Autechre: Classic or Dud?

Spoke to some Autechre fans in real life today and it seems I don't like "32a_reflected" or "north spiral" nearly as much as everyone else. Good tracks, both, but neither made my cut

https://aestheticcomplexity.wordpress.com/2018/04/14/32a_reflected/

The left channel is the same as the right channel played backwards, and vice versa

oh fuck

another message board I was on was talking about the different ways you can count "e0" - if you hear the cymbal on the 1 and 3 it's a different experience than hearing it on the 2 and 4. Switching up the way you hear it while you are listening (more difficult than it sounds!) is a headfuck because both totally sound right

Splesh is some proper dubbed-out rave

next tt1pd raises the game by sounding like classic drill-era Aphex Twin at a scummy free party c1996

another message board I was on was talking about the different ways you can count "e0" - if you hear the cymbal on the 1 and 3 it's a different experience than hearing it on the 2 and 4. Switching up the way you hear it while you are listening (more difficult than it sounds!) is a headfuck because both totally sound right

― Paul Ponzi, Tuesday, May 8, 2018 12:28 PM (three hours ago) Bookmark Flag Post Permalink

can't bring myself to hear it as 1/3

That's funny, because I had trouble hearing it as 2/4 at first! For me, the cymbal naturally lands on the 1 and 3. It took effort for me to count it differently.

Who was it that compared Ae to magic eye paintings? That was otm, and I'd throw in The Crying of Lot 49 and Choose Your Own Adventure books

best music

i love “donk steady one”

:) new donk city, here we come!

“four of seven” my god

so we convinced you to skip ahead

listening to Eastre for the first time, off of elseq 3. i have to admit that slow moving recent autechre is my favorite mode of theirs. i'm also really enjoying the other stuff but i'm just always in a mood to listen to the snail-paced stuff. it's good music to work to and it sounds really good late at night.

love eastre it's such a zone

I've always thought eastre was one of the best things on elseq

eastre rules hard

the previous posts are correct

Anyone unfamiliar with their Neu! mashup "Autechre play Weissensee against Im Glück" might enjoy checking it out. The Splitrmx 12" it comes from has no speed marking and I prefer to listen to this at 45, but 33 seems to be the "official" speed on compilations etc.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=EOOQKdTKKMs

love eastre it's such a zone

lowell (and others) i'd really be curious, if you have a moment, just off the top of your head, what other Ae tracks (older and more recent) are in a similar zone as Eastre

what other Ae tracks (older and more recent) are in a similar zone as Eastre

much of NTS 4, vletrmix, some of the Quaristice "EP" tracks that are super long, and I'd go so far as to throw in Basinski's Disintegration Loops for good measure as they're the only thing with the length and hypnotic qualities that can match up to these

smdh

basinski’s elevation to the default drone music reference point is completely beyond me

actually that’s not true, i get it, i just still think it’s weird

agreed

maybe a one trick pony but it's a damn good trick

everything since DL has been big time diminishing returns for me, though

it’s not so much that as it sounds to me like he’s using modern tools to remake music from the 60s, 70s, 80s, 90s

like it’s fine if you want to listen to this or gas rather than whatever minimal stuff of the 70s but i can’t account for the ubiquity of the (admittedly nice) disintegration loops

i should shut up though, i promised not to be an electronic music gadfly

i can’t account for the ubiquity of the (admittedly nice) disintegration loops

a concept (slowly disintegrating tapes) and origin story (9/11) that everyone can understand + they sound really good

the context (the first part of what you said) is really crucial to its enduring popularity though imo

are concepts and origin stories rockist?

nope!

sol lewitt...rockist?

xp Probably, but if I told you this Magnog record from 1995 was recorded in a studio under the sea while the band was being attacked by sharks and underwater vampires, it'll always make for a better story than "stoned dudes channel their inner Pärson Sound" or whatever

norse sagas...rockist?

I'm 100% on board with all of the Disintegration Loops criticism

the “concept” of disintegration loops seems a bit straightforward to me compared to the work done by conceptual artists (of the visual sort)

not sure though

"Disintegration Loops is a beautiful piece of music" vs "Disintegration Loops is sui generis and exists in a vacuum of its own amazingness and also I have never heard Brian Eno or anything on Kranky or Kompakt or V/Vm or or or"

full disclosure: I love DL, I just agree with what late great said

I mean, it raised WB's profile in a huge way but still seems genuine. Not going to proclaim he's the Giuliani of drone music or anything.

what is the criticism of DL again? that it doesn't deserve its ubiquity (relative ubiquity - almost no one knows who the fuck william basinski is irl)?

my criticism of DL, within the context of this thread, is that it's not really in the "Eastre" zone

haha yeah that’s what i’m getting at

i have been kranky about this sort of thing for a long time though (see also kompakt vs other house music)

are concepts and origin stories rockist?

― the late great, Wednesday, May 9, 2018 12:37 PM (nine minutes ago) Bookmark Flag Post Permalink

what you think pop stars don't have press releases

well i think lots of marketing of pop music is rockist

but i’m mostly kidding, i think the lens of rockism vs popism is not so useful anymore in 2018

this Basinski / rockism derail is fun but seriously people, NTS Session 4

i guess i just don't think anyone or anything is to blame for DL's status as the Kind of Blue of very long conceptual ambient music. before DL, was there another piece of music exploring similar themes that the buy 12 albums a year crowd knew about? Alvin Lucier's I Am Sitting in a Room, maybe? dunno, just makes sense to me that DL would assume that position, and the world is better for it imo

xpost

some of the Quaristice "EP" tracks that are super long

i will give these a listen today, though - i remember being a bit stymied by the initial Quaristice release, but i never dove into the remix/EP stuff accompanying it

xp The Sinking of the Titanic maybe?

i think the basinski discussion is sort of topical - autechre doing drone seems like part of their new thing

fuck whatever this EASTRE shit is, ZOVIET FRANCE 4 LIFE!!!
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=4JDkdJNqo1M