djimbe

One of my favourite groups are Italian duo Retina.it. I searched this forum and see they've never been mentioned. They have a distinct atmospheric, discreet mood that's always been there across 20+ years of releases. The bass is often a tone or something with no attack. Minimal-leaning and careful note choice. The other day I found on Bandcamp a track of theirs I've always loved but that I only had in a Hefty Records podcast before. Linked to video of it because I can't link directly to track 2 in a Bandcamp player (but the Bandcamp for this release is https://midgar-records.bandcamp.com/album/the-last-day-of-pompeii-part-i)

I feel like I can say something about the whole axis (showmanship in electronic music to no showmanship) because I've tried both ends with my own music. I only started performing as an adult, and coming from a history of anxiety and social phobia that needed a pile of therapy and medication, I felt I really needed to quantify myself to even get on stage. Psychologically, I couldn't have just got up and turned on a computer. I needed the feeling of visibility of making something. And I'm not someone who would ever showboat crap. The thing that showed me what I could do was Moldover's video on controllerism. You only have to watch the first mini-performance part to get the idea - live mixing, custom controls, ideas from turntablism. That said, I was way more into composition than remixing. I worked out my own version of this kind of thing (I even bought the same controller seen in this video) with Reaktor and Live and ultimately I was really happy with how it got me performing. The big problems that came up were how slow it was to reprogram things to change sets or tracks, or on the fly. General inflexibility. And track transitions (you see Autechre talking about problems with track transitions in the interview) I worked with my rig for some time, but more and more, I just wanted to leave it for these reasons, plus psychologically I'd overcome my initial hurdle. My last Aeriae show I just used the computer and, yeah, I turned out the lights. So I can say from experience, you can be doing stuff that looks 'hot encodery' and you're actually doing something sophisticated and difficult. But I doubt any of these DJs spinning records at festivals are.

Okay, my first contribution to archive.org is online: Autechre_City_Recital_Hall_Sydney_270823 https://archive.org/details/Autechre2023-08-27 There's a 16 bit WAV, FLAC of the WAV, and the 320 mp3. I don't know why the front page says vbr mp3, but if that isn't actually just the mp3 I uploaded, the original is available anyway by clicking SHOW ALL in the download options pane.

Thanks for the direct or indirect reminder that – I haven't put the WAV up yet! I swear, next few days. :)

1 1 is is the first thing I play on the hifi whenever I pull out the Exai CDs. So it's probably one of my most listened and fave Autechre tracks over the past few years.

Last time they were in Sydney, the levels were quiet and the set was more tinkly and ambient – and I said I wished it was seated. This time it was loud and high tempo, and I wished it was NOT seated and that I could've moved :)

Hehe, yeah that's also the riff that's stuck in my head after last night.

Yes you definitely feel the lowest bass way more in your body when it's at that volume level, to the extent I can hear the tonalities of the basslines clearer in the recording than I did live; because live, they're kind of obscured by the physical walloping. That said, I thought this was a pretty bassy recording :) I eq'd the top up some towards a more traditionally listenable balance, but I didn't touch the bottom. Overall, yes it is the feeling of all the pressures on and in your body that is the biggest difference between live and playing back a recording. Though on big speakers and up load, if the bass is in the recording, you can start moving back in that direction. You're just not going to achieve live venue levels in your house.

Okay, coming up is the mp3 of my Sydney room recording. I'm using WeTransfer for now (link expires in 7 days from now) just to get it to you. I'll sort out WAV/FLAC and/or archive.org in next few days. Thanks for the suggestions. Autechre_City_Recital_Hall_Sydney_270823.mp3 download (166MB) https://we.tl/t-nptWp9F7Ex

I've made what has turned out to be an excellent room recording of Sydney (August 28 2023). I will share it tomorrow somehow. Where do people tend to host these files, even if initially only? The mp3 is 173 MB.

I've seen them twice in Sydney and have bought a ticket for upcoming Sydney. 1st time: The Forum, 2010. Can't find ticket price 2nd time: Max Watts (which was formerly the Forum, I think), 2018. Ticket was AUD$64.90 Upcoming: City Recital Hall. Ticket was AUD$77.50 with booking fee (AUD$69 without booking fee, . I quote this in case you can get around the booking fee by buying in person someplace, but I bet you can't. These days, to remember the price of your Autechre ticket, just leave the receipt in your email forever.

With effort, music that is somehow beyond your comprehension threshold can change your brain so that you can understand that music and more music. A lot of people are actively against moving their threshold: That earlier quote in this topic about 'When I get home, I want to be anaesthetised by my stereo'. Then there are people who have no conscious interest in moving it, but hear something that somehow manages to move it. They butt against the challenge, whether by accidental or intentional repetition, and go through to their brain changing a bit. Then there all the degrees of that kind of thing up to people who are listening to music consciously aware that they can, or sometimes want to, move their threshold or find new things. I can remember most of the times in life my threshold moved a bunch. I had a few with Nirvana. When I was a teen, I first heard Lithium on a bus and my brain cried 'Wtf is that?' When I bought their first album, Bleach. I found it almost unlistenable at first compared to Nevermind, and thought 'Is this the same band?' Now it's one of my favourite albums. Bought Nirvana's split single with the Jesus Lizard, heard the Jesus Lizard for the first time, considered THEM unlistenable, and then THEY became one of my favourites, etc. etc. So for me, it was mostly through rock music in my teens. I was late 20s when I first heard Autechre, and that was coming off Aphex Twin. I loved the amount of stimulation I got from trying to follow Draft 7:30. It didn't feel intellectual, though it is too, as a musician who plays by ear, chasing the patterns in your head, but the record is obviously visceral and emotional, too. My last big major genre acquirement was black metal after hearing Emperor for the first time.

First one I bought was Draft 7:30, which was my first Autechre, so perhaps in the never-to-be-underestimated "You attach to what you hear first" way, I like Draft (loved it right away), Untitled (loved it right away), Quaristice (was super confused... listened to Versions as the 'real' album at first. There was too much material, to sort out. Now overall, love it, but it took a long time to get over all that confusion). And Exai, which feels like an extension to me with a detour for Oversteps on the way. In other words, the Draft->Exai run feels like the most complex composed run for me, and I'll listen to those albums straight through, and that's kind of their aesthetic I like best. Obviously I like things all over the place. With the explosion of your AE_lives etc., I no longer have such a detailed relationship to the material. I know 'I like that track at the start of NTS 1'. I can't remember the names or places of things as well, there's too much. I was amused Autechre joked about classical track names being unhelpful. Theirs are bloody unhelpful! But yeah - Draft->Exai for me. -Wade

Well, I listened to the original for the first time in this thread. I found the production slightly annoying but my reaction was, 'basically, there's an 80s pop song in there I'd like more if it had just been delivered as one.' By pitching the vocals back down to normal-sounding, the Autechre remix took it a long way in that direction. Though with the perc and bass, it's more 80s or 90s electro than straight pop. -Wade

With three years since I last posted my music to this thread, I feel fine promoting my new fifteen-year-Aeriae-anniversary EP today. It's named for the first Aeriae track I produced back in 2005. Spanning 2005-2008, these tracks have a dark, sepulchral feel that mostly precedes the style of my first album Hold R1. Opener Abraxas and the original long edit of Hold R1 (I used just the tail of it on the album) have never been released before. Reign and Quiz are tracks that took part in the endless music contest on garagebandDOTcom, back when that great site existed (no relation to Apple's Garageband software which now has that URL). The final track Sophie Asks Why was broadcast on Sydney's FBi Radio in 2008. -Wade

A few days after my first listen and neutral/lukewarm response, I'm now finding Sign easy to listen to as a coherent whole in one go. Jumping around and using my concentration more like a laser is normally how I interpret new Autechre stuff, especially in the NTS/AE Live inundation period. But for this one, sitting back and taking it in more passively is working for me. So I agree with people who've been saying: it's certainly an easier listen than usual. In that sense I'm interpreting it more the way I more often interpret other kinds of music.

I sat and listened through it for the first time on my big hi-fi today. There is enormous bass on some tracks that just holds. I mean frequencies start up and they barely stop or ebb, and the whole room has pressure. Initial reaction is that I'm lukewarm overall because the tracks seem really static to me. They begin, and sometimes there's not even a section B they change to before the end. They're often doing largely the same thing after seven minutes, then they just stop. I know Autechre are all about repetition, but I guess if I compare this to either the middle period that some describe as the most composed, or the more recent sprawling/generative NTS mode, it's got the sound design and circling of the latter delivered in the presentation of the former (discrete tracks) but without the trajectory power or direction of the former. So maybe in the context of Autechre, I file it as a new mode. Obviously a lot here love the lush synth sound, but that doesn't interest me much overall without more melodic development. I agree with the chap who said that when Autechre foreground this kind of thing, I don't think it's their strong point. My comment about wanting more development is why I don't think it's their strong point. It's impossible to say I'm disappointed because I had no idea what was coming. Maybe I secretly hoped for a move towards the 'composed mode', given we're back to the what-fits-on-a-CD format. The inundation of hours and hours and hours of material that Autechre have kindly given us inbetween Sign and the last album of this size has probably hurt the element of surprise when Sign sounds as similar to the sound design in those hours. I mean my brain's always saying 'Oh yeah, I remember this little way of making a spray of beeps from this bit of NTS' etc. Anyway, it's obviously great to have a new album and I look forward to this one wandering around in the pantheon over time. However, I would be very surprised if this one ever became my favourite. (And I will admit if it does!)

today I've heard this live twice. As far as I am concerned, there is no more pertinent place than this for post your music, aeriae: it is among the most pregnant of Autechre's things feelings for a while. There are really many nuances that lead to them, but there is also a personal component that makes this live something precious. Thanks very much AE35unit.

Right, I finally learned how to embed a Soundcloud like people have been doing here for 7 years. https://soundcloud.com/aeriae/de-1

I haven't linked to music of mine (without a topic asking for music) in the Autechre forum for years, as I usually feel spammy if I do. I normally mention it in EKT. However I played a set in Melbourne recently where I surprised myself, given how quickly I put it together. So I've released it. And I think there's a respectable chance that if you who like Autechre, you'll like this. It's 28 minutes, 140 BPM+. I can't link a Bandcamp player directly last time I checked, so here's the page, which has a player on it. Cheers, https://aeriae.bandcamp.com/album/de

I guess my story's cool because it can be relived right now. You'll see what I mean. This was 2002/2003. I was mad about Aphex Twin's Druqks at the time (that's still my favourite of his) and I wanted to find more music like that. I found a website called 'Ishkur's Guide to Electronic Music' (http://techno.org/electronic-music-guide/) While exploring it, I clicked 'Jungle' -- clicked 'IDM' (lower left corner) -- in the IDM section, I encountered Autechre in loop number 2, which is a loop from Acroyear2. The same loop is still there in the same place. I was instantly crazy for it because I couldn't quite work it out - whether it had a start or end, or where those things were, or where the upbeats or downbeats were. I went to Red Eye records here in Sydney, went to the electronic section, found a tab for Autechre and picked up the front CD to buy, which was the just-released Draft 7:30. That's probably still my favourite Autechre record today.