Quaristice.. Only one complaint

[awepittance]

where they made awesome melodies AND wicked beats - now it seems like they're just trying to see how abstract they can make songs before they lose all semblance of melody and rhythm.

 

 

every time you say this i'm pretty dumbfounded by how you think Confield and Draft are not very melodic albums with plenty of rhythm. Especially since you think they stopped being 'fun' after EP7, because i would definitely include that EP in same vein as confield and draft more so than LP5

[Guest theSun]

i would definitely include that EP in same vein as confield and draft more so than LP5

 

 

are you kidding?

[Joyrex]

where they made awesome melodies AND wicked beats - now it seems like they're just trying to see how abstract they can make songs before they lose all semblance of melody and rhythm.

 

 

every time you say this i'm pretty dumbfounded by how you think Confield and Draft are not very melodic albums with plenty of rhythm. Especially since you think they stopped being 'fun' after EP7, because i would definitely include that EP in same vein as confield and draft more so than LP5

 

I don't think the sound of a toaster and a blender attempting to dp a microwave as 'melodic'

[Berk]

I haven't liked an Autechre release since EP7... although songs on Quaristice like Rale and Tankakern gave me hope when I first heard them, they ended up being the ONLY songs that I felt were listenable on the album.

 

I can't emotionally relate to basically any of their stuff since Confield or whatever. Except for Altibzz which is really nice.

 

What has made me lose faith in Autechre somewhat is the fact that their tracks that still sound like proper music - Rale and Tankakern for instance - have got almost no replay value for me. I reckon I'm not actually able to "judge" the other weird abstract tracks from Quaristice or Confield or what have you, I can't make anything of them, so no one can really say they're good or bad imo (I'd say bad, because I really dislike them, I guess you could judge them by production value but that's it imo).

But I feel I am still able to compare Tankakern and Rale to other tracks (to older stuff from Autechre, like Bike, or stuff from other artists, doesn't matter).

 

Bike and Synthacon 9 are just full of soul, and Tankakern and Rale are not, this leads me to think they lost their skillz/soul a bit, imo.

[Guest theSun]

quarisitice aside, i think their newer music is far more emotional. there aren't many "nice" sounding chords on the material, but the music has a certain swagger, funk if you will, that i have never heard anywhere else. it simply takes a few listens for your brain to pick apart what's going on. augmatic disport sounded like nothing but chaos the first 10 listens or so, but now when i hear it, it's almost a different song. i find it helps greatly if you tap your foot or do something to keep the click in your head. then you see how sean's ridiculously syncopated rhythms dance around the beat like only ae can do.

[Berk]

I don't know I don't like too much syncopation. There's gotta be some sort of obvious structure, I think rhythm isn't much different from melody. Simply put, I always kind of see the bassdrum as the suspense and the snaredrum as the release (don't know if release is the word I'm looking for, but you get the point I guess), the hihats as the "notes" that connect the suspense and release together perhaps.

[Berk]

also, I don't get why some people think that there's more emotional content in the recent ae releases, maybe there is, I don't notice it either way. I've always sort of thought emotions in tracks are supposed to be fairly easy to pick up, if not they're just not there imo. I understand everyone has different feelings compared to other people with the same track playing, but these differences are only slight most of the time. But I still think emotions aren't there in the new ae tracks, only people making them up in their heads, which is just as nice when listening to music of course.

 

the only atmospheres I perceive when listening to most tracks on Quaristice are mysterious and eerie ones. They have atmospheres, definitely, but in my opinion they don't convey emotions - there is no sad or happy in those tracks.

[Guest theSun]

are you saying you only want bass on 1 and 3 and snares on 2 and 4? because that's pretty limiting. who cares if the structure isn't obvious? i can think of a lot of fantastic works of art (visual and audio) that are great, in part, because of their ambiguity and openness to interpretation. sometimes emotions are complex and you may be torn between happy and sad, sweet and sour, pain and happiness, there's no reason songs have to be straightforward.

 

i liken the whole "you need to listen to the tracks several times before you can begin to appreciate them" as reading philosophy. sure, you can read thus spoke zarathustra, but i can bet you didn't pick up on most of the wordplay or hidden themes the first time through. the second time, more is revealed to you because you're more familiar with it. there is no "right" way to interpret any ae song, just because it's not explicitly happy or explicitly emotional at all doesn't mean it is lacking in emotion or quality.

 

also, have you heard flutter?

[Berk]

are you saying you only want bass on 1 and 3 and snares on 2 and 4? because that's pretty limiting. who cares if the structure isn't obvious? i can think of a lot of fantastic works of art (visual and audio) that are great, in part, because of their ambiguity and openness to interpretation. sometimes emotions are complex and you may be torn between happy and sad, sweet and sour, pain and happiness, there's no reason songs have to be straightforward.

 

i liken the whole "you need to listen to the tracks several times before you can begin to appreciate them" as reading philosophy. sure, you can read thus spoke zarathustra, but i can bet you didn't pick up on most of the wordplay or hidden themes the first time through. the second time, more is revealed to you because you're more familiar with it.

 

also, have you heard flutter?

 

I'm not saying music needs to be simple in order to sound good.

 

When I started listening to drukqs, I at first didn't get what the hell was going on for the most part. But there was a certain appeal to it, it was really present, listening to the tracks was pleasant even when it sort of sounded like a mess to me. Listening to the complex AE songs isn't pleasant for me. That's because drukqs, in my opinion, is very structured and complex at the same time, I'm not able to discover any structure in all those complex AE songs (at least no structure that I enjoy). And I think I have given them enough listens. And I'm sure you'll agree with me that the emotions drukqs evokes aren't straightforward in the least. Also, when I thought I "got" some of the tracks on Draft and Untitled I suddenly found that they were very repetitive and annoying, and the melodies were very simple and silly at the first listen right away, I just don't see the appeal.

 

there is no "right" way to interpret any ae song, just because it's not explicitly happy or explicitly emotional at all doesn't mean it is lacking in emotion or quality.

 

That's what I said a few posts back, those AE songs are so abstract that I just can't make anything of them and therefore can't judge, I believe they cannot be rated by anyone, only the production can be judged I guess. Probably why I don't like them.

 

I haven't heard flutter though :)

[Guest ~ism]

where they made awesome melodies AND wicked beats - now it seems like they're just trying to see how abstract they can make songs before they lose all semblance of melody and rhythm.

 

 

every time you say this i'm pretty dumbfounded by how you think Confield and Draft are not very melodic albums with plenty of rhythm. Especially since you think they stopped being 'fun' after EP7, because i would definitely include that EP in same vein as confield and draft more so than LP5

 

have to agree with this more than i disagree. also find it very intriguing that you don't hear anything melodic in latter Ae output JR! Draft 7.30 is the only miss in my opinion...and Untilted was a little less melody infused (completely in fact!) being much more about rhythm and texture in my eyes (ears?) but Quaristice returns to a mix of beats and melody in equal or alternating measure.

[Berk]

@theSun:

 

I think the reason I kept listening and trying to understand drukqs was that I noticed the (glimpses of) emotions in the tracks on the first listen. It got better each time I gave it a spin, and the emotions it evoked for me became more complex. What I'm saying right here is drukqs is really complex, but the emotions are still fairly easy to perceive (in my opinion) and evolve when you listen to the music more and more, and that's the appeal of good music for me. I haven't discovered a single thing like this in those AE tracks. drukqs is like the best of both worlds, I guess the complex beats gives it the replay value and the melodies/emotions make it reasonably accessible or pleasant.

[Guest theSun]

drukqs, to me, was fairly straightforward. the first time i heard [most] of the tracks i was like, "yes, that is some serious awesome shit," with a ton of variations, fun tweaks and endless sounds dropping in and out of the tracks. i love the atmosphere on drukqs, but i don't think any of those songs are as interesting as pro radii or v-proc or tkakenran. druqks basically sounds to me like, if venetian snares was a fantastic songsmith, this is the shit he would make. crazy fucking madness surrounded by noise and pretty piano lines.

 

i guess i really want more originality, stuff that doesn't sound like anything else, that you can't conceive how it was created, but that still grooves to you. making music from non-music sounds is a good example, because "non-music sounds" is a subjective term. many people don't think beeps and boops are music sounds, but as we all know idm is built on a solid foundation of beeps and boops. your ears have to be trained to accept the sound of something not so rigid as putting the bass drum on beat 1.

 

flutter is off http://www.discogs.com/Autechre-Anti-EP/master/1315 listen closely to the beat

[Guest theSun]

also, a idm fan not into syncopation sounds more like a techno fan to me.:P

[Blir]

If you're going to get into a faggy debate about emotion in music. Then chew on this...

 

Emotions are complex.

 

If you don't find emotion in AE's music.

 

 

You are a simple minded dork.

 

 

With that said I'd like to note that I am light years ahead of all of you in terms of intellectual and emotional capacity. Have a nice day.

[Berk]

crazy fucking madness surrounded by noise and pretty piano lines.

 

 

 

it's a bit more than that mate! it's tasteful as hell, and confield is not imo, I guess it comes down to taste in the end.

 

still gotta hear Flutter, gonna look it up in a minute!

 

 

thanks Obel btw!

[Joyrex]

where they made awesome melodies AND wicked beats - now it seems like they're just trying to see how abstract they can make songs before they lose all semblance of melody and rhythm.

 

 

every time you say this i'm pretty dumbfounded by how you think Confield and Draft are not very melodic albums with plenty of rhythm. Especially since you think they stopped being 'fun' after EP7, because i would definitely include that EP in same vein as confield and draft more so than LP5

 

have to agree with this more than i disagree. also find it very intriguing that you don't hear anything melodic in latter Ae output JR! Draft 7.30 is the only miss in my opinion...and Untilted was a little less melody infused (completely in fact!) being much more about rhythm and texture in my eyes (ears?) but Quaristice returns to a mix of beats and melody in equal or alternating measure.

 

I dunno; I just haven't been able to enjoy AE's music since EP7, and the main thing I keep coming back to is the lack of melody in their songs. Let's do an example of what I think is 'good' AE versus 'souless' (aka without melody) AE:

 

Second Bad Vilbel (from Anvil Vapre):

 

Gantz Graf (from Gantz Graf EP):

 

For me, Gantz Graf is almost melody-free, and more a combination of static sounds and bleeps and bloops with a very slight hint of melody near the end, but never really developing, whereas SBV has a melody running through it, even though it too features the static sounds (but more in a coherent beat form).

[Blir]

 

Gantz Graf (from Gantz Graf EP):

 

For me, Gantz Graf is almost melody-free, and more a combination of static sounds and bleeps and bloops with a very slight hint of melody near the end, but never really developing, whereas SBV has a melody running through it, even though it too features the static sounds (but more in a coherent beat form).

 

Possible to love both obviously.

 

I think it depends on your view on sound on the whole. Personally I just love sound (not that you don't of course). Gantz Graf is like an aural orgasm to me, sort of. The way these harsh sounds have been twisted into this incredibly complex piece which does have a structure, albeit a chaotic one, is fascinating to me. Sure, it's not dancable or head noddish, but I just enjoy listening to it, which is what AE are about. If you don't get along with it then it's your loss in my view, and a damn shame too. But fuck it, there's no point sitting there trying to convince you it's good, it's personal preference at the end of the day. I've loved all of AE's output so far, you like the earlier stuff, some people like only the later stuff. Different strokes and all that.

[Dale]

Mainly, I look for emotive qualities in music, whether subtle or attention grabbing straight away, it doesn't matter. I would still stand by my view point that alot of Autechre's recent output still consists of melodies and structured recordings - but the thing I love about Sean and Rob's musicianship is the subtleness embedded into the tracks they create continously.. that's what keeps me coming to their music I suppose. I'd also argue that they have matured their sound over the years since Incunabula which is a good thing to a certain extent.

[mcbpete]

I dunno; I just haven't been able to enjoy AE's music since EP7, and the main thing I keep coming back to is the lack of melody in their songs.

Off the top of my head I can think of three pretty melodic post EP7 tracks

 

Confield - VI Scose Poise (actually, most of that album is pretty melodic, I have a soft spot for the gamalan bells of Parhelic Triangle, sounding like being dragged into some pagan sacrifice of something !)

Draft 7.30 - Surripere (One of the most cinematic openings to a track I think I've ever heard)

Quaristice - Notwo (100% ambient melody goodness)

[Berk]

yeah surripere is brilliant, like a film score

 

I like gantz graf as well, because it has structure I can see

[Blir]

i think it's down to listening ability as well.. there is such thing as taste obviously, but i think saying stuff saying things like you want 'wicked melodies AND wicked beats' kind of shows maybe you're not trying hard enough.

 

second bad vilbel is a really weird example of what you're trying to say i would've thought... there is literally NO melody in there whatsoever (as a tonal note pattern). i guess maybe if you want to call those two tuned percussive notes (that start at 0:46) and that clarion call bit in the middle (which is great obviously)... but essentially, that track is nothing BUT rhythm.

 

i think maybe you can't see the forest for the trees almost... whereas on anvil vapre you might have a few stacked rhythms, a bassline and a dubby chord (which again, there is nothing wrong with), on draft or confield there's this great teeming world of stuff going on on loads of different levels.

 

it's not THAT abstract rhythmically - generally all of their stuff is still in 4/4 even. it's still borne out of techno/electro to my ears... it's just that they're not kidding themselves that it's still 1994 and having a melody over a chaotic drum pattern is still 'new'. there's this really great quote i read with them in an interview where they described their stuff as being like the audio equivalent of wildstyle graffiti and that's exactly it. the whole this is literally about how far you can take things without it losing structure. in that style of graffiti obviously that's being on the cusp of legibility and with autechre it's making music that's definitely aware of of techno/electronic music's past, but constantly trying to take it new places. and not in a overly dry way either... in a fun way - of just purely being without the drag of needing to sound like something that's come before.

 

don't listen to their stuff in terms of 'this has a major key melody and it is happy' or 'this has a minor key melody and it is sad'. there's room for that in music and i'm a huge fan of traditionally beautiful melodies BUT i don't personally listen to autechre for things like that. for me it's more of a sonic landscape or weird perspective on things. there's no 'right way' to hear music but something like confield to my mind's eye a sort of microscopic organic landscape. spores flying of fungus and soil composting or something... chaotic, yes... but the way that something like a tree can be relatively prosaic on a macro level, but if you were able sense what was going on inside of that you'd realise it's actually insanely complicated. leaves drawing in thousands of calories of energy from sunlight in a day, millions of insects in the soil under it, the very soil under it being the result of billions of forms of organic decay...

 

there's another really good one that i think was in that wire interview last year when one of them said something like "when you're in a train admiring the countryside, do you analyze every blade of grass?". each of those little blades of grass makes up the landscape obviously, but there's also an overlying macro view of 'a field'. i think ae's stuff is like that - i think that that people who find their stuff too obtuse are listening the wrong way and focusing on each little bleep first going 'well what does that mean?'. if you had never seen a tree before and you went up with a microscope and looked at the roots you'd never get a sense of the 'tree'... get the microscope out afterwards...

 

play 3 times before listening

 

I'm so gay for you right now.

[MAXIMUS MISCHIEF]

i like the mastering on this album, i like how the sounds kind of flow and mold together. it suits the sounds.

[Berk]

i think it's down to listening ability as well.. there is such thing as taste obviously, but i think saying stuff saying things like you want 'wicked melodies AND wicked beats' kind of shows maybe you're not trying hard enough.

 

second bad vilbel is a really weird example of what you're trying to say i would've thought... there is literally NO melody in there whatsoever (as a tonal note pattern). i guess maybe if you want to call those two tuned percussive notes (that start at 0:46) and that clarion call bit in the middle (which is great obviously)... but essentially, that track is nothing BUT rhythm.

 

i think maybe you can't see the forest for the trees almost... whereas on anvil vapre you might have a few stacked rhythms, a bassline and a dubby chord (which again, there is nothing wrong with), on draft or confield there's this great teeming world of stuff going on on loads of different levels.

 

it's not THAT abstract rhythmically - generally all of their stuff is still in 4/4 even. it's still borne out of techno/electro to my ears... it's just that they're not kidding themselves that it's still 1994 and having a melody over a chaotic drum pattern is still 'new'. there's this really great quote i read with them in an interview where they described their stuff as being like the audio equivalent of wildstyle graffiti and that's exactly it. the whole this is literally about how far you can take things without it losing structure. in that style of graffiti obviously that's being on the cusp of legibility and with autechre it's making music that's definitely aware of of techno/electronic music's past, but constantly trying to take it new places. and not in a overly dry way either... in a fun way - of just purely being without the drag of needing to sound like something that's come before.

 

don't listen to their stuff in terms of 'this has a major key melody and it is happy' or 'this has a minor key melody and it is sad'. there's room for that in music and i'm a huge fan of traditionally beautiful melodies BUT i don't personally listen to autechre for things like that. for me it's more of a sonic landscape or weird perspective on things. there's no 'right way' to hear music but something like confield to my mind's eye a sort of microscopic organic landscape. spores flying of fungus and soil composting or something... chaotic, yes... but the way that something like a tree can be relatively prosaic on a macro level, but if you were able sense what was going on inside of that you'd realise it's actually insanely complicated. leaves drawing in thousands of calories of energy from sunlight in a day, millions of insects in the soil under it, the very soil under it being the result of billions of forms of organic decay...

 

there's another really good one that i think was in that wire interview last year when one of them said something like "when you're in a train admiring the countryside, do you analyze every blade of grass?". each of those little blades of grass makes up the landscape obviously, but there's also an overlying macro view of 'a field'. i think ae's stuff is like that - i think that that people who find their stuff too obtuse are listening the wrong way and focusing on each little bleep first going 'well what does that mean?'. if you had never seen a tree before and you went up with a microscope and looked at the roots you'd never get a sense of the 'tree'... get the microscope out afterwards...

 

play 3 times before listening

 

If you didn't sound so condescending I would take this advice a bit more seriously.

[Berk]

I also don't like the harsh timbres of most recent AE songs, so if I would have 'discovered' what is so genius about them like some people state, I'd still be annoyed every time I listened to the tracks because of the timbres.

 

V-Proc sounds offbeat, Surripere sounds offbeat when the melody stops, VI Scose Poise or whatever has quite a good melody but the beat is really obtrusive and gets in the way. I just don't like them, I can't see how I would like them if I gave them more listens.

 

I guess this is real Intelligent Dance Music and my listening ability is not adequate!

 

 

jesus christ editing option disappearing after 2 minutes is quite annoying btw

[Guest somebloke]

I really like the mastering on perlence, the plc (particularly the quadrange version) and Fol4.  The whole CD sounds far more raw than their others, which is probably just a product of the way it was made.  I haven't given Quaristice anywhere near as much attention as the other CDs, but it is most definately a different beast to the others.

 

Can I just say as well that Gantz Graf has to be one of their more beautiful songs - the melody is kind of urgent, and the way it is mixed with the rest of the song (which is pretty hugely dissonant) is just awesome  (I actually hate describing 'emotions' in songs, you just end up sounding a bit... you know).  And the rhythm work is just kick arse (as per usual).  I actually find that pretty much all of the elements work together to form a single melodic line - you just have to follow it as it jumps between the different 'instruments'.