoons*

does nobody rate AE_LIVE_DUBLIN, or Utrecht? for real, these sets are f'ing beautiful.

yep, in terms of variety and detail they are incredible.

Firing up Session 3 now.

Some deep bass on Session 3. "tt1pd" could almost be something off an Electric Ladyland compilation.

i listened to the 2005 glasgow art school set for the first time recently and that's like a puzzle that bangs *swoons*

the ending bit that slowly increases tempo provokes a strange bout of anxiety in me

that speedy drum loop with the quick bass drum rolls and the popping distorted snares eventually showed up on one of the quaristice releases, right? love that part & vaguely remember being a little disappointed with the 'studio' ver at the time.

forgot to note the time but it starts ~23:27

It's more like something off Untilted, definitely similar to LCC, maybe elements of Sublimit as well.

duh, LCC! yeah, that is quite close. it's also literally the first thing you hear on that record, so um yeah, I haven't put untilted on in a few years.

there's definitely parts of Quaristice in there too though. most notably "IO" though I'm sure there's more than that

forgot how much I love "iera". intro just sounds so slippery and that soft white noise acting as a hi hat... mmm...

no FLAC-related issues with NTS 3 btw. listened to that bad boy all weekend. autechre's support team is ON IT!

just checked in to see if George Starostin took the time to review all the elseqs, and what do you know he did

its pretty amusing to me b/c Starostin is kind of the prototypical Ae semi-fan who'd been thrown by the wayside long ago - he likes the early stuff, thinks they completely lost it with Confield, maybe has some time for Oversteps....but his OCD-fueled review style kinda forces him to review everything in earnest, even if he doesn't like any of it. hey, credit to him for trying.

also, lol @ this line: "I just hope they won't take five more years and come out with a 20-volume album"...well it was 2 years and 12 LPs...enjoy !!!

having never heard of NTS Radio before this thing, i see they are doing the music at the Tate Late on friday, at the Tate Modern.

http://www.tate.org.uk/whats-on/tate-modern/late/uniqlo-tate-lates

(anyone been? video seems to suggest a rave in the turbine hall)

(archive here: https://www.nts.live/shows/uniqlo-tate-lates )

NTS has all sorts of wonderful things. I just learned about them a few months ago. Search for Haruomi Hosono day

pete swanson from yellow swans has a really good monthly show.

so this has been like AE doing SAWII...very nice

Yeah this is gorgeous

lee gamble's NTS sets are superb

sorta curious what Autechre fans think of his last album

i didn't know he had one after 'koch', which i liked

so this has been like AE doing SAWII...very nice

Which "this" do you mean?

i didn't know he had one after 'koch', which i liked

― j., Thursday, April 26, 2018 9:45 AM (ten minutes ago) Bookmark Flag Post Permalink

it's a lot more frenetic than 'koch', takes a bit to warm up to but it's fun as hell. it's on HyperDub and it does kind sound like a "HyperDub album" if you know what i mean.

the live set they're playing on https://nts.live RIGHT NOW

(which will be available for replay when it finishes in sixty seconds so don't sweat)

xp

listening to set 4 now. This is pretty amazing and unlike anything I've heard from them before.

1.frane casual - 13:42
2.mirrage - 6:21
3.column thirteen - 17:02
4.shimripl casual - 24:32
5.all end - 58:21

Jesus Christ

really hope that last track title isn't a sign or anything

they're still touring + all end = ae ?

not their longest track either, Perlence subrange 3-36 is fifteen seconds longer :-)

so that was just the end of bladelords x30

pretty cool

so that was just the end of bladelords x30

Yup... exactly what I was thinking as I heard it.

Sooo this is going to be released on vinyl? They just going to fade out/fade in all end for the last disc?

and at 58 minutes you're looking at A Wizard, A True Star levels of audio degradation trying to fit 30 minutes of music on a side...

Three sides, for sure. It's 3 x LP per session.

column thirteen is gorgeous.

"all end" is fucking killing me, it's like a sea of emotion

yes!

1.frane casual - 13:42
2.mirrage - 6:21
3.column thirteen - 17:02
4.shimripl casual - 24:32
5.all end - 58:21

What is this the tracklist of? Set 4?

Yes

ty

It's low on dynamics and bottom end with barely any sharp transients so I think 30 minutes a side wouldn't actually be too much of a stretch. You'd get high end loss towards the centre and surface noise but I can see that working with the audio.

I mean if stuff like Calypso Frelimo or half of E2-E4 can go on a side that will really be no problem.

Maybe so, but they won't put the other four tracks on a side each. For one thing the levels would be way off between a well cut six minute side and a workable 30 minute side.
It'll be

NTS 1
A1. t1a1
B1. bqbqbq
B2. debris_funk

C1. l3 ctrl
D1. carefree counter dronal
D2. north spiral

E1. gonk steady one
F1. four of seven
F2. 32a_reflected

NTS 2
G1. elyc9 7hres
G2. six of eight (midst)
H1. xflood
H2. gonk tuf hi

I1. dummy casual pt2
I2. violvoic
J1. sinistrailAB air
J2. wetgelis casual interval
J3. e0

K1. peal MA
K2. 9 chr0
L1. turbile epic casual, stpl idle

NTS 3
M1. clustro casual
M2. splesh
N1. tt1pd

O1. acid mwan idle
O2. fLh
P1. glos ceramic
P2. g 1 e 1

Q1. nineFly
Q2. shimripl air
R1. icari

NTS 4
S1. frane casual
S2. mirrage
T1. column thirteen

U1. shimripl casual
V1. all end 1

W1. all end 2
X1. all end 3

Whatever it is that's playing right now, it is absolutely mesmerizing.

If title matters you can play track samples here: https://autechre.bleepstores.com/release/98672-autechre-nts-session-4

It's a killer, killer two hours of Ae overload.

Thank you! And like you said, it's unexpectedly emotional. I feel like I'm warmly floating in a glacier.

End all. Holy shit does that one live up to its name.

This happens sometimes with Autechre, but listening to this this morning sounds like listening to a living creature, crawling around, developing broader consciousness ...

Apt! It certainly does at the beginning of set 4. At the end of it, it's wholly enlightened.

'Mirrage' could be an alternative soundtrack to Dave Bowman shooting through space in 2001.

Man, have they done anything quite like "all end" before? It's pretty incredible. There are all these gorgeous melodies I may or may not be hearing. Reminds me a bit of Gas at times, maybe?

yea scanning r/autechre and watmm I'm seeing a lot of comments to the effect of "there was this really cool melody there but I relistened this morning and now it's gone"

I've always thought of Ae as the aural equivalent of a Magic Eye poster. I guess that's never been more true

On this epic track, for sure.

Hmm, I never thought to go down the reddit Ae-hole, it's always interesting to learn what people who know all the tracks by name think.

idk why anyone would want to listen to autechre on vinyl

These guys use generative programs, right? Which they sort of micro-manage and direct? So, sort of semi-improvised and then, sometimes, refined?

listening to the fourth set now. :)

a favorable review of NTS Sessions 1-4: https://www.residentadvisor.net/reviews/22429

xpost they used to use max/msp, a long time ago. not sure what they're using now!

think they're still using that and have hinted that they're probably gonna stay with it till the end of time

from the of that RA review:

...If you've been skeptical of Autechre, you'd best check the fourth session. Once we course through "frane casual" we're hit by "mirrage," one of the most concise and beautiful ambient pieces Autechre have ever produced. It seeps perfectly into "column thirteen," which is sublimely bizarre, warm and enveloping. There's something strangely suggestive here. Perhaps it's the melodic synth arps that seem to so faintly echo Amber's inquisitive hues. "shimripl casual" deserves paragraph for itself, but "all end" manages to outstrip it. Almost an hour long yet somehow brisk, it's like a cathedral filled with billions of vibrating light particles, ebbing and convulsing in great waves.

Despite the overload of material, listening to each of the sessions front to back reveals a narrative arc as compelling as in any of their 2015 live recordings. For music that's so detailed on the micro scale, the most arresting moments are the macro-structural pay-offs. Additionally, premiering the pieces live on NTS provided a semblance of a shared experience. It's been great watching fans' commentary online as each episode has been broadcast.

The majority of artists in Autechre's cohort either dropped off in quality or entered the extended victory lap period of their careers. Partly because their music doesn't contain the melody and repetition of, say, an Aphex Twin, critics haven't been especially vocal about how unusual it is that Autechre, an already insanely overdeveloped act, are still developing. NTS Sessions 1-4 will elicit the same critiques as any Autechre album in the last decade, but it's their best record in many years.

OTM. This final volume, for sure, at least.

"gonk tuf hi" definitely needed the word "gonk" in the title.

lol if you play any stretch of this for 99.999% of listeners the first thing they will complain about is how repetitive it is

I'm not sure "repetitive" is the first word 99.999% would use.

IMO Exai marked a shift in how critics covered these guys. A lot of them seemed annoyed at having to review an incredibly dense 2 hour album on a deadline, and that came through in the writing. I remember thinking it was kinda funny when L-Event came out right after, it's like in cartoons when a character gets pelted with an avalanche of objects and sits there dazed for a few seconds, then a teacup falls on their head. In hindsight a lot of those Exai reviews were pretty off the mark (outside of dog latin's, of course) and I think both fans and critics just handled them differently after that. They're entering a sort of inscrutable phase of their career - like how many people in this thread have a good handle on all the elseq stuff yet?

I started struggling a bit wth Autechre around "Untilted" and lost track a bit, up to and including "Exai." But I really liked elseq, iirc, and that super epic live stream they did a couple of years back, even if I never listened to them again, tbh. But this new stuff, I'm really digging it.

Hmm, so "All End," it finally hit me what this is reminding me of: Tim Hecker. Stuff like this:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=EE9mT4JaW_0

o god pls someone affirm it's better than Hecker

Is Hecker bad? Anyway, the Ae is good, so fine, it's "better than Hecker."

personal distaste, it's all fine

wow finally something i agree with imago on

i like his early stuff tho

i love tim hecker, lol

i'm also listening to "all end" right now and this is my shit

towards the latter half of "all end" it strongly recalls one of the later-period Tim Hecker albums.. Ravedeath, I think. Otherwise, the bulk (the surface, at least) of it, is from the outro to "bladelores" (Exai)

the timbre / quality of it, even - kinda glassy, maybe it's Virgins

mirrage, column thirteen, shimripl casual are gorgeous ae

column thirteen harks back to Oversteps in a lovely way.. it brings back that sort of buttery, humid quality of pt2ph8 (et al)

There is definitely some sort of melody in "All End." Maybe just a few notes or huge chords hanging there, but it's there, in the background, spooky and menacing and cycling around.

The title makes me worry that "all end" is their swan song... hopefully it's the all end for just NTS and not Autechre as a band.

After attending a show a week ago where William Basinski's Disintegration Loops were played in their entirety over the course of an evening (with the audience encouraged to bring beddings and sleep over while listening), now I kinda want to experience the NTS sessions unedited during an 8 hour sit in at a venue.

Do their catalog numbers all mean something? They're certainly not in order anymore.

Untilted = WARP180 (something to do with 180 degrees = no angles?)
Oversteps = WARP210 (10th album)
Elseq = WARP512 (5 volumes, 12th album?)
NTS = WARP364 (36 tracks, 4 sessions?)

Thanks to insomnia, I just woke up and started Session 4 over again.

Man, I tried with Session 4 and about 30 minutes into I was feeling crazy anxious and like a headache was coming on. I've tried over and over with late Autechre, but I don't think I can do it.

Maybe I need to buy a ton of w33d to spend some time with these jamz.

I slept to v4 on a loop all night and had a full 8 hours sleep for the first time in weeks. off to he gym! lalalalala

if somebody can edit this down to the best 12 minutes i'll listen

I had to turn off Session 3 this morning and put on All End instead. That track is not necessarily indicative of the rest of the set(s), but it's what I keep coming back to. And it's an hour long, so ...

http://www.namesdir.net/s/gonk

i listened to all the NTS sets today. WOW.

'column thirteen' is just astonishing, so psychedelic and transporting, it kind of reminds me of harold budd.

there's so much great stuff here. i already like it more than elseq

maybe i need to hear these in a diff frame of mind, CDs on the stereo, proper rest, etc... Elseq seemed more engaging, interesting (sustained) beyond the initial novelty of its release.

have bought and stuck this on

so far so good

Real talk: I am unable to prevent myself from reading "shimripl" as "shrimpl". Looking in vain for companion track "wytwyyn".

so far, most of the way through Set 2, the best piece imo has been 'xflood'

xp no it is shrimpl your copy is mislabeled

shrimpimpl

i listened to all the NTS sets today. WOW.

'column thirteen' is just astonishing, so psychedelic and transporting, it kind of reminds me of harold budd.

there's so much great stuff here. i already like it more than elseq

dammit

I keep telling myself "you don't actually need this" and then my man map has to do something like this

you do need this

i think these are going to take a lot longer to sink in with me than elseq, may need some special headphone listening time carved out somehow.

yeah so far I think elseq is more relevant to my tastes but will pick up from halfway through 3 later

A rave review of NTS Sessions 1-4 is up here.

This deserves a 20/5 and everyone knows it

I'm 3/4 of the way through "all end" now and it's like a combination of some kind of pink-cloud ambient music, Aine O'Dwyer's church organ improvisations, and the beginning of Godflesh's "Love, Hate (Slugbaiting)." This whole set is amazing, but this one piece - which I'm assuming will get its own CD when the physical version arrives - is the kind of thing you want to turn up to window-rattling volume and just live in for an hour.

is there an easy way to listen to the first 3 sessions online, now? i would enjoy doing a mega-listen today but the only one streaming is the 4th.

They're all there on the bleepstore.

https://autechre.bleepstores.com/

My family keeps telling me to turn this off, which is probably for the best, because if they didn't, I would be listening to it all the time.

oh, i didn't know they were streaming there! should have been obvious, i suppose, but thanks!

I wonder if its really worth taking the 7:59:45 plunge

Could be worse, could be 8-hours long.

I bought it

'cause i depend on ae

xpost Are you a fan? I can't wait to hear your opinion. Sometimes music like this, it's easy to forget that it isn't everyone's cup of tea, even if they are already fans. Similarly, it's sometimes hard for me to tell if I like one Autechre album better than another because it actually is better or just because for whatever reason it resonates more.

all end made me want to listen to coil's time machines again

donk steady one is so good
there is a whole crew, deservedly

the interior minutes of 'eO' are so, so good

autechre: so good

sorry for those posts. here's something that rewarded a second listen: "splesh" (on NTS3) ends by splicing in "all end".

if they release the mixed live sessions as a separate release I'm tearing up my autechre fan club card

as someone who checked out around quaristice i'm totally baffled by all the praise for all this nu autechre

i tried listening to elseq last night and it just sounded like ... more confield

how much max/msp do you need in your life, really

i'll let you know

lol

just bit the bullet on the CD set

I know it's futile but I really want the vinyl box set in my life I land I'll regret it if I don't buy it. but man, £120 worth of abstruse electronic noise is a lot to pay

I feel like splitting that final track over two (three?) sides would be criminal

yeah. and even listening to this kind of music on my shitty turntable is ridiculous anyway but I did buy those first three albums when they were reissued and they sound great as LPs

Splitting 'All End' indeed seems criminal. And I'm with DL, it's a lot of money. Yet I still bit the bullet and ordered the whole damn thing, on the basis NTS4 alone, it is other wordly, even for Autechre. New dawn or final chapter, idc, it is sublime.

Whiney can quote me on this for his next daft poll.

*worldly

the interior minutes of 'eO' are so, so good

― Karl Malone

there are elements of their "One Six" tour that comprise parts of NTS 4 - some of the more 'alien' -sounding material. those ONESIX sets (European tour) were well documented (audience recordings), easy to find on YouTube, and other sites in higher quality / d/l'able formats.

Just went to check out and noticed the release date, which is after I move, and I don't yet have a new address. How limited is this box set supposed to be, anyway? If I'm risking not getting one I may just have it shipped to a friend.

Also, it's cool that you can order the sessions separately. Can't imagine someone who wants this not wanting all of it, but the budget-minded of us might listen between now and July and decide we don't need all 4 sets.

No such option on the CD version though

Thinking I'll get the CD box and my favorite of the sessions on vinyl.

I kind of want that vinyl set, while I also know I absolutely don't need it.

I don't know that "max/msp" is a type of sound, really.. you could use Max to affect / control acoustic sounds and recordings, it doesn't define/determine the sound of an artist/band's music, necessarily. There's a fluidity / plasticity to these post-Exai recordings that makes them seem more synthetic / intangible, and it can become 'samey', but there are instances throughout these sessions that sound remarkably solid, 'real', and acoustic (physical modeling?), even. I lapse into states of mind where this music sounds 'unreal', similar to the sense you get watching the Star Wars prequels (CGI excess), but the perception of it is constantly shifting.

they really go for it on column thirteen, damn

How limited is this box set supposed to be, anyway?

I probably didn’t really need to order it, so you could always guilt me later

I expect they'll make a few more than there are pre-orders for. For the CDs at any rate.

Too soon for sure, but I've been wondering what this would have done to their results. How many #1 songs?

Unfortunately, we have to do that entire poll over again now that they've essentially doubled their total output in the last few years

ordered, had it sent to my dad's house. Couldn't risk missing out on this one, especially after listening to "all end" all morning

can't wait for the inevitable NTS Sessions poll, but give me a few months, ILX, ok?

we could just make the poll with an end date six months out, but I guess there are too many individual tracks for each to be a poll option

we haven't even polled exai yet

The next release will be 16 hours so we'd better get a move on if we want to poll :-)

I was thinking we could just poll the 4 individual sessions. I'm not even all the way through but so far 2>1

Jute Gyte has just put out 4 hours of somewhat Autechre-inspired ambient music, for those who dream of more

(three hours ago)

I'm probably the only one who dreams of more, lol, but holy shit ty ty ty

"the cave is empty" is just a perfect title for a 30 minute ambient wash

I whacked Exai on earlier and it's comparatively basic, dare I say flimsy compared to even this stuff. incredible

Lmao imagine sending that tweet five years back in time

as someone who checked out around quaristice i'm totally baffled by all the praise for all this nu autechre

i tried listening to elseq last night and it just sounded like ... more confield

how much max/msp do you need in your life, really

I consider them to be two different bands at this stage. And tbf a lot of stuff on Untilted is all hardware no software according to some of their interviews at the time. I feel like they scratch an analytic, hypnotic musical itch no other band really scratches outside of certain types of jazz.

Their music is like looking at a beautiful, yet desolate landscape - tons of randomness constrained into ordered patterns.

Quaristice is a weird time to check out I reckon. they kind of seemed to rein themselves back in on that one after the more impenetrable Confield/Draft/Untitled era which I've only really got stuck into properly in more recent years. Quaristice is like a little buffet of different ideas, or like a prog record that tells all these vignettey little stories rather than extended break jams

xp there's def. a jazz 'listening mode' that their stuff lately seems to be asking for

i think "13 ctrl" might be my favorite on nts 1, out of all good-to-great stuff. the tightness of the beat and the expansiveness of the pads start interacting in this way where the craziest shit gets churned out. totally wild + straight fire.

"9 chr0" is sweetly modulated / blunted (impeded), a definite highlight of Session 2. The latter 4-5 tracks of session 2 flow well--i keep returning to it for its more chill vibe. also, love the guttural bass sounds that occur throughout "shimripl casual" (NTS 4). haven't yet warmed up to "all end", i'm guessing it might be better on headphones, or a proper hi fi setup.

gonk tuf hi, fuck. taking me back to chenc9, slightly more hopped up, twisted. "chenc9" and "90101-5l-l" are prime tracks (imo), re Quaristice (album versions)

honestly not so into "all end"! i like it and think it's good but there are definitely other hour-long ambient things i'd rather listen to

xflood just came on dear god that's nuts.

that "impeded" sound that happens, all over elseq too, is that a sidechain thing? like for the tiniest second everything drops out because of some inaudible bass frequency or something.. almost too quick to be sidechain though. i like the effect a lot.

a ton of moments on this that make me say "ufff" out loud.

i was running to nts 1 earlier, on a really rocky trail, and just making all these stupid "uff" sounds out loud because of the music lol

one other random thing, i think "mirrage" might be one of my favorite ambient things they've ever done? just haunted as hell. i've put on zeit by tangerine dream a few times lately and it has that similarly alien vibe to it imo. great segway into column thirteen.

I'm working on my personal pared-down version of this (for walks, drives, gym, etc) but have resolved to hear the whole thing three times first. I expect I will leave "all end" off my final playlist, but AE in ambient mode is not my favorite (though I agree "mirrage" is cool, it also benefits from being relatively short)

I really love "xflood." Those amazing ominous choral samples that increase in volume are currently wigging me out, man

never really got into pure-ambient Autechre. The love for Vletrmx confounds me. That said, things like Overand and Uviol (and lots of nice things on Amber), which are quasi-ambient are very very enjoyable

currently loving the massive low end growls in the second half of violvoic, and the super evocative late night in the jungle atmosphere of turbile epic casual, stpl idle (lol)

great segway into column thirteen.

http://gifon007.eu/wp-content/uploads/2016/08/Segway-Fails-Gifs-Gif-Ramps.gif

(sorry)

I'm now watching that gif while "clustro casual" plays in my iTunes and I highly recommend doing this

Also, weird thing to say about 8 hours of music, but I don't think I dislike a single track on this. Obviously, I prefer some tracks to others, but it's remarkable how few skippers there are.

This really is a treasure trove and something I will be listening to / unpacking for years. My favorite AE since Confield (yes I am "one of those")

If I stick around here too long today Whiney may have to do a follow-up poll

I whacked Exai on earlier and it's comparatively basic, dare I say flimsy compared to even this stuff. incredible

Ha! I did the same yesterday and had the exact opposite reaction ...

xpost I was just telling a friend last night that it’s my favorite of theirs since Confield, so I may be one of those too!

Even as they were released I sort of lopped their albums into eras. There were the first few, up to and including Tri Repatae, which were sort of more familiar EDM/industrial/whatever. Then things started to get crazy and abstract with LP5 and Confield, then things turned more accessible ("accessible") with "Oversteps" and (iirc) "Exai" before going into its current epic post-CD phase with Live. At least that's how my brain divides them up. Been a while since I listened to the whole discography, which may have become impossible, given that 8 hour albums alone require a bit of effort to listen to and digest.

Lots of great surprises on the new ones. "g 1 e 1" (from NTS Session 3) has a Boards of Canada vibe.

There are some variations on that guitar-sounding bit that appeared in the latter half of the AE_LIVE sets. I believe there's a really similar (unaccompanied) version at the end of the Krakow set.

https://soundcloud.com/leheron_idletones/ae-dublin

man how great would it be if they'd do some sort of archived live series, like what King Crimson does. I mean chances are pretty slim since Ae pretty much never look back and who knows what sort of soundboard recordings they've got...but still. a man can dream

...because the other Autechre thread dealing with NTS Sessions has taken a predictably ugly turn. Hope no one minds.

maybe I should check back in with Autechre

you should! these NTS sets are what everyone's raving about right now. the 4th (and final) set is streaming now, at least for the next 512,580 seconds.

― Karl Malone, Friday, April 27, 2018 12:36 PM (five days ago) Bookmark Flag Post Permalink

I wrote three of those yessssssss. I'll go to the mat all day, every day for my favourite artist and I'm proud to sound ridiculous when words fail.

― startled macropod (MatthewK), Friday, April 27, 2018 5:27 PM (five days ago) Bookmark Flag Post Permalink

You know you're too jaded when enthusiasm sounds ridiculous. I say, fly that enthusiasm flag high! When a really awesome group known for putting out these alien, enigmatic soundscapes puts out a great collection that 99.999% of the world, and perhaps some certain percentage of fans as well, will never know even exists, shout it to the rooftops.

― Josh in Chicago, Friday, April 27, 2018 5:45 PM (five days ago) Bookmark Flag Post Permalink

Okay, lol @ 'bleepstores'

Bleep opened three years before Spotify and less than a year after iTunes

― chilis=lyrics...hypocrits (sic), Friday, April 27, 2018 6:04 PM (five days ago) Bookmark Flag Post Permalink

50 for 8 discs is pretty good, i might buy this

― brimstead, Friday, April 27, 2018 6:08 PM (five days ago) Bookmark Flag Post Permalink

i like a lot of descriptions on that thread and will absolutely cop to being a bit rate snob AND i wholeheartedly support this poll. i'm voting for software upgrades just because they're really unpleasant and this is pleasant music.

― you bet, nancy (map), Friday, April 27, 2018 6:19 PM (five days ago) Bookmark Flag Post Permalink

isn't a lot of autechre's music really physical? seems like you'd want lossless for the headroom etc... FEEL THE BASS

― brimstead, Friday, April 27, 2018 6:20 PM (five days ago) Bookmark Flag Post Permalink

if you don't hear this ________________
or this __^__^__^__^
you will not feel it

― brimstead, Friday, April 27, 2018 6:21 PM (five days ago) Bookmark Flag Post Permalink

The pipes one was a funny anecdote so it got my vote
But yeah I’m finding it increasingly difficult to understand what lens Whiney sees the world through. Maybe the ilm regulars have a better handle on it than me, idk

― You're all losing so many points on your progress bars (Champiness), Friday, April 27, 2018 6:21 PM (five days ago) Bookmark Flag Post Permalink

whiney otm

― the late great, Friday, April 27, 2018 6:24 PM (five days ago) Bookmark Flag Post Permalink

first one is obviously best

― the late great, Friday, April 27, 2018 6:28 PM (five days ago) Bookmark Flag Post Permalink

software upgrades just because they're really unpleasant

Things getting better = unpleasant? OK.

― Gonk Steady Crew (Noel Emits), Friday, April 27, 2018 7:28 PM (five days ago) Bookmark Flag Post Permalink

Can "this is pleasant music" be added to the poll? Autechre is always my first port of call when I want some pleasant music.

― Gonk Steady Crew (Noel Emits), Friday, April 27, 2018 7:38 PM (five days ago) Bookmark Flag Post Permalink

show me someone who believes software upgrades are "things getting better" in 2018 and i'll show you a fool. p.s. don't be a bitch

― you bet, nancy (map), Friday, April 27, 2018 7:46 PM (five days ago) Bookmark Flag Post Permalink

Upgrade by definition means things getting better. If it isn't better it's not an upgrade.

If you want to wilfully misconstrue that I think it's only fair to return the favour and mention that "this is pleasant music" is more nauseating than anything in the poll.

― Gonk Steady Crew (Noel Emits), Friday, April 27, 2018 8:06 PM (five days ago) Bookmark Flag Post Permalink

There's no band I wish I liked more than Autechre. On paper, they seem like exactly what I want in a band, but everything I've listened to has been impenetrable. Might try again with this new release

― Vinnie, Friday, April 27, 2018 9:38 PM (five days ago) Bookmark Flag Post Permalink

autechre counts as a band? now i’ve seen it all!

― the late great, Friday, April 27, 2018 9:41 PM (five days ago) Bookmark Flag Post Permalink

though i agree strongly w the reading that confield was a post rock album

― the late great, Friday, April 27, 2018 9:42 PM (five days ago) Bookmark Flag Post Permalink

lentic catachresis is a post-rock jam for sure

― imago, Friday, April 27, 2018 9:43 PM (five days ago) Bookmark Flag Post Permalink
Skipping 101 messages at this point... Click here if you want to load them all.

every time someone makes a grand proclamation about which half or third of autechre’s discography is superior i scoff

― flamenco drop (BradNelson), Wednesday, May 2, 2018 4:22 PM (three hours ago) Bookmark Flag Post Permalink

never been able to get into anything before EP7

― imago, Wednesday, May 2, 2018 12:37 PM (forty-five minutes ago) Bookmark Flag Post

wait sometimes i scoff and then realize how in character the post is

― flamenco drop (BradNelson), Wednesday, May 2, 2018 4:24 PM (three hours ago) Bookmark Flag Post Permalink

I don't know what that means but I agree with imago fwiw, though it isn't so much that I can't get into anything before EP7 as when I listen back now to those older albums they don't reset my brain chemistry like latter day AE (though some of those earlier albums did at one time). The career demarcations may not be clear cut (see above), but there's clearly a narrative / progression at work over the course of the discography and I feel like they're peaking right now

― Paul Ponzi, Wednesday, May 2, 2018 4:50 PM (three hours ago) Bookmark Flag Post Permalink

btw not to go all Central Casting Autechre Fan but the concurrent Autechre threads are wreaking havoc on my OCD right about now

― Paul Ponzi, Wednesday, May 2, 2018 4:56 PM (two hours ago) Bookmark Flag Post Permalink

Hmmmm...intrigued. Please explain!

― Paul Ponzi, Wednesday, May 2, 2018 8:16 PM (fifty-nine minutes ago) Bookmark Flag Post Permalink

elseq redux

DISC 1

elyc6 onset
mesh cinereal

DISC 2

latentcall
eastre

^^^has a claim to be their best album, and certainly if it'd been released like this I'd still be raving about it now

― imago, Wednesday, May 2, 2018 5:17 PM (two hours ago) Bookmark Flag Post Permalink

Dunno I think the foregrounding of melody in Tri and cichlisuite is dope. Garbage has one of the best melodies in the catalog and vietrmix or whatever it’s called is an ambient portal to pure bliss. Sure there’s lovely parts on later work but I think preference of what yer favourite autechre periods are is fine

― done and dusted (Ross), Wednesday, May 2, 2018 5:25 PM (two hours ago) Bookmark Flag Post Permalink

Every time they come out with a new one I go through all the old records and it's amazing how great some of those early ones still sound, even if they feel a bit obsoleted or whatever. I mean Incunabula still sounds great, even though it's arguably their worst LP. As much as I love that era of IDM, I never really liked that woozy tape feel that a lot of the classics have. IMO it's tough to break them into eras, each album + accompanying EPs is sort of like an era of its own, though to me the big shifts were on Confield and Quaristice.

― frogbs, Wednesday, May 2, 2018 5:26 PM (two hours ago) Bookmark Flag Post Permalink

I can't really fault any of their albums. the one that's aged the most is Amber, which I really liked for a long time but doesn't quite hit the sweet spot as much any more. While my love for that one has faded, I've only got to love Incunabula more. I used to think Draft and Untilted were not so hot but now I love them, while the Quaristice/Oversteps stuff has taken a backseat (much as I was impressed with them at the time). I guess with this stuff it's never entirely clear when a certain sound or track will hit you. I still find Confield the most challenging tbh

― brand new universal harvester (dog latin), Wednesday, May 2, 2018 6:10 PM (one hour ago) Bookmark Flag Post Permalink

elseq redux

DISC 1

elyc6 onset
mesh cinereal

DISC 2

latentcall
eastre

^^^has a claim to be their best album, and certainly if it'd been released like this I'd still be raving about it now