Lianne

It can be hard keeping up with BoC’s busy release schedule, can’t it?

Inspired by this thread, Sean is ready to enter into politics. He may have once said, “politics is just a polite word for war” - but fear not; he has had a change of heart, he’s putting Max down for now, and his political career ambitions are being realised. With Borris Johnson in some trouble, Sean Booth has a clear way to the top!

I have something insightful to add to this discussion: Autechre make their music with electronic equipment, particularly computers and software on those computers.

Yes - I think I do too! ? And wow. I haven’t liked that many Tangerine Dream tracks since the 80s, but this is great. It absorbs some modern sensibilities in a cool way.

I can’t tell if this is brilliant or totally stupid. Just when I thought the channel couldn’t get any weirder... https://youtu.be/aKhlXYfjXzg

I just saw this posted on Facebook. (I still use it!) I am a sucker for game soundtracks and all things that remind of teenagerhood spent in front of videogames, especially during Christmas, so the timing was perfect! Between this and Metroid I can be very happy. Space Trains by Robot Logon

I like this idea. I feel that the OneSix live tour went near to this - awesome globular swaves of musical sound, but not always with clear deliniations between traditional categories.

I think Sean Booth has probably got a beautiful voice, and I reckon they’ve been exploring traditional songwriting. Something tells me they now know white notes are the way to go; no more ugly chromatic notes, and definitely no microtonal ugliness. Instead - melodies to soothe the soul and bring relaxation. I know Rob Brown has been learning the accordion too. I can’t wait for their new positive song direction! A bit of um-cha-cha; some flamenco, some salsa, a lot of Sean’s new unedited smooth vocals. No autotunes. You heard it here first; I have sources

I can’t work out if this channel is the worst videos I have ever seen, or the best I have ever seen. This doesn’t change anything on that front.

If you don't mind me asking, how old were you when you got it? And how loud / what kind of tinnitus sound is it? Don't want to derail the thread, but this is interesting.

Thanks for the explanation, Hugh! I know hearing loss / tinnitus affects some musicians who wonder if they can go on. It makes sense he would still be able to work in the studio if the volume can be kept low.... What did you make of the newest albums, by the way?

Sorry to bump this old thread - but I was interested to see new Cylob after reading on Wikipedia that he had retired due to tinnitus and had read on an old thread of his hearing loss. Were these releases all brand new material? Which meant he overcame the hearing issues?

Can't edit, but wanted to incolude djimbe, joao maia e silva and another person from this thread who posts here and makes music - can't remember now. ? I already mentioned him, but I can't emphasise Phonophani enough. 'Genetic Engineering' - 'Kreken' is such a stunning album trio, and genuinely some of the most original music I have heard. Though different in sound, his best moments remind me of Autechre's best moments in hearing sounds that it seems I've never heard before.

Oh - I was referring to pieces from WATMMers posted by others in this thread! Like Ignatius, but all the music posted here I've listened to has been really good... ?

I think the last quarter of this album gets good. 'Earth Systems' is a really powerful track in particular. That's more my kind of thing when it comes to Clark's music (at least when he's going largely beatless.)

Who remembers this interview with Sean Booth after the first release? Sean Booth audio interview 2011 - YouTube

Thanks for all your sharing on this, @brian trageskin! In truth there is more going on in this new Clark album than most of the music of those modern / easy-listening classical composers I mentioned. The grain, the textures, the use of effects and detuned synths - that takes it to a better place than that stuff. I would still have personally preferred the piano / string aspect to be a bit... actually...a lot more adventurous, but in places the production and timbre of things really shines in a beautifully rusty way.

The guys who post on this forum make great, great music! And while I see you do have followings, it doesn’t make sense how some music really blows up and other work gets relatively overlooked. I was just listening to this, which really reminds me of ‘Oversteps’ (especially when it keeps shifting harmonies after a minute in) and the melodic / ‘plucky’ parts of NTS4 and Onesix live set... https://robertlogan1.bandcamp.com/track/fe

It's partly them, though. I'm really very thankful to @joseph for translating the interview - much better we have this than not! Their observations are always entertaining to read. And maybe the Max / MSP section will have a more contemporary focus. But I have noticed they come alive talking about the past, influences, scenes and artists they liked, and clam up quite a bit when discussing any newest album. Not always - there's exceptions, like the 'Oversteps' Japanese sleeve interview or RA interview - but often they're pretty evasive, maybe even dismissive of what's gone behind an album that's just been released. I mean on one level it's kind of hilarious, like their talk about SIGN just being "an accident" and PLUS being off-cuts from that material. The total non-romanticism is really refreshing on one level. But on another, I'd kind of like to hear more about the process of their recent work. It's not boring, it's natural that we want to know more about a creative process.. Of course though they owe nobody any explanations and the music speaks for itself. I just find the way things are made interesting.

The theory posts are interesting. I like classical music, especially from late romantic period on and some contemporary classical music is thrilling - but I struggle with this end of modern kind classical music, the kind that is very pleasant and tame and seems "emotional" because like a broken A minor arpeggio is softly going around and around and apparently this means sadness or evokes the arctic or whatnot. I know Ludovico Einaudi, Nils Frahm Max Richter, Olafur Arnalds etc. are super popular, but I just don't get it. Everything about most of that music irritates me more than any other kind of music. To feel emotion from music I need it to do *something* challenging or unpredictable, sometimes. It can be relaxing and pretty, but my ears yearn from some harmonic shifts that aren't the same plodding, diatonic things we've heard so often, or the same pretty modes on the same piano sounds...But again, I know a lot of people find this music very functional and question me about what the "point" of more difficult music is and don't get why I enjoy it so much, so whatever. Debussy or Ravel can move me to tears, even at their most restrained and "simple", but that other music makes me cry for other reasons.

Looking forward to this interview! ?

This is what I was (probably quite badly) trying to convey about the rhythmic element. I also love the "monotony" of Rale's beat, and even more so other tracks that do that, like a bunch of the steadier ones off EP7 - actually loads of Autechre tracks that are kind of linear designs that just "go" and have a simple, repetitive groove, at least in terms of beat *placement* (even if there's a tonne else being given in terms of texture, atmosphere, peripheral details etc.) I love minimal techno and when that works in this way, it really WORKS.

Since the floodgates have been opened to get specific about this track, I like it, but conversely it's after 3 minutes all the way to 6:53 that I find it hard to enjoy, with the relentless snare on the 2 for so long. The rest of the "bits" of the track have cool rhythmic variation, but for some reason I get tired of that beat going for so long in this instance. It's weird because tonnes of music utilises that kind of repetition, and I love it, and there's loads else changing across those minutes in this track - but yeah, the relentless boom-tshhh boom-tshhh beat gets to me from 3 mins to 6:53 (where it finally shifts) - even with the timbre of the "snare" changing as it does. I found weirdly Syro was like that after a while, with Aphex regularly resorting to a snare or clap hitting on the regular 2/4, and it got on my nerves in that album after a few too many tracks of it in the latter half. Obviously Autechre and the rest of 'Plus' doesn't fall into that. And obviously a beat like that can work and is a stable in most modern western music. There's plenty of other Autechre tracks with the same drum placement that still feel exciting, so I don't get why it feels that way here. The switch up at 6:53 is lush though...

I've really liked some of what Jimmy Edgar has put out, and really not got along with other stuff (the more straight house material) - but to me this is special. I don't usually like "trap" music (lol so clueless about genres) or MCs yelling like this, but his production is so crisp and banging and there's so many interesting sounds that I can't help but enjoy it. Very cool album, not a weak track. CHEETAH BEND | JIMMY EDGAR (bandcamp.com)

? I thought I’ve read posts of yours liking Autechre’s ambient side? But I may well be confused there. @xox - melodies can be beautiful in ambient, but they bring a focal point in a different way. It’s often more interesting to me when the evolving textures IS the soundscape because your attention is kind of lost in this vast space and it feels disorientating. Unless it’s sonically crap and then of course it is boring and has no atmosphere.