Autechre: Elseq

The intro to 13x0 Step is pure apocalyptic '92 raveaggedon

Shame it really falters after this.

Curvcaten starts off all kids birthday party at laser quest, then (after a bit of meandering) actual terminators with phased plasma rifles in the 40 megawatt range show up.

Wonder if they got this mastered. Do they normally?

7th slip is a motherfucker, it took a minute to realize that.. dig the kinda dub groove that it settles into. Pendulu casual is a nice relief, played in succession. Eastre is good for meditation/shutting your brain down for a half hour

good DESTROY ALL HUMANS vibe from this tonite

Wonder if they got this mastered. Do they normally?

Yes, and they've mentioned it in past as in this interview: http://www.tinymixtapes.com/features/autechre

I am curious about this too. elseq IS quite loud, and it does seem to have been EQ'd and limited, but maybe Ae took care of that this time in order to get it out sooner? This release sounds a bit rougher than their last few in terms of the mastering. Bass is a bit muddier and the mids/highs feel flatter, more digital. Compare this one to Oversteps (my favorite recent album of theirs in terms of mastering) and you'll see what I mean. It sounds like that record was at least fed through some analog processing. I'm no audio engineer professional though

Oversteps has a real balmy, soft-edged quality (imo, thru headphones) - slight, enveloping reverb (humidity) to tracks like "r ess", "pt2ph8", the background pads (or tonal ambience) of "qplay", "os veix3", and a couple others. especially compared to Exai, which generally feels harder, more brittle.

I'm curious what people think of the AE_LIVE material (mastering/sound quality), as it's really easy on my ears, definitely less fatiguing than Exai. I've read some remarks on WATMM saying that it's heavily compressed, but I guess I don't understand compression all that much because it sounds great (at loud volume) on the stereo setup. maybe it's not so dynamic, as the 'smaller', more wispy sounds have a comparable weight to the larger/heavier sounds.

The track to listen to on Oversteps for mastering is d-sho qub, I think. It's as percussively engaging as much of their recent stuff, contains interesting dynamics, and has deep bass extension to go along with a wide variety of timbers.

I just think there's this really nice warm sheen to Oversteps, a gooey analog texture to the record I don't get with elseq at all.

Need to revisit the live stuff, there's so much good stuff to listen to by these guys right now wtf

My impression is that what comes out of their system is quite unruly in terms of mix and dynamics, so it's probably reined in with fairly heavy compression & limiting as a matter of course. A trade-off perhaps that allows for more spontaneity. With Elseq this arguably becomes part of the aesthetic, although it is kind of harsh at times. The tendency to expect certain production values likely applies more to the tracks that bear more formal relationship to techno or hip hop.

Acdwn2 is one of my favourites at the moment. A bit of a sleeper? c7b2 as well. Both nice workouts with particularly unmemorable titles. And largely free of that tedious 'melody' stuff.

Acdwn2 has become a late favorite, where it feels overly rigid/stringent at first, i like how it starts coming apart in the latter third (after the 2nd part/bridge).. I had to check my speakers cuz there's a short in my receiver and one of the channels usually cuts out, though it was the track that seemed to be breaking apart/diffusing -- a welcome progression from the exacting first part.

re: octobeard/Oversteps - d-sho qub is a definite highlight.. i'll have to listen again for the bass, don't always detect subtler lower freq's right away

chenc9 (Quaristice) and Acdwn2 share a similar, sort of flush/tight melodic vibe.. not entirely devoid of tonality, it's just sort of built into the dry/percussive body of the track.

i've got a nice little hour-long condensed playlist of these for runs and such that i'm really attached to:

chimer 1-5-1
pendulu hv moda
latentcall
freulaeux
mesh cinereaL

d sho qub is indeed one of their very finest tracks.

just noticed that elseq 1 is on spotify now

https://archive.org/details/AutechreOneSixTour-BudapestHU-07-11-16

"All new 2016 Autechre live set debuted at their "OneSix" European tour -- Oct/Nov 2016. The live set was performed in complete darkness, on 7th of November, inside the amazingly resonant venue of the Akvarium Klub. Budapest was the 10th out of 28 cities in total for the entire OneSix tour. The event was hosted by Selected Sounds, HU."

shit is sounding fairly crisp. these guys

No spoilers! Seeing them on Fri, can't wait.

Maybe I should listen to it, after all you normally know in advance what a band is going to play, and their stuff always takes time to sink in.

The venue will be low lit for the support acts. Once Autechre go on stage, the auditorium will be in complete darkness. Hosts with night vision goggles will be on hand to help anyone who may need to leave. You can identify yourself to one of our hosts by holding your ticket in the air. Pieces of white paper will be handed to those with print at home tickets.

Who is supporting?

Andy Maddocks & Russell Haswell.

I'm going on Fri. The last time I saw them was at an oudoor festival in Japan a few years ago. They were chatting to a friend before the gig about the acoustic qualities of the forest surrounding the stage which we found quite amusing. It was an intense experience (and bloody cold!).

http://imgur.com/gU0YEfN
"Saw" them yesterday, it was great. No spoilers, other than that it was quite different from the '15 sets. Russell Haswell's hardware set was amaaazing do make sure you're there on time.

> Andy Maddocks & Russell Haswell

i am none the wiser (gescom dudes apparently)

googling the above found a bunch of other gig bootlegs from this month already on youtube.

Ghent 2016.10.30
Turin 2016.11.04
Budapest 2016.11.07
Tallin 2016.11.13
Helsinki 2016.11.14

Got a long plane flight coming up in about two weeks, gonna try to make it all the way through this.

OMG OMG OMG SEEING (well, hearing) THEM TOMORROW! OMG!!!

Are these seated venues they're doing this at? I should certainly hope so...

Concorde 2 in Brighton definitely not seated. I wonder if they'll black out the big windows.

i definitely hope it's not seated. that would be depressing

Do you just stand still in the complete dark? Or move around and try not to bump into people?

Elseq 1 is on streaming services now btw!

I've never seen Ae before but I don't like the idea of sitting still in the dark listening to weird noises. Dark or not, it should still be a party. Plastic People had a pitch-black dancefloor and that was a riot.

I'm at this tonight & am also curious - I like the idea but wonder how it'll come off, whether people will be smartphone-torch-guiding themselves to the bar or what

i'd imagine most clubs have sufficient lighting to see the proper channels for walking. last year in Denver it was perfect, with ample room for dancing in your own little space. the sound was fucking incredible, 3D wraparound, super plastic air sculptures. it was a bit overwhelming for some people

I believe in Holland the bar was closed for the hour long set as per the bands request. If you needed help or wanted to leave you'd hold up a white piece of paper staff would spot with special goggles or something. But Willem knows best, I unfortunately couldn't make it.

That bootleg linked above sounded great on the tube earlier.

d/l'd the "package" (flac/mp3/etc) from that site -- the flac sounds freakin fantastic, the music is radically different from the sets of last year.. haven't really wrapped my head around the new material yet

Re sets in the dark, I "saw" them in Melbourne in 2010 and part way into the set, opened my eyes to realise I was standing with my face about 10cm behind a stranger's head. Pretty odd. Sound was INCREDIBLE, fully spatial and kind of hallucinatory (almost-saw sheets of texture rising in front of me, wasn't on anything either).

Are these seated venues they're doing this at? I should certainly hope so...

They're playing the Royal Festival Hall tonight and that's all-seated. Then again I saw Booka Shade there earlier this week and everyone was standing up and dancing within seconds of them coming onstage.

So, has everyone been stunned into silence?

Well. My expectations were unrealistically high after the triumph of elseq, and there were some awesome moments, but I struggled to get into most of the last third or so. Partly my fault getting annoyed by distractions. The darkness was far from total, especially as I was sat right behind the mixing desk, and maybe there were staff with night vision goggles hiding somewhere but there were also a lot of blue torches being waved around every time some dick who'd had too much beer needed the loo, which seemed to happen about every minute.

There were some great breakbeats,  a kind of spooky choir section which sounded quite unusual for them, and a sudden silence rapidly punctuated by a thunderous metallic horn sound blasting out like a train in the night - like a train in the night! Afterwards I thought it was probably lifted from mesh cinereal but at the time it sounded like the most fantastic and original new discovery in the world of noise.

That was the highlight and after that it really did seem to deaden down, the volume dropped and I couldn't really discern any compelling structure. Still I am looking forward to hearing a bootleg of it or another set from the same tour.

Russell Haswell musically not really my cup of tea but an entertaining stage presence, typical deadpan northerner, swigging from a bottle of bubbly, long gaps between tracks with largely inaudible chat. I caught "there is so much music that I don't like, and "this one's called 'I hate those things that you see every day all the time'" - followed by a five second burst of loud static noise. Possibly drunk, possibly phoning it in because the auditorium was 90% empty.

Andy Maddocks brought the old skool idm.

https://youtu.be/rX8NMaGEs6g

Autechre @ Tavastia, Helsinki FIN, 14.11.2016

https://youtu.be/tHrodaXLEUk

Autechre - Parkteateret Oslo 17.11.2016

as crisp/detailed as these recordings are, i'd imagine they're a very flat/poor approximation of actually being in the room. i was absolutely floored by their set in Denver last year--though the speaker setup/volume/mix was ideal.

"there is so much music that I don't like end quote. xp to self.

the auditorium was 90% empty.

that is depressing to me, these guys continue to challenge themselves and I want them to be playing to full houses

wait, was it that empty for the entire gig or just haswell's support slot?

Oh yeah it was totally full for ae, everyone just stayed in the bar for the support, apart from a handful of enthusiastically vocal Haswell fans.

The bit like a train in the night - like a train in the night! - is at 44:20 in the Oslo set. Turn up to 11 for the full effect of course. Not a direct lift from mesh cinereal but similar - see also 0:57 here:
https://youtu.be/jzYzVMcgWhg