mTesc

Up until the release of Exai, EP7 was usually what I settled on as my "favorite" Autechre (whenever I thought that it was necessary to decide that), although Confield and LP5 were close behind, and I still think that the first three tracks of Tri Repetae constitute 20 of the most iconic minutes in electronic music. But yeah, EP7 is one of the highest peaks in Ae's topography.

Ah. I do remember something about "luxury sound," which was obnoxious.

Are you referencing something?

Quarter of a century old today. https://www.instagram.com/p/C76nrJuopqA/

Niceness is good, not overrated, but maybe we should bring just a smidge of that back. I still want to lash out whenever someone replies to (and thus continues the life of) the "Need some good music like Autechre" thread. It's mostly the conflation of (or suggested similarity between) Autechre & Chris Clark as well as the "NOT looking for something with vocals" bit that get me.

I kind of suspect they're just spacing things out rather than anything's having been messed up. If they drop the 2023 & first half of 2024 sets in August, a year out from the 2022 drop, that would seem sensible. Remember that a lot fans basically complained that elseq, NTS, AE_LIVE, etc., were too monumental, imposing, overwhelming, indigestible, etc., at their scale / length. I didn't feel this way at all, and I doubt that you did, but it was a pretty common view. My appetite for new Autechre also wasn't really satiated by the initial "2022-" drop, but that's mostly because I wasn't super-enthralled by the material contained in the initial sets. It, in a way that I don't think any Autechre has before, kind of made me feel on edge or accentuated an already anxiety-laden stretch of existence for me. I think it's really interesting, and I'm glad we have it, but I doubt that it will ever be top-tier Ae for me. Some of the newer sets, on the other hand, are hitting really nicely.

The recordings were from 2022, but their release was less than a year ago, August 10th of 2023. So it's really not been what I would call a long time. That said, there is quite a bit more diversity in what they've been doing live since, so the 2023 + 2024 soundboards would go a long way. With the next live dates beginning at the very end of September, I kind of suspect that we'll get everything performed thus far at some point this summer or heading into the next round of shows.

Pesky Pacific.

Are there any downloadable versions of the Lyon set hanging out somewhere? Possibly mastered? It's possibly tied with the Hague for my current favorite.

I don't find it sad at all. To me, it's a bit stoic, maybe, but very focused and quite badass. If it's from the point of view of a protagonist, it feels like something difficult is getting figured out.

I agree with everything you've said above this point. I also agree that we won't be losing Autechre, and that's something that I'm grateful for. I absolutely don't make music with monetary considerations in mind, but I do want my music to be heard. I don't need to earn a cent from it, but I want people to hear it. I want to try to share something, and I hope that I'm conveying something kind of similar to what I'm trying to convey. It's always bothered me (just a little) that I can't make other people hear a track in black and red (or whatever), but I hope that I can communicate something even slightly specific. I don't want to be lost in a flood of AI sound; it's already difficult enough to be noticed with as much genuinely great electronic music as there is in our time.

I'm spending much too much time on Reddit and Facebook "fighting" with people who don't seem to understand that music and art are not just pretty things to enjoy but the results of others' desires to communicate or convey something. I keep telling myself that I'm just going to ignore AI-related posts and that anyone who doesn't get it or doesn't feel similarly to how I feel isn't going to have an epiphany based on what some internet stranger has to say. But the Udio-bolstered uptick in interest / sharing is difficult to let slide.

A new single, Mercy, dropped today along with the announcement that an album is coming on May 31st which will apparently contain Muder One & Invasion as well, meaning that it likely is more of a compilation of unreleased material (as those two pieces, released in early 2022, were recorded 15-to-20 years apart). Mercy is maybe a little less adventuresome from an electronic music perspective than most of Vega's later work, and it's unclear when it's from precisely. I'm guessing mid 90s based on the vocal styling, but we'll see.

I think that Brussels is my favorite. Rennes & The Hague are tied-ish.

I guess they should have consulted you before they remained alive, continuing to dynamically contribute to their singular oeuvre that brightens so many people's lives.