I was not expecting that turn from pure sound design/noise to ambient. By itself, it's a bit odd, especially since it's so thin and lacking in bass or mid range, but I can imagine it in the context of an album... that swings between noise and more traditionally "musical" moments (kinda like, stuff like Leafcutter John).
I've been working hard on a batch of tracks that utilize polyrhythms extensively. This one has a lot of granular going on too.
This is really cool, beautiful atmospheric pads and stuff... the polyrhythmic timing is really interesting, every now and again it takes a second for my brain to register exactly what's going on, but at the same time it's still pretty smooth (it's easy for stuff like polyrhythm to be purely academic and hence barely listenable).
I WAS gonna say that it's a touch too long, when I listened to it this morning, I kinda zoned out after a while. But listening to it a second time, I feel like there's enough going on to keep it engaging. Interested to hear more of this batch...
This is all hardware based stuff right? It's got a very mid/late-90's "classic" IDM vibe to it, which I assume a hardware setup would lend itself well to. Very laid back, hazy, "Sunday afternoon" mood. IT sounds pretty good as it is, although I feel like this kind of sound could be pushed more, like either lean into the lazy, hazy vibe more (with even softer drums, loads of trippy delay and/or reverb) or alternatively, crank up the drums more and make them punch and harsh, and you'd get a bit of contrast happening.
Yeah those clips sound really nice... a good balance of warm and "simple", and dynamic with lots of little subtle details. Listening to some of your stuff on bandcamp now, enjoying the more glitchy moments in particular.
Very pretty sounds so far, it feels like it straddles the line between organic and mechanical... like it could be a lively forest, or it could be a bunch of chattering machines. It would be nice to hear this extended out with more bass added and some more melodic or harmonic progression, but I can also imagine this working just fine as it is an interlude between a couple of more lively, fuller tracks.
7 hours ago, mngosx said:
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This sounds promising. Great distortion on the low end but the snares lack punch, if you extend this out to a full length piece I can imagine the high-end and the snares getting louder and gnarlier as it progresses, until it matches the ferocity of the bass drums.
The songs are all so bloated that I feel like they stand alone a lot better, it's like every song is both an album intro and album closer. I tend to listen to a coupla tracks at a time, rarely the whole album.
If you just took the strings in the end and made a track out of them it would sound pretty standard late 90s Ae track but the weirdness in the beginning works as a contrast and gives it a kind of alienness that makes the whole track work and not just sound stuffy old IDM.
Yeah that's what I love about it, it's like Peel Sessions 1 or Envane put through the Move of Ten system.
I think if I was new to Autechre I would find it too goofy but in the context of their entire back catalogue it gives it a different feeling.
Just at the end of my first "back-to-back" listen. It made the the more beat-driven tracks on SIGN stand out more, which I predicted, but what I didn't expect is that it also makes SIGN feel REALLY short for some reason. Perception of time can be a weird thing.
I agree with the comments that PLUS has a weird flow to it, but it seems less noticeable when listening to these back to back because there's just so much going on.
Overall I really liked the effect of the two combined. I really curious to know what made them decide to split the two releases...
SIGN was more of a surprise and arguably a more cohesive and better album but PLUS is just more enjoyable, more fun. But this is only early, initial impression...
recently when i listen to X4 i think of four of seven for some reason... idk if that's that lowpassed synth at the beginning or what
That was actually my feeling on first listen, I think it's not just the sound but also the mood of it, and I think it has similar melodies, particularly if you compare the endings of both. I also like how in both cases there's this idea of all this super hi tech, futuristic sounding stuff before it and then at the end of the album there's a shift to something kind of retro.
I think I can appreciate where you're coming from, I'd be interested to get more detailed comments from others too.
I personally find it hard to pin down any music as being objectively BAD or GOOD (I'm a trained animator, so I have a much sharper eye for film and animation than I do an ear for music). So I genuinely struggle to understand some of what the WATMM hive-mind considers to be unequivocally "good" or "bad".
Gave the whole thing a listen and, as a whole, it feels very much like a mix of Age Of and R+7, leaning more towards R+7. Whether it's as good as R+7 is hard to say on first listen.
Also, it BLOWS MY MIND that you all have a problem with the weeknd track (as far as I'm concerned, totally innocuous, poppy new age track, can't distinguish it stylistically from any of the other vocal tracks, in fact I can't even tell which vocals are by the weeknd and which are by lopatin himself) but almost no one has a problem with that god awful Nolanberollin section
Getting a feel for the general flow of it now. It's like, cold and dry first half, warmer and more melodic second half. I've always liked music that has that kinda balance. I have yet to listen to both albums back to back but I like that as a whole, PLUS will add a lot of variety to the mix. I also think TM1 open bookends the album really well with M4Lema, just in the sense that both are long tracks that have a lot of progression.
I'm now thinking of PLUS as being kinda underwater too... but like, exploring the wreckage of an old sunken freighter or battleship.
Just approaching the end of tm1open. At first i thought it was gonna be a throw away track. Now I think it might be my favourite so far. Strings at the end give me Envane vibes. Actually this is a really good ending track. It already makes me think of what came before in a different light.
Overall what stood out to me the most was that SIGN was thick and syrupy and PLUS is far more sparse and dry. Like PLUS is the skeleton and SIGN is the flesh. Or SIGN is the ocean and PLUS is a desert (but like... At night).
I look forward to listening to these on one sitting back to back...
Again, a sincere thanks to Sean & Rob, very impressive stuff as always.
Yikes that weeknd collab sure comes out of left field. I can only understand it in the context of the album's theme (of like, hopping between radio stations) but even then I feel like it could have been executed more cohesively... Like if it was done a bit like the "Loving You" sample on The Orbs Huge Ever-growing Pulsating Brain... Kinda fading in and out... Or even if it was treated like Lopatin's own Eccojams... It might have for in better...
Tbh I liked the rest, especially the last track, has some Enya vibes (which I don't think is a bad thing).
Hmmm see I think, regardless of what you think of Lopatin's work (I personally find it hit and miss), I think it would be dishonest to say he isn't extremely influential. He basically invented and inspired vaporwave (eccojams, Replica, R+7), which is a huge movement within electronic music, and I'm sure his Rifts era stuff helped popularise a lot of "synthwave" or whatever it's called. Pretty sure he was a big inspiration or at least involved in the development of PC music/hyperpop.
I think the last two albums have been far less challenging or inventive but I still enjoy them. I understand most of the comments criticising his restlessness but tbh, I personally like that sort of thing.
This new material to me just sounds OK. Nothing mind blowing, but still very pleasant. If the whole album is like this, it will be relaxing, warm background music.
when introducing someone to ae I would never open with elseq/NTS ~10 min stuff (i've been quite critical about NTS but i don't think that's the case here), I would very much likely go with Altbizz / Montreal / r ess to give a taste and make the person want for more
I also don't understand why Exai is nonexistent in the list; it is not only my fav and also the very first album i listened to and for me it has a lot of good "intro to ae" moments
I don't agree with this idea of introducing someone to AE with a warm and inviting ambient track because that is not representative of most of their work. I don't necessarily agree with xflood either but I do think NTS works almost as a culmination of almost everything they had done up until that point. I reckon Dummy Casual Pt2 would be a great first track because it strikes a balance of dissonance & complexity with an easy to follow rhythm and brevity. I think as a first album tho Exai is less intimidating than NTS.
I think if this album were by someone else, my impression of it would be far more positive... I mean, I think it's really nice, not enjoying it quite as much as my favourite bits from exai-NTS, but I still really like it.
But imagine someone new coming out with something like M4 Lema as an opening track to their debut album?!? I would be EXTREMELY impressed.
I think the Quaristice comparisons make sense, Sign sounds a lot more like the ambient tracks on Quaristice than Oversteps.
Personally, initially I didn't like Quaristice because the tracks are so short, they feel sketchy and unfinished compared to earlier albums. But eventually, I grew to appreciate it because of its variety and it actually helped reinvigorate my interest in Autechre after finding Draft and Untilted too difficult (I like them a lot more now though).
I also like how sketchy Quaristice feels now, combined with Quadrangle, it feels a bit like the "behind the scenes" album, and it set the stage for the next block of albums (I see Oversteps-NTS as one continuous era).
As for SIGN...
It definitely feels like it won't be the kind of experience as usual... There's pretty much no "challenge", and for me, there won't be this moment of "I never appreciated this track until years later" because every track seems appealing now.
It might lose it's freshness a bit faster but I feel like it'll quickly feel like a comfortable pair of pants that you put on to lounge around in. Tbh most of my favourite music is like that. I like being challenged but not ALL the time...
Alright, giving this a second listen... admittedly, as much as I like the album as a whole, I do wish more of it was like the opening track. M4 Lema is perhaps the best balance of warm, melodic atmosphere and harsh, crunchy, noisey beats EVER.
As always everything they do just makes me even more curious about what they will put out in the future...
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I was not expecting that turn from pure sound design/noise to ambient. By itself, it's a bit odd, especially since it's so thin and lacking in bass or mid range, but I can imagine it in the context of an album... that swings between noise and more traditionally "musical" moments (kinda like, stuff like Leafcutter John).