Are you telling me this is AE: SIGN? (Autechre LP 14)

Whenever they release a new album I realize I spend so much time moving forward with them that I don't spend nearly as much time as I'd like listening back. To be fair, when you do things like release 8 hour albums it is a lot to ask to just put that in rotation with your other stuff. In some ways I think of each one as its own little island and don't necessarily consider how they connect as the Autechre archipelago, because it's just easier that way.

Was so looking forward to listening to this but I'm in meetings all day ;_;

My first exposure to Ae was Chris Cunningham's video for "Second Bad Vilbel," which I thought was some pretty uniquely damaged posthuman electronic music. Cunningham's own feeling that the video was inadequate, apparently shared by Booth and Brown, made them seem like artists with an impossibly high standard (I thought the video was cool). So I tracked down a copy of the 2CD Tri Repetae, then out of print, and basically found it too cold and austere for me to take over the length of a (long) album. I had read about Confield's notorious difficulty and was curious about it but probably figured that if I didn't like TR I probably wouldn't like Confield either. Then when Quaristice came out the novelty of shorter tracks sounded appealing, so I tried it, but it didn't leave much of an impression.

Then in 2018 everyone was abuzz about NTS Sessions, and I was looking for something difficult and decided to try Confield after all. I did, finding it "makes me smile" funny, both in terms of the zany sounds and so-dark-it-comes-out-the-other-side senses. From there I headed straight into NTS Sessions, which was a proper listening adventure. I continue to enjoy not really knowing quite how to evaluate Ae — I don't seem to get inside their music as much as some of you here but I keep coming back to it nonetheless.

half the fun is that they're an enigma,a puzzle to be toyed with in the hope of unlocking it

Really enjoying SIGN right now (on my second listen). I can't tell if autechre has become more accessible or if I've become better at listening to them but I feel like over the last several albums I've been enjoying them almost immediately whereas before that it would take me months or years to appreciate them.

half the fun is that they're an enigma,a puzzle to be toyed with in the hope of unlocking it

This is definitely a big part of the appeal for me, especially 00s autechre.

This is their first release in 20 years (jeez) that I enjoy!

PHRASING

https://diskunion.net/DU-X1_audio_player.html?id=1008189907&disc=1&track=12

Audio snippet of n Cur. Sounds lovely! They always send quality bonus tracks for the Japanese releases

yeah I remember Sean in the AMA thing they did answering a question about why they put such great exclusive tracks on Japanese CDs and he said something about the price of CDs in Japan being much higher so the bonus is extra enticement (paraphrasing here), but also about how people used to say their bonus tracks were shit, so they decided at some point to up their bonus track game (paraphrasing again)

I guess I'm the only sad bastard who read all 87 pages of that AMA huh

nope

grabbed this from WATMM, a poster known as alco. made me laugh:

alco review by alco:

this is the new "autechre" album by them, the brothers. it's called "sign" which is short for "signs." i believe this is an m night shaymalan (or whatever) reference and i believe the "liquid" and "aquatic" aesthetic is a direct reference to this film. iirc the film is about aliens who visit earth but the water is too wet for them and they freak out. hence the autechre album "sign," in other words the wet one by the brothers.

this album was given to me in strictest confidence by sean, one of the two brothers who go by "the 'chre." no one has heard it. he did a pre-release with fake tracks that rob sent him but the actual album is a solo album by sean himself. i asked if he was mad at rob and that's why he did this but he just said "nah" and "do you even know what you're talking about." rude, but typical. i believe this is "mancunian" but i'm from usa so i'm not sure.

track 1 "m4 diffain." this one is pretty cool, seriously. it starts off with your typical ae bullshit - little goofy fart type sounds and "dsp." but not so fast, this isn't your typical ae, this is new parameters ae. which means the first song abruptly changes to really fast vocal arpeggios and it is by "oneohtrix magix whatever" and everyone loves it. my mom called me from arizona and asked me what i was listening to and i told her but she didn't believe me. the end result of this conversation is that i am removed for her will and all of her vast fortune will be inherited by my brother who died several years ago. very strange stuff but this is what autechre is all about. this is "beat fuckery" of the highest order.

second track "Fruity Loops" version 7. sean sent me a post it in the mail saying this title is misleading and that he used version 8. i don't believe him. this clearly has version 7 vibes. for instance, there are synths on here with 2 oscillators and i know FL8 doesn't do this. this track is one of the "pads" tracks where he's copying rob. this means it's "lush" rather than "mental" and i feel a lot of emotions as a result. this causes me to feel like i am underwater but the water is made up of dreams instead of wetness. i'm swimming in my dreams and all around me are fish which are my different memories that are all sad and exquisite. there is a shark and that is my father. i'm scared but i miss him too. that's just how it works when you hear an "feels" track by sean (one of the brothers).

ok on to the next track which is called "sign" but the "gn" is replaced by "00" bc sean can't type (cf the name "autechre" - lol idiot). so this is the title track. it's also known as "the bubble track" or the "bubstep track" by the "bubble brothers." i came up with these names, i think they're pretty funny and i'm sending them off to warp records to see if they can be included in the promotional material for the record "sign" by autechre. i know one of the warp guys passed away (RIP) but i don't know which one so i will address my email "to whom it may concern." this track is obviously an hommage (mancunian: "piss take") to "analog bubblebath" by that one guy who told madonna to squeal like a pig. i appreciate that but the song has no tempo bc sean forgot to set it in "max" which is stupid bc it seems like he should know how to do that by now. this is where having rob in the studio would really come in handy but you gotta appreciate sean's effort. A for effort on this one, m9.

"esc desc" is weird bc it made me press "esc" which is one of the buttons on my keyboard (not sure if universal, as a creative/continental i am on "macintosh"). so anyway one of the new "features' of apple's new os is that when you press escape you can't use your iphone bc it's updated to the new ios which won't work on your phone bc it's now immediately obsolete. so, i wasn't using my phone and i didn't notice this but it's one of those things where everytime i use my phone i associate it with this track so i think this one sucks pretty bad bc it fucked up my phone. very "ambient" i guess.

"au 14" which, i believe, means "autechre 14" which refers to how long the brothers have been making music. 14 years already, hard to believe! i got into them back in 2019 kind of before they were well known. trent reznor emailed me and asked me to check them out and let him know my thoughts. i was like whatever man. but i'm glad i did because i'm a huge fan of stupid music that's just a bunch of sounds like if 5 rooms away some one wearing a suit of armor was vigorously fucking his collection of shields. au 14 is kind of lame though bc the beat has no bass, it's just like a 606 snare with their typical boss rsd10 delay on it like dude i've already heard this a million times. i'm guessing sean took this one from the archives to celebrate ae's 14th bday. lame. nothing out of ten.

so at this point in the record i had to flip over the digitals. the other side was messed up so i can't really comment. all i can say is that very clearly sean was trying to do a bunch of vocals and i guess warp let him do this bc he's in his 60s and they feel bad for him bc all the cool music is made by young people who are fashionable and use social media. some of the lyrics are really interesting though, i'll grant that. for example "psin AM" is about waking about and taking a leak and it's just kind of a cool slice of life thing like this is just sean giving his fans a peak at what it's like to be one of the ae brothers. i respect that. it's fan service but it's honest. then, weirdly, there's one called "th red a" which is another dumbass sean typo for "thread" and it's about posting on reddit and getting into creepy pasta and stuff. he sings about "slenderman" and whatever that one corny thing is where it's just like a shitty room with yellow walls and people on reddit are like "omg wow this is the scariest thing i've ever seen" and there are multiple youtube videos all with millions of views that are like "the room on reddit that will haunt you." apparently sean is into this kind of trash. fucking wanker lol

ok final track bc i have to go. to be honest i was just kind of skipping through most of this record and not really paying attention. nothing against sean but i just don't really like autechre or respect the band. the last track is typically called like "r gantz toodeetoo" or some corny shit like come on dude just call your tracks cool stuff like "bong garden" or "mother amulets" or "give me back my bike ii" it's unbelieveable that they keep releasing music with names like they do. anyway, this one is actually really good. i actually played it at 1% speed bc i wanted to enjoy it more. as a listener i feel there is no "proper" way to hear music, whatever i feel like doing is what i'm gonna do. so i played this out of one speaker at one percent. on the other speaker i was listening to squarepusher bc i really love some 100 year old man making wacky spasmatic beats like he's 11. it's so cool to me. plus, gotta love slap bass dude, it's so wacky as well. anyway, on this one sean steps away from the max bullshit and writes a proper tune with lots of cool synth sounds. you can tell he has a jupiter 8 bc it sounds very good. i'm also hearing a neve channel on this one, definitely got that signature rupert style sound. the beat is interesting, it's all samples of sean saying "cummies" but he makes it sound actually pretty serious and solemn. as i listened to this i envisioned myself as an old man, sitting in a retirement home staring at the wall. i can't make sense of a goddamn thing bc my brain has deteriorated so badly. thus, i am listening to caretaker. as old ballroom music plays with some reverb on it i have all these fragmented memories. i'm a child and it's "tree of life" and brad pitt is playing with me. my wife comes to visit me but i'm really mean to her for no reason and she goes home and cries bc while my organic vessel persists there is no longer love between us. i am gone. a nurse comes in to medicate me and it's discovered i've shit myself. this is normal. they change me and it's like i am a baby once more and i see my mother poiring baby powder on my ass and dick and stuff and i feel embarassed. luckily she puts a diaper on and doesn't linger staring at my literal baby dick. but then i'm an old man but i have the features of a baby. for like 5 seconds i remember where i am and what's going on. i hear the autechre song playing and it's like i am underwater again. i see all my memories drifting by, the fish memories, but now they are all corpses, the scales of their rotting flesh glimmering in the light. the smell is toxic, the water cold and inhospitable. i hear "cummies" "cummies" but it's like a sick beat that's completely fucked up. i don't know who i am but i know i never lived the life i wanted. i failed, i was a failure. "cummies" "cummies" "cummies" the beat gets more dissonant and i can feel the end. the last "cummies" beat plays as i close my eyes and drift away, a half lived life lost forever.

many lols here. in a poll I'd be torn between

sean sent me a post it in the mail saying this title is misleading and that he used version 8. i don't believe him. this clearly has version 7 vibes.

this causes me to feel like i am underwater but the water is made up of dreams instead of wetness.

and

i'm a huge fan of stupid music that's just a bunch of sounds like if 5 rooms away some one wearing a suit of armor was vigorously fucking his collection of shields.

^lol. But surely “Trent Reznor emailed me and asked me to check them out” wins though?

Album is great by the way!

oh my god that post, bravo

I just like the idea of Warp letting Sean do a vocal track because they feel sorry for him

lol at that post, guess I have to listen to this eh

That post is screaming for a vocal rendition.

I'm feeling both reactions on the thread...on the one hand, I'm into the album and it's a pleasant October surprise for Autechre to allow warm tones and human sentiment into their music.

On the other hand, it sounds like it could be the soundtrack to a Villaneuve movie. Which isn't really a slight, but it's maybe the first album in forever that sounds like it could (or would) have been made by someone else.

FP'd you for flashbacks to Hans Zimmer's crime-against-humanity reworking of Pink Floyd's 'Eclipse'.

lol

Trailers don't count though, they're their own special musical hellscape

Fair enough, exception granted.

This is definitely more ambient and soundtrack-y than most of their stuff. I've occasionally wondered if they would ever do (or if someone was interested in using them for) soundtrack work. I think they'd be good at it.

I think I killed my enjoyment of this record by listening to both it and Oversteps for the first time last week, and Oversteps is by miles the more interesting and prettier record.

they both have a lot in common to be fair. for a while i was convinced some of the tracks on SIGN were remixes/re-versions of Oversteps tunes, but apparently not

Wow apparently I need to revisit Oversteps

right now I'm hearing Depeche Mode's Behind The Wheel sung over the top of psin AM

I also want to somehow make the claim that this is the first Ae album where very smart people can't make the by-now common observation that this is still hip hop influenced music deep down; but I'm not sure what to think of this myself even

I think I've said before a couple of times this on this board but Oversteps/Move of Ten is probably the most underrated autechre era. I'm happy that they came back to this and I would love for SIGN to be their starting off point for going deeper into this sound.

that idea is terrifying to me for some reason

xpost

This is their droniest album, which explains why I'm liking this.

I, ah, um, have you heard NTS Sessions? Also Amber feels way more droned out to me, e.g. Yulquen.

hey my copy finally arrived

still waiting for mine

already has more ratings on RYM than all the elseqs and NTS Sessions in case you're wondering how them releasing a digestible album is going

does anyone get excited when psin AM comes on? it's like the honeydew melon of this delicious fruit salad of an album.

it sounds like something off of Black Dog's Bytes, and I mean that in the best possible way obv

I went back to Oversteps and it's tight, you all are right that the tones have more in common with the new one that I remembered, and it's got that lush reverb too. There are moments of 'Treale' that could genuinely be sampled & looped for a rap track too.

Thinking about how their drum sounds & patterns are what usually keeps ae sequestered in their own experimental/IDM zone. Taking out or de-emphasizing the beats on SIGN instantly put it in the same world as other ambient & soundtrack-y music, for better and/or worse.

I wouldn't say it's solely their drum sounds & patterns - they have quite a distinct style of sound design and sound creation, e.g. the amazing robot gargling on pendulu hv moda or the darwinian tangled bank of elyc6 onset. That's still present here, though less so in some tracks.

Came today, picked it up on way in at 8, listening to it at just past midnight. Probably not ideal.

not gonna say it's a grower, cuz i liked it immediately. but i still like it, and differently than when i first heard it. will unquestionably dig this out in ten years when i'm looking for "that 2020 feeling".

yeah the mood of this album hasn't lost its hold on me, i still listen to it a lot. it helps that even though it's more subdued and melodic, it still feels like everything could fall apart at any moment.

this is v nice. I was almost suspicious at first by how easy it went down but there's still a lot to hear on repeat listens

the other day my dad showed up during one of the quieter passages & dismissed it as massage parlour music. he didn't know why I found that hilarious

giving this a wee break and then coming back to it is very rewarding. Much like I find with Boards of Canada, the quality of these chord progressions start taking on an almost ancient quality, like they've always been there in the back of my head. When those big chords finally sound out during the intro to Metaz form8, it's like the door to a pyramid suddenly scrpaing away

I don't know why I buy these albums on vinyl: most of the experience comes from listening on decent headphones which I can't do with records on my set-up.

realised this when 'r cazt' clicked with me last night just as I was falling asleep with the headphones still on. thought it was a bit of a dirge, but there are these wonderful higher notes that come in and punctuate the deeper chords later on and fill it with a jazzy human-ness

that said, the record arrived today and is sounding lovely.

said it already but X4 has to rate as one of the best Ae tunes in years. Just so much going on in it, and I love the Arabic-style scale that flitters in and out during the middle section

I need to check if it's sitting in my mailbox

if you've got the vinyl version of this, try listening to it at 45 RPM. it's way more chaotic, like the Autechre you're used to

Never really dug into Autechre before now, but I'm loving SIGN so much. PLUS should get here tomorrow.