Yeah, I haven't really been able to get excited about being tasked to find the August 27, 1972 Veneta, Oregon "Dark Star" in 42 different versions of "c16 deep tread"
― sean paul akerman (Whiney G. Weingarten), Tuesday, 15 August 2023 17:42 (eight months ago) link
or whatever
I'm sure if Ae released like 3 live albums instead of 3 FLAC datadumps I would at least have listened to even one of them by now
― sean paul akerman (Whiney G. Weingarten), Tuesday, 15 August 2023 17:43 (eight months ago) link
Well I've listened to them all. Because I am a grown adult.
― frogbs, Tuesday, 15 August 2023 17:47 (eight months ago) link
if you've listened to 42 Autechre live albums instead of just trying to do an ad hom dunk, please tell us about it
― sean paul akerman (Whiney G. Weingarten), Tuesday, 15 August 2023 17:48 (eight months ago) link
why so you can put every sentence into a poll that gets 3 votes
― frogbs, Tuesday, 15 August 2023 17:53 (eight months ago) link
Quit attempting to zing me and go back to posting about how you have to wrestle with racially coded microaggressions on Cake albums or whatever the fuck
― sean paul akerman (Whiney G. Weingarten), Tuesday, 15 August 2023 17:56 (eight months ago) link
aaanyway for those who’ve not listened to live sets, they can be hard work to listen to in bulk, but for $20 it’s great to have several versions of 2 types of set, so you can listen again and it’s fresh. For those who haven’t heard any live Ae, the Glasgow Arts School 2005 and Coachella 1999 are fairly easily found and rank with their released albums for me. The live dumps are also enjoyable but not as much, I find, probably 2015 more appealing?
― assert (matttkkkk), Tuesday, 15 August 2023 18:05 (eight months ago) link
― sean paul akerman (Whiney G. Weingarten), Tuesday, August 15, 2023 1:43 PM (forty-four minutes ago) bookmarkflaglink
big same
would have bought 'em too, without a moment's hesitation
― Paul Ponzi, Tuesday, 15 August 2023 18:30 (eight months ago) link
he's going the distancehe's going for FPs
― frogbs, Tuesday, 15 August 2023 18:30 (eight months ago) link
thread is great stuff thx all for cementing my decision to stop at exai
― the late great, Tuesday, 15 August 2023 19:30 (eight months ago) link
arrrgh I'm going to be in Sydney the week after the Autechre show there. Boo
― octobeard, Tuesday, 15 August 2023 19:32 (eight months ago) link
― the late great, Tuesday, August 15, 2023 2:30 PM (two minutes ago) bookmarkflaglink
even if you're a fan I can't fault you for getting exhausted with Exai/elseq/NTS/AE_LIVE but I do think these people should check out SIGN and PLUS
― frogbs, Tuesday, 15 August 2023 19:35 (eight months ago) link
love the breathless "analysis" of autechre's live "evolution" one gets from the headz
"on their last album they were interweaving amelodic fragments into a rhythmic whole, here it's more of a leavening of noise into a puffy rising yeast of beats"
"autechre always toyed with removing all constraint, here instead they flirt capaciously with the possibility of radical freedom"
"interesting to hear autechre step back toward more pattern-based algorithms after so many years challenging the hegemony of grid-based music input"
― the late great, Tuesday, 15 August 2023 19:35 (eight months ago) link
tbh i did check out SIGN and PLUS, they were decent and i sensed progression and accomplishment (right now my favorite autechre jawn is probably "crystel") and i specifically recall that the second one ("plus", i think? it was green on grey art?) had some beatless (near beatless? symphonic?) pieces that i found deeply engaging
― the late great, Tuesday, 15 August 2023 19:37 (eight months ago) link
Listening to the live sets for the first time (started with Athens), enjoying it so far.
As for the live sets in general, I kind of like having multiple slightly varying versions of the same album so I like that they just release it all. I wish they would split up each set into something like individual tracks though.
― silverfish, Tuesday, 15 August 2023 19:51 (eight months ago) link
While I will confess I agree that Exai is their career peak, there's so much good music they released after, the only caveat is there's a higher quantity to quality ratio. If you are one not to edit custom playlists or modify track listings on these records, you are going to have a much worse time, imho.
IMHO there's a 2-3 hour album worth of absolute top shelf tracks from Elseq that nearly matches Exai. NTS is overwhelming but you can still find an album's worth of absolute bangers in that drop too! I adored Sign/Plus on release, have revisited, and found it startlingly primitive sounding compared to something from 20 years ago like Draft 7:30. Still, even with that in mind, there's tracks on Sign/Plus that are career highlights: X4, M4 Lema and Metaz form8, for example.
― octobeard, Tuesday, 15 August 2023 19:54 (eight months ago) link
I wish they would split up each set into something like individual tracks though.
Like I am really liking this section at around 34 minutes, but in a week if I want to listen to it again I'm just going to spend 5-10 minutes trying to find where it starts
― silverfish, Tuesday, 15 August 2023 20:12 (eight months ago) link
NTS is overwhelming but you can still find an album's worth of absolute bangers in that drop too!
realllly worth checking out gonk steady one and column thirteen, for example
― official representative of Roku's Basketshit in at least one alternate u (lukas), Tuesday, 15 August 2023 20:16 (eight months ago) link
NTS is still their peak for me, the longer tracks really draw you in in a way that isn't really possible on their shorter albums.
― silverfish, Tuesday, 15 August 2023 20:28 (eight months ago) link
got a deal on all the NTS lps a few months ago and have basically been playing a disc every day since, it’s a fun way to live
― brimstead, Tuesday, 15 August 2023 20:30 (eight months ago) link
I think you could probably lop a good 2 hours off the NTS sessions, even without cutting anything outright (though there are a few tracks I'd punt). I know it's sacreliege but I don't think "All End" needs to be 60 minutes
― frogbs, Tuesday, 15 August 2023 20:51 (eight months ago) link
Yeah, it needs to be twice that.
― Josh in Chicago, Tuesday, 15 August 2023 21:01 (eight months ago) link
NTS is just this incredibly dense, monolithic undertaking for me. It has its moments of course, but just approaching it can feel overwhelming.
I seriously think SIGN/PLUS is among their best work and EXACTLY what they needed to put out at that point in their careers. I hear them as a lot sparser and less serious. You can hear the sounds rather than try to disinter them from the audio soup of a thousand noises.
And each track has its own, I dunno, "hook" or "character" whereas the stuff on Elseq and NTS started to feel increasingly like 10 minute formless close-listening jams
― Stomp Jomperson (dog latin), Tuesday, 15 August 2023 21:11 (eight months ago) link
The beautiful thing about discussing Autechre here is nearly everyone in the various threads knows these dudes are aces, and the nitpicking over our favorite tracks or albums is simply nitpicking. I love how the last few comments have people picking four different later career albums as their "peak". You could make a case for nearly every one of their albums as their "best".
― octobeard, Tuesday, 15 August 2023 22:27 (eight months ago) link
It's funny, NTS is the album I feel most at home with, and SIGN/PLUS were quite disappointing - I enjoy them while they're on but I have to actively remember they exist, a bit like Oversteps. They've been my favourite music makers for 25 years tho, so this is highly relative as you say.
― assert (matttkkkk), Tuesday, 15 August 2023 23:06 (eight months ago) link
got a ticket for the Sydney show on late release, row 3 so in the pitch dark I will be able to hear them move sliders and clear their throats
can't believe the cowards are letting ppl sit down this time
― serving bundt (sic), Tuesday, 15 August 2023 23:49 (eight months ago) link
dare we ask are they themselves
― the late great, Wednesday, 16 August 2023 00:07 (eight months ago) link
I know it's sacreliege but I don't think "All End" needs to be 60 minutes
yea, "all end" is nice and all, but I was actually a little disappointed with it on my first listen since the rest of that thing basically blew me away. for me NTS was like them finally realizing the dream of creating something on a massive roland kayn / pan sonic kesto scale and the length is definitely part of that.
― (⊙_⊙?) (original bgm), Wednesday, 16 August 2023 00:24 (eight months ago) link
― assert (matttkkkk)
Co-sign
― The Triumphant Return of Bernard & Stubbs (Raymond Cummings), Wednesday, 16 August 2023 00:30 (eight months ago) link
x-post
er, probably should have a carriage return between those two thoughts
anyway, I love the scope of NTS but "all end" was quite the blowout ending I was envisioning. for context, my two fave ae closers are the ones where they go a little bigger - "lentic catachresis" and "sublimit"
― (⊙_⊙?) (original bgm), Wednesday, 16 August 2023 00:31 (eight months ago) link
I wouldn't say I was severely disappointed with SIGN/PLUS myself but I was a little bummed that they stepped back from the abyss with those two
― (⊙_⊙?) (original bgm), Wednesday, 16 August 2023 00:32 (eight months ago) link
I'm listening to an obscene amount of 'techre this week so far
― sean paul akerman (Whiney G. Weingarten), Wednesday, 16 August 2023 03:27 (eight months ago) link
"all end" coincided with some massive changes in my life, listened to it 2-3 times at volume levels which altered my grip on reality and it was genuinely cathartic and healing. So the length was very useful to me.
― assert (matttkkkk), Wednesday, 16 August 2023 03:52 (eight months ago) link
Really loving the “London A” live set
― The Triumphant Return of Bernard & Stubbs (Raymond Cummings), Wednesday, 16 August 2023 11:24 (eight months ago) link
I just don't see what's remarkable about All End, sorry
― Stomp Jomperson (dog latin), Wednesday, 16 August 2023 12:23 (eight months ago) link
All End only works for me when I put it on relatively loud and then just do housework or something else while having it on. Casts a surreal vibe on top of my regular life.
― silverfish, Wednesday, 16 August 2023 14:56 (eight months ago) link
I still think All End is a one-click timestretched throwaway, maybe a bit of a joke for them.
― Random Restaurateur (Jordan), Wednesday, 16 August 2023 14:59 (eight months ago) link
it sounds really cool, I like it
― brimstead, Wednesday, 16 August 2023 15:11 (eight months ago) link
yes, sure, it seems likely that when putting together NTS, they had about 7 hours of material but they also had the ambient ending of Bladelores that they really liked and could just stretch out as much as they wanted and just decided to tack that on at the end. That doesn't make it any less good though.
― silverfish, Wednesday, 16 August 2023 15:12 (eight months ago) link
there's def a lot of live mixing and phasing on "all end", you don't hear it much in real time but if you skip around on the track you can tell. as ridiculous as it is to have this on vinyl I think its kinda cool actually since you don't really need to listen to the 3rd LP. (like brim I found all 4 sets pretty cheaply, not surprising they didn't really sell too well)
― frogbs, Wednesday, 16 August 2023 15:17 (eight months ago) link
The tricky thing about Ae is that if you dismiss one track as an indulgent in-joke throwaway, it opens the door to say the same of some of their other stuff. If I didn't know the care and effort and attention to detail the dudes put into their work, I might be prone to dismissing it as generative wankery the way some do, too.
― Josh in Chicago, Wednesday, 16 August 2023 15:35 (eight months ago) link
all end is the goth cousin of vletrmx. there is a repeating motif buried in there under the layers of sludge - or so i like to think, when i focus i can only hear fragments of it.
― crutch of england (ledge), Wednesday, 16 August 2023 15:40 (eight months ago) link
That's what I like about it, it's like a magic eye for your ears.
― Josh in Chicago, Wednesday, 16 August 2023 16:03 (eight months ago) link
I don't think it's a joke any more than the speedy-up/slowy-down tempo of Fold4,Wrap5 might be a joke, but it doesn't really do anything more for me than (as Jordan says) that extreme Paulstretched version of the Justin Bieber song that got into EOY a long time back, or that really long noise track on the Knife's Shaking The Habitual. Fine if people like it, I just don't think it's anything special beyond a very long drone/noise track
― Stomp Jomperson (dog latin), Wednesday, 16 August 2023 16:06 (eight months ago) link
Granted, it is a bit like looking at TV static and feeling like you can see patterns and images on it, or looking at the backs of your eyelids or something
― Stomp Jomperson (dog latin), Wednesday, 16 August 2023 16:07 (eight months ago) link
For sure. I think one difference is that staring at static, it's highly unlikely there is anything intentionally there. But in this case there could very well be a there (barely) there. Have they ever mentioned it in one of their AMAs or anything?
― Josh in Chicago, Wednesday, 16 August 2023 16:20 (eight months ago) link
Agreed dl. Btw I keep meaning to go back to Sign/Plus, as I remember really liking them but just haven't listened since they came out. Maybe today's the day.
― Random Restaurateur (Jordan), Wednesday, 16 August 2023 16:27 (eight months ago) link
plus is kinda heavy imo, like emotionally heavy < / pvmic except the last track which is kind of another joke imo. there is some really great, top-tier ae stuff on plus/sign. and some tracks that feel more slight off but at least refreshing.
― ꙮ (map), Wednesday, 16 August 2023 16:35 (eight months ago) link