I listen to Autechre lots of different ways. As ambient music (in every sense), as intellectualized generative music (however composed or not), as textured electronic music, as tactile or more conventional beat-driven music, as really precise bricolage, as abstract experimental music. And so on. Subtle distinctions, sometimes, and sometimes what I perceive is just a matter of my mood. Other times it's just a matter of sitting in a different chair.
― Josh in Chicago, Wednesday, 2 May 2018 02:53 (six years ago) link
nts 1 is straight fire
― you bet, nancy (map), Wednesday, 2 May 2018 02:59 (six years ago) link
I agree with MatthewK's last post. the only thing that i think might be difficult for people is the length? outside of idk classical and jazz there aren't a lot of formats that are asking people to let something drift for 20 minutes.
― you bet, nancy (map), Wednesday, 2 May 2018 03:07 (six years ago) link
There are six (6) Autechre threads on the main page right now!
― i’m still stanning (morrisp), Wednesday, 2 May 2018 03:19 (six years ago) link
(And I’m not counting whatever’s happening in the “various boom bap” threads)
― i’m still stanning (morrisp), Wednesday, 2 May 2018 03:20 (six years ago) link
you're welcome
― you bet, nancy (map), Wednesday, 2 May 2018 03:22 (six years ago) link
dare I say it's because they've unloaded one of the most jaw dropping artistic achievements of the decade, just now?
― startled macropod (MatthewK), Wednesday, 2 May 2018 03:39 (six years ago) link
You’re supposed to say something like, “Another thread starts in 144,632 seconds!”
― i’m still stanning (morrisp), Wednesday, 2 May 2018 04:12 (six years ago) link
Dunno autechre are about as esoteric as it gets, there’s plenty to get we’ve just drank the kool aid. I know people who despise their music
― done and dusted (Ross), Wednesday, 2 May 2018 04:33 (six years ago) link
Yeah but it's not like people who dislike it, have failed to put in the work to "get" it. First track of theirs I heard, I thought oh boy I like that, and it's been that way for 20-odd years since. Some of their stuff I don't like - e.g. a lot of Oversteps, Tri Repetae - but I don't expect to do more study to get what I was missing.
― startled macropod (MatthewK), Wednesday, 2 May 2018 04:57 (six years ago) link
Fair
― done and dusted (Ross), Wednesday, 2 May 2018 05:08 (six years ago) link
I love Oversteps, Tri Repetae++!! Those are really two of the highlights of their entire catalog for me
― Dan S, Wednesday, 2 May 2018 05:36 (six years ago) link
^ same
― done and dusted (Ross), Wednesday, 2 May 2018 06:13 (six years ago) link
Well the "++" aspect (i.e. the Garbage and Anvil Vapre EPs) I totally love too, but TR itself feels like single sounds / patterns dragged out for long tracks without a lot of interest for me. Maybe too "industrial" since I love Amber and that has many of the same qualities. Oversteps I like individual bits of (krYlon comes to mind) but I found it a bit underwhelming on release and never warmed to it.
― startled macropod (MatthewK), Wednesday, 2 May 2018 06:15 (six years ago) link
My highlight picks are Amber, Chiastic, EP7, Confield, Draft, Untilted, Exai, NTS. I know everyone hates Untilted but it really works for me.
― startled macropod (MatthewK), Wednesday, 2 May 2018 06:20 (six years ago) link
Highlights for me are cichlisuite, Untilted, quaristice, garbage, draft, LP5, oversteps
― done and dusted (Ross), Wednesday, 2 May 2018 06:26 (six years ago) link
omg how did I forget cichlisuite and garbage. LP5 is all-time too.
― startled macropod (MatthewK), Wednesday, 2 May 2018 06:34 (six years ago) link
>I dunno, "6IE.CR" that I get from "I Know You Got Soul". No abstract thought required. And I am 99.999% sure that they are motivated the same way
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=qa5VOj6nZiY
― Milton Parker, Wednesday, 2 May 2018 06:49 (six years ago) link
ive never listened to this band before
― flopson, Wednesday, 2 May 2018 06:52 (six years ago) link
Yeah I love that Microphone Fiend thing - it's an excerpt from their Coachella 1999 set (which is all great).
― startled macropod (MatthewK), Wednesday, 2 May 2018 06:54 (six years ago) link
ugh I hate the idea that there is anything to "get" with Autechre. It's just incredibly great sounding music / sound.
Well, for me there was. a while ago I got the first 3 albums and enjoyed them somewhat but never really understood the fuss about it. like...Aphex, Squarepusher, u-ziq...all this stuff felt so much more lively to me, while Ae just came off like a technical exercise. gave it one last shot with Amber and I noticed on the track "Foil" that the volume of the bass was constantly fluctuating. and suddenly it just all clicked for me. I really don't know why such a minor and somewhat gimmicky thing made me an Autechre fan for life but it did. The rest of Amber sounded amazing. Then I went back to the other two and they were great as well. That's why I wrote the "magic eye" bit, it really was like that for me.
― frogbs, Wednesday, 2 May 2018 13:21 (six years ago) link
LP5, is that the one that starts with what sounds like spilling ball bearings? The first time I heard that I thought it was so weird and cool that they essentially programmed something so apparently chaotic and random.
― Josh in Chicago, Wednesday, 2 May 2018 13:25 (six years ago) link
frogbs' experience seems incredibly otm to me. i tried to get into autechre in college and i don't think... i had listened to enough music? i was a huge fan of adjacent idm but let's be real in hindsight autechre was doing something v different from adjacent idm. but when i finally understood it (approximately... a week ago, lol) it was bc some detail had gradually worked itself out of the background and become visible and crucial to me. (this is how melody works in their songs imo, it's never a foreground detail but something working in and out of focus.) it's v painterly, their effect, and a painting, though reassembling itself in the exact same way every time you see it, can mean wildly different things to you depending on the context through which you're perceiving it. ten years later you're like "oh i never noticed the way the light works on the water there"
― flamenco drop (BradNelson), Wednesday, 2 May 2018 13:35 (six years ago) link
^^^ this is my submission for whiney's next poll
Probably the thread to admit I've only ever heard one Autechre album. Fairly pleasant.
― Kanye O'er Frae France? (Tom D.), Wednesday, 2 May 2018 13:42 (six years ago) link
― Josh in Chicago, Wednesday, May 2, 2018 9:25 AM (twenty-three minutes ago) Bookmark Flag Post Permalink
Are you sure you aren't referring to the first track on Confield, "VI Scose Poise?"
― Paul Ponzi, Wednesday, 2 May 2018 13:51 (six years ago) link
also, sorta wish we could move all this talk to the general Autechre thread
― Paul Ponzi, Wednesday, 2 May 2018 13:53 (six years ago) link
Ha, yeah, it's totally Confield!
― Josh in Chicago, Wednesday, 2 May 2018 14:00 (six years ago) link
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.
― Josh in Chicago, Wednesday, 2 May 2018 14:06 (six years ago) link
I'm going to crosspost this to the Autechre thread in the name of consolidation!
― Josh in Chicago, Wednesday, 2 May 2018 14:07 (six years ago) link
xp i would agree w/ you josh except to me incunabula and amber fit in the first phase and everything post-flutter up to LP5 is second phase
― the late great, Wednesday, 2 May 2018 16:56 (six years ago) link
i love watching the progression of the cover art through the early work
not surprisingly i guess i checked out when the art got bad
― the late great, Wednesday, 2 May 2018 17:02 (six years ago) link
Really something that this thread has now basically turned into "What was Autechre's New Jersey"
― we æt so many shimripl (Whiney G. Weingarten), Wednesday, 2 May 2018 17:03 (six years ago) link
designers republic 4eva
― brimstead, Wednesday, 2 May 2018 17:04 (six years ago) link
eh not that surprising if you think about it
― the late great, Wednesday, 2 May 2018 17:04 (six years ago) link
lmao what
― frogbs, Wednesday, 2 May 2018 17:46 (six years ago) link
Maybe there should be a word for the point in a musical artist's career when a majority of fans give up on them, but a vocal minority of fans insist that all of the artist's best material comes after this point. A Confield? A Tilt?
― silverfish, Wednesday, 2 May 2018 18:02 (six years ago) link
Confield and everything after >>> everything up to Confield
― Paul Ponzi, Wednesday, 2 May 2018 18:25 (six years ago) link
confield and everything else IS better ... for me to poop on!
― the late great, Wednesday, 2 May 2018 18:28 (six years ago) link
it's all good. yay i'm the best fan!a majority of fans give up on themobjection, speculation! even chiastic was some difficult shit at the time, i wouldn't be surprised if most people who made it that far are still true believers.
― lana del boy (ledge), Wednesday, 2 May 2018 18:52 (six years ago) link
Totally depends which Autechre record you hear first. If I was played confield as my first I would have never bothered exploring further. Whereas hearing Tri Repetae-garbage EP was far more accessible as a sixteen year old into beck and tori Amos
― done and dusted (Ross), Wednesday, 2 May 2018 19:11 (six years ago) link
Interestingly enough, I got much more into their Confield and later material around the time I started really getting into Abstract Expressionism and other forms of detailed abstraction in the visual arts. I find how my brain processes and appreciates them is similar respectively.
― octobeard, Wednesday, 2 May 2018 19:34 (six years ago) link
between this and your post about "certain types of jazz" i can only assume you're trolling, octobeard
― the late great, Wednesday, 2 May 2018 19:35 (six years ago) link
never been able to get into anything before EP7
― imago, Wednesday, 2 May 2018 19:37 (six years ago) link
http://i.imgur.com/eoMJuTQ.gif
― the late great, Wednesday, 2 May 2018 19:38 (six years ago) link
most jazz is only perceived as intellectual because people don't understand what's going on
it's ok to just find things cool and trippy, theres no need to intellectualize weird splats and pings
― brimstead, Wednesday, 2 May 2018 19:38 (six years ago) link
this is how poptimism dies, not with bang but buried under autechre threads
― the late great, Wednesday, 2 May 2018 19:39 (six years ago) link
i'm ok w/ killing poptism btw
if you want a really kooky confession, I don't think NTS' highs are as high as elseq's, based on my first listen
― imago, Wednesday, 2 May 2018 19:42 (six years ago) link
Hmmmm...intrigued. Please explain!
― Paul Ponzi, Wednesday, 2 May 2018 20:16 (six years ago) link