... 6. Calbruc 7. Recury 8. POLL 9. Nuane -- Autechre :: Chiastic Slide :: LP4

maybe but "nuane" is the fucking bomb and i'm voting for it.

RETTIC AC
RETTIC AC
RETTIC AC
RETTIC AC
RETTIC AC
RETTIC AC
RETTIC AC

Gotta be Cichli here. It's by far the jewel in the crown and the album would be a bit poor without it. Not that I don't have time for the other tracks, but this album feels like an extended single with Cichli as the A-side. I love Rettic AC for all its noisiness. I remember the day I heard Tewe and realised "that's a Timbaland track!". "Hub" makes me think of a huge bouncing iron knight guarding a portcullis in a castle - very interesting in stereo. The last four tracks are nice but just kind of go over my head.

Best artwork of any Autechre release.

Though "Cichli" is by far my track of choice, I have a special affection for "Calbruc" along the same principles as my love for "Eutow" and "C/Pach."

THIS IS IMPOSSIBLE
THIS IS IMPOSSIBLE
THIS IS IMPOSSIBLE
THIS IS IMPOSSIBLE
THIS IS IMPOSSIBLE

To everyone who thinks "Envane" is so great -- how can you not love this album? You want to hear hip-hop done Autechre style (e.g. "Recury" and "Cipater")? You've got it, and what's more, the beats are 100000X fatter and chunkier!

Why should "Cichli" be the obvious winner? Because it's the only track with a semi four-to-the-floor beat that you can almost imagine dancing to, and the beats on almost everything else are too disjointed and complicated? What's going to happen when we get to "Confield" and "Draft 7:30"?

HUB. HUB HUB HUB.

Rettic AC = Cat Litter? It always sounded like that to me.

Cichli is the obvious winner because it's so damn catchy.

I was looking at the skyscrapers in New York. When I came back we started playing around with abstracting architectural forms. The natural lines of the skyscrapers, from these photos I’d taken, gave lines of perspective that formed an almost 3D grid. The black shape in the foreground of the cover is one of the towers of the Brooklyn Bridge, as seen from the Empire State Building.
(tDR founder Ian Anderson)

don't see it meself.

http://i53.tinypic.com/4usx8l.jpg

The shape may be turned 90 degrees to the left or right - some of the inner artwork looks more bridge-shadow-shaped, imho:

http://unfinishade.typepad.com/.a/6a01156f63cad4970c0120a96ac3ea970b-800wi
http://unfinishade.typepad.com/.a/6a01156f63cad4970c01310fd1c3b6970c-800wi

Why should "Cichli" be the obvious winner? Because it's the only track with a semi four-to-the-floor beat that you can almost imagine dancing to, and the beats on almost everything else are too disjointed and complicated? What's going to happen when we get to "Confield" and "Draft 7:30"?

― NoTimeBeforeTime, Thursday, 11 November 2010 07:19 (2 hours ago)

Cichli isn't four-to-the-floor, not even 4/4, but that's beside the point. I think it comes from the way that sort of disjointed melody slowly develops over the course of 7-8 minutes and byt he time the beat drops out it's like listening to a sad sighing beautiful prehistoric animal settling down to die. Think it's actually made me well up at times (when smoking lots of dope).

it comes from the way that sort of disjointed melody slowly develops over the course of 7-8 minutes

This describes *every* track on this album. Which is why it's so great!

Of course you're right, "Cichli" is 5/4 not 4/4. I was trying to describe the way the beats are well-rooted "on the one". It's probably the simplest and least challenging beat on the album, therefore it's the "catchiest" track. I think.

I thought a lot of the tracks (particularly the second half) tend to be quite repetitive drone-style tracks. But listen to the (extended) coda on Cichli and tell me it's not one of the most swoonsome things they've ever done.

it is lovely. but it is also obviously the most user friendly, easiest to like track on the album (otoh the beat isn't actually that simple imo, even the kick drum (not a kick drum) is quite hard to pin down, let alone the other clicks and hits swirling around.)

I didn't buy this album when it first came out, put off by the reviews and its reputation as being too hard - both difficult and unyielding. IIRC The Scotsman's review postulated that one of the duo was responsible for melodies, the other for harsh unrelenting beats, and for this album the latter guy had mounted some kind of coup. They were wrong of course, not only about the relationship but also in their judgement of the album - the beats are phat but there's plenty of charm hidden below the surface. It's also very organic sounding - maybe not luscious and green, more like forest undergrowth in winter, thorny and somewhat decayed, but still with a kind of natural beauty.

Unfortunately the album suffers from the same problem as Tri Repetae, a massive mid-period bummer from which it never really recovers. I really can't deal with Hub, the lopsided, lurching, aggressive/timid beat is just too much, maaan. Calbruc fires things up again much like Eutow on TR, and again like TR things then get a bit too ambient/samey. Serious album sequencing problems? Nuane is kinda cool but not for 13 minutes, they should have shaved some off and added them to Rettic AC.

Picking a winner tho... well Chiastic Slide supposedly refers to 'the mercurial qualities of the crossfader', and Cipater is far and away the best example of this - although the transition between the two parts is more or less a simple fade, the second part really seems to grow out from between the cracks of the first.

Nice words Ledge.
A lot of people hate on Hub, but I think it's a minor highlight. It's the first time AFAICT that Autechre abandoned techno or hiphop parameters entirely, and came up with its own rhythm-physic.

To me this is a very front-loaded record, the last half being very much about

Unfortunately the album suffers from the same problem as Tri Repetae, a massive mid-period bummer from which it never really recovers.

I think every 90's Autechre album "suffers" from this, the best stuff is always the first three or four tracks, and the last track. Only "Incunabula" seems to escape this type of sequencing (maybe because it was essentially a compilation of their early tracks, as opposed to being specifically written and recorded as an album).

"Hub" sounds like a dry run for "Confield" in retrospect ... again, when we do those polls, I'll really interested in hearing what you guys have to say about "Confield" and "Draft 7:30". Because if you can't come to grips with the likes of "Hub" ...

I have very strong feelings about both those albums. That is all I will say for now :)

I think every 90's Autechre album "suffers" from this, the best stuff is always the first three or four tracks, and the last track.

I don't agree with this as it doesn't apply to my favourites, LP5 or EP7 (or Amber or Tri Repetae) for that matter. I always skip straight to Rae on LP5, and the run from that track to Under BOAC is probably my favourite collection of Autechre tunes. EP7 likewise has Dropp right at its centre, although the last 3 tracks are jaw-dropping.

Yes! We're coming up to the really meaty Ae polls. Looking forward to the next few!

"Hub" sounds almost medieval to me (in a kind of Kings Quest way) and I'd like to play it side-by-side with Maphive6.1, which also sounds like a kidn of medieval battlefield.

Rettic AC = walking through snow and then suddenly seeing a huge wall made of cast iron looming in front of you

ledge, there's a better comparison of the Brooklyn Bridge where you see it head on as opposed to from the side.

"Pule" is really the only song on here that I have to keep myself from skipping.

anyone got a link to the original Brooklyn Bridge photo?

Strangle this is pretty much the only LP of theres i actually like

That is kind of strange... If you like this one, I couldn't imagine you not liking many of the others.

some talk about the design here, but no picture http://m-woolley0811-dc.blogspot.com/2010/11/tdrautechre-chiastic-slide.html

there was a microsite on the warp web pages for either this or envane which was the sleeve done as layers that floated over each other randomly. was lovely.

That is kind of strange... If you like this one, I couldn't imagine you not liking many of the others.

― The Great Cool Lulu who sleeps in Riley... (dog latin), Friday, November 12, 2010 10:10 AM (53 minutes ago) Bookmark

Yeah i know but its the only one i can actually listen to start to finish

This is the album I've spent least time with out of the first five, which is weird since I remember quite liking, well, all of the tracks I can remember. Got to dig it out again...

Just realised why I think of Kings Quest when I hear Hub, might just have something to do with playing an old copy of the game when I first heard the album - doh!

X-101, I can see what you mean, actually, despite once being a big pre-Confield Autechre fan. I do think that Chiastic is their most consistent album, very very few filler tracks compared to the others (which have towering highs but then several relative zzzz's).

Recury please.

anyone got a link to the original Brooklyn Bridge photo?

OK, I actually looked at the cover of Chiastic again and I'm now as baffled as the rest of you.

'Tewe' but as per the Tri Repetae poll I don't expect my favorites to be a majority winners

I think it's worth noting that autechre is the only techno I had ever bought and wasn't influenced by liking any other techno before I picked up autechre albums. I might be the only person here who can say that. At some point in my autechre collecting I did buy a couple ambient albums by brian eno and tangerine dream... maybe that affected my pallet

IMO autechre's hey day is Tri-Repetae - Confield (save one track on Gantz Graf)

really close tie between Tewe and Cipater for me though

Automatic thread bump. This poll is closing tomorrow.

maybe their most coherent album... might privilege the first and last for that reason, but think i'll pick cipater for being the best track to get from a kinda down feeling to thoughtful. also for the way the drums switch up, and the tiny bass in the beginning to the more expansive sound in the second half. and one of their best wandering synth lines

Automatic thread bump. This poll's results are now in.

Closer than I thought! Also:
POLL4, Wrap5 -- Autechre :: LP5 :: LP5

Even Hub got a vote!

Is Pule really 8 and a half minutes long?

Sad that no one voted "Calbruc" though. "Pule" sux~!

Calbruc is too "WHHOOMP WHOOMP KAH!" for me.

Listening to Pule out of context... I think this is the reason the second half of the album drags for me. I like Ae's more shimmering, ambient fodder (Uviol and Overand spring to mind), but this goes on for ages with very little going on other than some nice echoey high-ends.

Hub is underrated.

I've managed to acquire all the reissues of the first three albums and it's great to finally spend some quality time with Incunabula, which I've never really done.

Hoping they release Chiastic/LP5/EP7 soon. Is this on the cards? OHMIGOSHIWILLDIE

PS - Hub is underrated. Definitely one of the weirder things they'd done up to that point.

did i mention Hub is underrated?

speaking of Hub, I'm sure I can hear, very faintly, the tune of 'The First Noel' playing in the background

I've had it up to here waiting for Warp to reissue Chaistic / LP5 / EP7 / Confield. Is this even on the cards? I'd love these on vinyl.

“Went back to the earlier stuff”

One thing we can all probably agree on: what a wild, *open* catalogue these guys have. Taken together, they kinda do anything and everything.

Raymond, that's exactly my experience. Bought LP5 c1998 after having bought as much Aphex back catalogue as I could.
At first I wondered if it was a joke! Or maybe not a joke - Aphex had always had a sense of humour, of tongue in cheek, so to hear this same kind of music played out in such a po-faced way, especially since tracks like Fold4,Wrap5 and Drane2 seemed to be using similar techniques as Aphex had on Come To Daddy and Windowlicker, it really made me wonder whether Ae were to be taken seriously.
But LP5 and soon after EP7 grew on me and became firm faves. Felt the same way about the earlier stuff, and it's only in recent years I've really got to appreciate Incunabula for what it is. Confield threw me: It was just one level of abstraction too far and I remember a lot of hardened fans online complaining about it. I tried and tried with it but I still to this day find even the most popular tracks quite painful to listen to.

Quite similar for me too, I had borrowed and listened to Tri Rep quite a bit and liked their vibe, but when I heard LP5 I bought it after 2 tracks. Went back, Incunabula was a shrug, Amber transcendent, Tri Rep now seemed bland, Chiastic impenetrable but charismatic, all the EPs superb. EP7 came out, complete obsession, Confield was like the face of god to behold. I never really calmed down after that but it tailed off gradually until Exai planted the flag again.

I really think, especially for fans of 90s Autechre, that peeps should revisit SIGN/PLUS. I firmly believe they are some of their best albums and I'm very surprised others on here don't rate them so highly.

I tried giving NTS1 a listen last night while playing video games, but I'm still not sure I fully get it. These tracks are too long and trundling to really elicit concentrated deep listening, but if they're on in the background I guess they provide a sort of monotonous grey groove? I don't hate it, but it really feels like an endurance test a lot of the time. Really I'd be able to pick maybe three or four essential tracks from the whole thing and be happy with that

Hmmm.

You know, it think somehow just I’ve come to want longer AE tracks, collected, where each track is its own planet.

(Or they’ve trained me to want this.)

When each track is long enough it’s easier to roll with the fact that 4-5 tracks are reasonably different from one another.

And then the swing back to LPs that attempt to sustain a mood (sorta) with 3-8 minute tracks don’t quite cut it.

I dunno, I feel like they’ve created new forms for their work in the last 20 years (god Confield is 20 now). NTS feels like a development of cap.IV, the 8 minute multipart tracks on (massively underrated) Untilted, and so on. A lot of Quaristice played with long tracks which were themselves parts of a larger mutating thing across the Versions and EP releases, culminating in that long Perlence subrange thing which took it as far as it could go, an hour long timecrawled single beat falling to bits, and then on NTS they found the balance (for me).

I think Confield/Ganz Graf/Draft 7.30 is always going to feel like peak autechre to me, maybe it's just because that's when I started buying those albums on release, but that was when I really really got into them.

Ganz Graf, now there's one I forget exists from time to time. Even more than Confield (which I thought came out afterwards but apparently not), that one really felt like Ae pushing things to the outer limits at the time. It was definitely helped by the video, which seemed like the future at the time but now looks strangely dated.

I can definitely hear a direct link between Ganz Graf and the NTS Sessions. I might be in the minority when I say I prefer Autechre when they're not being overtly claustro and itchy, which might explain why I like LP5 and the most recent two from last year the most.

Gantz with a t

https://gantzmythsources.libs.uga.edu/
https://books.google.co.uk/books?id=3xoAEAAAQBAJ

a coincidence? i think not...

huh

my feeling these days is that elseq is the long-form masterpiece

Elseq is the overlooked middle child between Exai and NTS. I should revisit it

I'm not sure if it's just me but that era felt, critically and commercially, like their wilderness period when their music got a lot less accessible (fewer obvious melodies) but also the appetite for Autechre and Warp/IDM style music in general was dwindling, maybe because stuff like the more leftfield end of dubstep, minimal tech etc were filling that gap in a hipper, more club-friendly fashion (why listen to Quaristice when you've got Ricardo Villalobos and Burial?).

... I've since come back to Draft and Untilted and I really like them now, but certainly at the time they sounded like an act that had hit a creative rut to me. Anyone else feel this or is this just my subjective experience?

This definitely resonates with me. When Confield came out, it was a bit of a shocker for me in terms of its heady experimentalism and dearth of accessibility. Yet despite this, there were a few tracks that really got me going - same with Draft, if not more so, but it felt as if "Autechre was dying or dead" or some such melodramatic nonsense. When Untilted dropped I was about done with the band - that album seemed to me them taking the piss, ditching all manner of melody and accessibility (outside of the opening track) nearing self parody. Indeed, I got into dubstep and the atmospheric experimentalism of that scene in addition to techno (Koze and Isolee were my gateway drugs there) around the same time (2005-2007). Just felt like experimental electronic music or "IDM" was out of ideas at that point - and dubstep a la Burial was the real "IDM", a club friendly, emotive, atmospheric vibe expressed with texture and abstract sounds in a new way.

Didn't take long for me to really reassess the "Mechanical Trilogy" of Confield through Untilted, and by 2010 I was really enjoying all of latter. My own tastes had evolved too, to appreciate less melodic, more textural, experimental and rhythmic music too. Wasn't too long that it became hard for me to listen to pre Chiastic era Ae. Amber and Quaristice are my least favorite Ae records now. Instead of them "falling off" I now feel like they've merely evolved and grown, simultaneously getting less and more accessible by simply ... being about as prolific as any musician or band on the planet

Elseq is the overlooked middle child between Exai and NTS. I should revisit it

Yes. Latentcall is a top 5 Ae track. Easily one of the most amazing, epic and uptempo tracks they've ever laid to tape. Shame it's digital only

Funny about Amber. It used to be one of my faves when I was getting into them, and I preferred it to Tri Rep and Chiastic. I don't know if it's cos I listened to it so much back int he day, but since buying up the first three reissues, it's the one I play the least. Incunabula has shot up in my estimation: I just wasn't into it when I was younger

Listening to Untilted right now, have always thought of as the weak link in their '00s catalogue but it's sounding pretty great on earphones. I need to go back to Elseq as well.

Funny, Untilted felt to me like they reached what they’d been heading for. I listened to it a lot and loved the drama of each track unfolding like a miniature story, e.g. Augmatic Disport and Pro Radii. Fermium is slithery and beautiful too, but being fascinated by rhythm I didn’t understand folks lamenting the loss of melodies, it seemed beside the point.
Anyone else remember the “mad day out” video for Fermium?

Amber is a pretty special album. I'm not sure where it slots in with the rest of their catalogue. It doesn't really fit in with anything else either. Like the end of "Silverside"...where the hell did that come from?

tbh it was Chiastic Slide that really made this group click for me. Tri Rep has some parts I enjoy very much but as a whole it's too...dry? Rigid? So much tick-tick-tick-clank-tick-tick-glorp-clunk. Too "industrial" as in "pulling a double shift at the metal door hinge factory and trying to come up with patterns in the machines". I actually think it's one of their uh...less good albums? I mean all 14 or whatever of their LPs are great but I think it would rank near the bottom. Once I got into Chiastic and started hearing those rhythms swing around I was like...yeah, that's what it's all about, I get it now.

of the "mechanical trilogy" the only one I really struggled with is Draft. the other two, as difficult as they are, are sonically thrilling. the sound design on Confield is still unlike anything else and Untilted is such a jam. Draft may be too strange even for me.

there are so many melodies on untitled tho

untilted*

best album title ever too

Agree with frogbs on everything there. I go back to TR for Clipper though.

Chiastic is definitely when they "became" Autechre if that makes any sense. The albums before are very special and unique but I can't think of anything that would have sounded close to Chiastic Slide when it came out - a total game changer.

I'm listening to Untilted really loud in my headphones lads, and man there's so much going on in here I didn't notice the first 80 times I've played this album

And frogbs I agree with about Tri Rep. There are days when I'm in the mood for it and I really like Leterel, Eutow and Overand, but overall it's a masochistic grinding record. I guess it shares a lot of properties with Untilted in the way it's a "metal" textured thing, Untilted is all shiny, hard and spherical whereas Tri Rep is worn and gritty like when you try to unscrew something and the thread is all fucked

I often wonder how much the album artwork affects my perception of these records. As well as being one of my all time favourite groups, they've got some of my favourite sleeve art ever. (Although not sure about Exai or Confield - I need those explained to me)

Brad, if you're hearing lots of melodies, at least on the opening two tracks, we've definitely got different ears. Only towards the end of Ipacial Section is there a discernible bassline (although there is a LOT of sub bass on these tracks)

Also there are a lot of human voices and noises on Untilted which I'd never really paid much notice of before - not something they'd really done since Ccec on EP7 I think?

break

also by overwhelming demand, that Fermium video (official, btw):
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=doue-G-tun8

hard agree about trirep being a little dry. it still has honestly never fully clicked for me. and since that was the first one I bought, I sure have tried a lot. luckily it was the ++ edition with the garbage + anvil vapre eps as a bonus disc. I took to those instantly and kept going with the group.

with untilted, I also wasn't super into it when it came out. but weirdly, I had heard some of live bootlegs from that tour first, and although I dug some of it (esp "sublimit," hard to argue with that one), I found the album a bit disappointing as a whole in comparison to those live sets. that glasgow art school soundboard recording from 2005 in particular, which is still one of my favorite autechre things. but I got over it. untilted rules.

I've said this before here but Tri-Rep and the records around that time really could use a remaster. Also agree it's not aged well (I also still revisit for Clipper and Eutow/C-Pach (also don't discount the Japanese bonus track Medrey and that iconic Ae Juno-106 bass synth) and sounds tinny and brittle.

Untilted is definitely a jam, and especially a wild headphone listen. And yes there's melodies, but 90's Ae fans were blessed with vibe like atmospheres and melodies from tracks like Cipater, Cichli, Rae and Corc that had syncopation, progression and more traditional expressions of straight forward emotions like melancholy or swagger, rather than the autistic spasms of most of the songs on Untilted with some chords buried in the mix, discovered after a half dozen listens on nice cans. To describe that record as "full of melodies" is like saying Low's HEY WHAT is full of great drumming and percussion. It's there, mostly expressed up front in a single track (LCC), but not exactly the focal point, which was their intention.

if nothing else it would be nice to neuter some of those high pitched noises. "Stud" makes me feel like I'm eating a box of nails.

Listening to Untilted this morning I heard a lot of similar sounds and textures to Dots and Loops, especially between "Sublimit" and "Contronatura." They both sounds like (and I guess are) very programmed records built partly from vintage electronic sounds -- like you're listening to a hard disk (one that's occasionally unreadable, in the case of Untilted, though I think this especially because my copy skips in some CD players as I mentioned in another thread).

Got a replacement for my LP5 and it also skips on the first track on both turntables I own. I think it must be something to do with how hard and heavy that track must be mastered as it isn't so much skipping like it's damaged excpet the needle is being jogged forward

I also hear an actual glitch in both acroyear and rae on mine. Definitely feels like an issue with the master and not the physical pressing. Anyone else hearing this? Might try and record my copy. Otherwise it's a good sounding pressing. The analog format absolutely softens the digital textures in a good way

got the reissue on now and man I forgot how crunchy every track on this album is. every single beat is sick. I can't believe this LP wasn't sampled constantly. and people thought this was a step down from Tri Rep? get outta here. "Recury" alone is so far ahead of everything they'd done to this point.

Just found out that "cichlid" is a type of fish that includes tilapia

also krib https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Pelvicachromis_pulcher

My wearing autechre t-shirts to find other fans strategy had a near miss - someone wearing a draft 7.30 shirt walked past at high speed and went into the supermarket by the bus stop i was waiting at. i then saw him through the window in the queue, he caught my nts shirt and we exchanged a thumbs up, then the bus came. he looked like he was about 12 - ok maybe 18, idk - so not sure how i would have handled any potential conversation.

Xp no way. 25 years of Autechre lore fandom and I had no idea they were such big fish stans

(last week i crossed someone on the street wearing a uniqlo "Takiyasha the Witch and the Skeleton Spectre" t-shirt whilst wearing my uniqlo "Sudden Shower over Shin-Ōhashi bridge and Atake" t-shirt but he didn't notice and i didn't say anything)

xp All the tracks on Cichlisuite seem to be at least tangentially fish-related.

"Characi(dae)" https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Characidae

"Pencha" is the Bengali word for "owl" and "Bhutum Pencha" the Brown Fish Owl specifically: https://en.banglapedia.org/index.php/Owl

"Yees Land" is an aquatic-themed level from the Sega Genesis game Space Harrier II where you fight enemies that resemble jellyfish, clams, and frogs https://strategywiki.org/wiki/Space_Harrier_II/Yees_Land

That last one is kind of a stretch but seems very on-brand for Autechre.

dunno how many times i must've heard Hub over the years but i've never noticed that second noise in the background before, like a piccolo played on the next room, underneath all the thumping from the 4th minute or so.

Yeah I've aways been fascinates with that part since I noticed it a whole back. To me it sounds like it's playing a version of "The First Noel", particularly the "Christ was born on Christmas Day" part, and It's totally offkey with the rest of the tune.

I love 'Hub'. Makes me feel like I'm standing on a massive chess board with gigantic pieces being moved around

Chiastic slide, then I hit it double time
Then I hit a spin 'cause we spun their block a couple times

a version of "The First Noel", particularly the "Christ was born on Christmas Day" part

those words do not appear in that carol?

i guess i can hear something that could be similar to 'born is the king of israel'

this has always been one of my least faves on chiastic but listening to it with confield ears does start to open it up.

yeah that bit, sorry

chiastic and confield are close cousins, i'd say