Autechre Is Confield Autechre's only great album?

[Guest tbio2007]

So I was going through my entire collection of music the other day, basically getting rid of albums that I sought of realised I did not like that much. You see when people say they think a certain album is good, they basically mean they like two or three tunes of that album. I got rid of albums that I thought I could not listen to all the way through, what's the point in having an album that you can't listen to all the way through anyway? Using this logic I got rid of alot of albums, I was left with like 25 I think, some obvious classics were left obviously, Loveless and Illmatic for example, and in case your wondering Aphex had the most albums in this bunch, SAW 1, RDJ Album and Drugks.

 

Now I was amazed that I got rid of every Autechre album with the exception of Confield, I mean it's not surprising Confield made it, I love it, it fits the criteria, there is not a bad tune on the album and it's original. What was surprising is that it was the only AE album I had left, I always tell people how much I like them, and naturally assumed I liked Draft, LP5 e.t.c. But if I'm being brutally honest about it, these two have some notably weak tunes on and there not even in the same league as Confield.

 

I know that Confield is probably Autechre's most discussed and forward thinking album (and therefore there most critically acclaimed), so I would like to suggest, despite my ultra fan boy love for them, that Confield will probably be remembered as Autechre's best L.P. Agree/Disagree?

[Guest tbio2007]

Fact:

Everything Autechre did was awesome

Fact#2: Confield had great moments but ultimately is flawed.

 

Would you care to tell me what is flawed about Confield?

[Guest theSun]

for me, all Ae albums have tunes that make me jizz and tunes that do not. their stuff is so diverse that it's hard to say that one album is the best Ae because the other albums are not really that much like it.

 

for instance, lately i've been spinning chiastic slide, cichli suite and peel sessions. yeesland, cipater, tewe, calbruc, chiraci, tilapia, inhake 2, drane, nuane are all fantastic masterpieces. i could skip a few tracks though, like hub, pule, pencha, krib. it's not to say that they are not "as good", i'm just not usually in the mood for them. in a few weeks i might be listening exclusively to their lp5/ep7 stuff. the only album that i would rate as OK would be quaristice/quadrange. i like the ideas, but they could have done more. like the hour long perlence that has no dynamic, just a changing bass drum in a minimalist pattern. meh.

 

as far as production, Ae is as close to perfect on all their shit as you can get. aside from a few high frequency woes throughout their discography and untilted thrown through a silly amount of compression, the mixing/mastering of their work is fucking beautiful. in fact i'd say untilted > confield if it were mixed properly.

[thehauntingsoul]

yeah every album has a few weak moments for sure.

 

Confield is awesome most of the way through though, i'll certainly attest to that.

Quaristice has a few meh tracks like fWze and sonDEremawe.

 

Untilted has fermium

 

Draft is solid all the way through though in my opinion.

 

So yeah I would say confield and draft are their least flawed albums.

 

Envane and Chiastic slide are close behind, the others are about 25% meh tracks for the most part

[Sam]

Autechre's discog is definitely a case of different strokes for different folks. Pretty much all of my favourite material of theirs is on the EPs. Anti EP, Garbage, Anvil Vapre, Envane, Cichli......yes please. As for their albums, I know which ones I'd sooner bring to a desert island, but, as theSun said, there's tracks i like and tracks that don't do much for me......

 

If you told me I could bring a compilation with:

 

1 - 444

2 - Teartear

3 - Dael

4 - Cipater

5 - Arch Carrier

6 - Dropp

7 - VI Scoise Poise

8 - Tapr

9 - Lcc

10 - Altibzz

 

.....I'd be happy as larry. I verrrrry rarely listen to albums in their entirety, but when i do, it's usually Ae.

As for Confield being Autechre's only great album, i wouldn't agree. It's a really interesting album, and one i like a lot, but for standalone tracks there's a plethora of tracks off of almost every other release i'd sooner listen to. I still love it as an album, but each Autechre release is a totally different beast than what came before, so it doesn't get any extra special treatment from me. And I'd certainly never end up doing something as ridiculous as GETTING RID OF MY AE COLLECTION.

 

 

 

?!?!?!?!??!?!??!?!?!?!!

 

[pera]

heh nice compilation :)

[doorjamb]

You see when people say they think a certain album is good, they basically mean they like two or three tunes of that album.

 

 

says YOU.

[autopilot]

Confield is no Amber or Tri Repetae, that's for sure.

 

Now those albums are perfection.

[Sam]

Confield is no Amber or Tri Repetae, that's for sure.

 

Now those albums are perfection.

 

Tri Repetae is a great album for sure, but Amber really takes the biscuit for me.....never understand some of the dislike around here for it, amazing album.

[Guest Aces]

In short no. It's very difficult to choose. Confield is awesome but I have to be in the right mood for it. Where as Tri repetae and Incunabula I could listen to at any time. I could make a case for all of their stuff up until untilted but I am not going to.

[thehauntingsoul]

OP how long have you been listening to Ae for?

[Guest ComicMaster]

I thought Quaristice had the potential to be their next true classic if they would have just gathered the best of the ideas from Quaristice, Versions, Quadrange and the Digital EP. Instead they obviously did the whole "Build your own album from all these songs" thing but in turn there were tracks that just would sound out of place because they were. The plus is that it was rather innovative of them to go that route. The negative is that for non-fan(boy)s you won't get that at all and all you have is the actual Quaristice. On said LP there were some songs which were just sorta/kinda/pretty good but not mindblowingly like some surrounding songs. I haven't thought so much about an Autechre release since Confield though.

 

Its so hard trying to grasp any 00s (or even 90s) Autechre release on its release because it feels like you are listening to shit that is 20 years ahead of everything else.

 

In terms of what this has to do with your original question I think that even with my complaints Quaristice (the actual LP, not the overall series of releases) if anything else is still a great album just not perfect and not everyone is going to feel it. I think my other favorites would be Amber, Tri Repetae and LP5. Confield is up there and despite how many times I make a solid opinion on Quaristice I still can't determine whether its up there or not.

[Bubba69]

I don't know, I'm a pretty big fan of chiastic slide, ep7, and untilted. They are equally great and I like them better. Cfern is still my most enjoyed autechre song though.

[Guest moo duck]

Is Confield Autechre's only great album?

 

no

[Guest Arctandem]

There's never any love for Chiastic.

 

I agree that Confield is very much 'complete,' but to me Chiastic is just as much so, if not more.

 

Also does Untilted tour count? That's pretty much unskippable...

[thehauntingsoul]

fermium is trash

[Guest theSun]

untilted would be #1 for me if it wasn't mixed so silly

[auxien]

i think Draft is their most cohesive sounding album. not that diversity is bad, but it kinda trips me out to listen to such different sounding songs as their more recent stuff, Quaristice being the obvious climax of this style. their older records seem that they put them together with more intent and focus on achieving a 'vibe' throughout. confield and chiastic, even lp5 to some extent, seem to have some focus to them, but it still feels to me like maybe they couldn't resist putting in a few tracks that weren't quite the same vibe as the rest of the album.

 

Untilted seems pretty intentional for the most part, but almost every song on that record is very much about drastic change over their length anyway...so that kinda takes away from being 'together' for me.

 

Gantz Graf is my favorite ep as a whole, i think. not that we're talking eps, but nonetheless.

[Guest IRARI]

fermium is trash

 

i love fermium

[thehauntingsoul]

fermium is trash

 

i love fermium

 

Teach me

[Guest moo duck]

imagine little little motherfuckers with no arms no nothing just little little insectish eyeballs. here is the mass of them, suddenly motherfuckers began to drone, them eyeballs become bigger twice the size, now triple, finally you are the motherfucking eyeball.

[Guest IRARI]

fermium is trash

 

i love fermium

 

Teach me

 

drugs?

[Dr Clitterhaus]

No drugs. This guy will probably try to "practice you".

 

EDIT: Abusive content removed by Squee

[Guest theSun]

lol

[Beholdapalehorse]

so I would like to suggest, despite my ultra fan boy love for them, that Confield will probably be remembered as Autechre's best L.P. Agree/Disagree?

Disagree.