Quaristice.. Only one complaint

[Berk]

I kind of see what you mean, it could well be that I've never been in the same context yet in life so to speak. Most tracks I've listened to grew on me right away, even if slowly perhaps, but newer AE hasn't so far.

Travelling, reading and simply experiencing stuff always changes the way I look at things and listen to music. I'm off to Croatia for a couple of weeks soon, maybe I need to put some newer Autechre on my MP3 player and see how it goes when I listen to it whilst travelling there :)

 

Apologies for calling your post condescending dude, I sort of read the post like it was a bit patronizing but it obviously wasn't your intent as you explained, cheers!

[xox]

I'm off to Croatia for a couple of weeks soon, maybe I need to put some newer Autechre on my MP3 player and see how it goes when I listen to it whilst travelling there

 

 

Quaristice sounds fine here in Croatia...but in winter.

Although...Altibzz + sea + summer =

[Guest nene multiple assgasms]

I think for the most part people not liking later autechre has more to do with rhythm than melody. some people can't handle too much syncopation or an elastic concept of the beat. I imagine these people would have trouble with drummers such as tony williams or sunny murray as well.

[markedone]

Because this thread has some interesting discussion going on, I want to ask Joyrex, Berk and others

 

What do you think of their live material since around Confield? The technical, beat driven other side of Autechre that doesn't necessarily get back to the "melodic days" as you wish but is less abstract than the CD releases you aren't into.

 

So you don't have to download a whole set, MCR Quarter the bonus track off Confield should do for a listen:

This track straight up mooooveesss me

[Guest phaelam]

i like.

i also REALLY enjoyed the the set they played for the Q tour.

that would make a great album.

[Sam]

I think for the most part people not liking later autechre has more to do with rhythm than melody. some people can't handle too much syncopation or an elastic concept of the beat. I imagine these people would have trouble with drummers such as tony williams or sunny murray as well.

 

Yes! Fair play, the Tony comparison really works. I've thought that many a time when listening to AE tracks....."I've heard Tony or Vinnie do something exactly like that". I've always wondered what exactly the story is with the beats in the intro to the latter Untilted sets. Always a headfuck.....awesome cool either way.

[Guest theSun]

if something in AE sounds "off time" then you aren't listening properly. tap your foot. once you can find the rhythm in bine there should be no more problems.

 

it is mostly in 4/4, or sometimes 3/4, rarely does Ae pull some vsnares shit and write in 7 or 11, so it's fairly easy to bob your head to once you're acquainted with the songs.

[awepittance]

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

 

 

are you kidding?

 

no i'm not, EP7 imo is their first foray into very dark abstract music. IT has a lot of the same sound palette as LP5 (fm synth galore) but it has a completely different compositional style.

[awepittance]

 

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).

 

the melodies in gantz graf are very quiet and stacatto compared to a lot of previous AE melodic work, but i find the melodies in it beautiful and very emotional. Is this what you mean by 'melody-free'? if so then i think you just prefer your melody mixed in the front and center of a mix vs obscured underneath other sounds, which i will agree AE does quite frequently post EP7. but i would just interpret this as a challenge to face and eventually it think you will appreciate their newer music a lot.

[Dale]

I gave a co-worker my copy of Quaristice for him to listen to. He said he liked electronic music, so I thought to myself I'll give him a bit of a challenge with Quaristice. Anyway a week went by, he didn't say a word to me in the office about his review of the album. After the second week he had it, he came up to him and said he couldn't understand it. I asked for it back from him.

[Guest theSun]

After the second week he had it, he came up to him and said he couldn't understand it.

 

wow that must have been a thorough mind fuck if he lost his sense of self.

[awepittance]

I gave a co-worker my copy of Quaristice for him to listen to. He said he liked electronic music, so I thought to myself I'll give him a bit of a challenge with Quaristice. Anyway a week went by, he didn't say a word to me in the office about his review of the album. After the second week he had it, he came up to him and said he couldn't understand it. I asked for it back from him.

 

i did something similar to a raver girl in highschool, she said 'i love noisey techno' so i thought like an IDIOT that she actually meant what she said. So i have her two choices, the two most cutting edge electronic albums of the momennt, The Richard D James Album and Tri Repeate ++. She came back a week later singing to me the milkman song from RDJ said she loved it, i asked her about autechre and she told me she needed to hold onto it for a little longer to try and figure it out. and of course you know the end of the story.... she couldn't and it was quickly returned to me.

[modey]

i met a girl once who asked me where i got my autechre badge from. sadly i didn't get to court her and never saw her again after that night!

 

 

 

ps. you'd have to be an absolute idiot if you can't hear at least a trace of melody in recent autechre.

[Joyrex]

i met a girl once who asked me where i got my autechre badge from. sadly i didn't get to court her and never saw her again after that night!

 

 

 

ps. you'd have to be an absolute idiot if you can hear at least a trace of melody in recent autechre.

 

fixt

[awepittance]

i met a girl once who asked me where i got my autechre badge from. sadly i didn't get to court her and never saw her again after that night!

 

 

 

ps. you'd have to be an absolute idiot if you can hear at least a trace of melody in recent autechre.

 

fixt

 

really? joyrex come on you surely can hear at least the obscured lesser volume melodies in AE tracks. i know you're probably just joking but ....

[Guest theSun]

i wish i could meet someone IRL that really liked all era ae. so far everyone i talk to about them is joyrex :(

[Joyrex]

i met a girl once who asked me where i got my autechre badge from. sadly i didn't get to court her and never saw her again after that night!

 

 

 

ps. you'd have to be an absolute idiot if you can hear at least a trace of melody in recent autechre.

 

fixt

 

really? joyrex come on you surely can hear at least the obscured lesser volume melodies in AE tracks. i know you're probably just joking but ....

 

Sort of joking, but honestly, 99% of post EP7 AE I have to hunt high and low for melodies and beats that make sense. Just me, I guess.

 

i wish i could meet someone IRL that really liked all era ae. so far everyone i talk to about them is joyrex :(

 

Probably because I'm oh, I dunno, RIGHT? I mean, it's just an opinion, but a lot of people seem to hold it as well.

[Guest theSun]

dunno man, seems like lazy people to me. i don't consider music as just something to listen to to occupy my mind, sure a lot of music is that to me, but it's like comparing reading nietzsche to reading david sedaris. one is mindless fun, the other is difficult but extremely rewarding.

[Guest hahathhat]

complaint: needs more tri repeatae

[sweepstakes]

i wish i could meet someone IRL that really liked all era ae. so far everyone i talk to about them is joyrex :(

 

Probably because I'm oh, I dunno, RIGHT? I mean, it's just an opinion, but a lot of people seem to hold it as well.

 

I think most people, even those with "weird" taste, get their pleasure from art that is unambiguous and immediately approachable for them. To enjoy Autechre, I think you have to enjoy being surrounded, overwhelmed even, by details that are mostly confusing or mysterious, and figuring out the meaning of those details for yourself, potentially over a long period of time. It's like a place, like walking through the busiest parts of Tokyo. You have to be comfortable with the fact that you will almost certainly never fully understand the meaning and that of the parts you do understand, many or most are impossible to perceive simultaneously. The reward is that you can appreciate such a work thousands of times and experience new emotions, sensations, and ideas every single time.

 

The listening experience, for me and probably most other people who like post-LP5 Autechre, has a drug-like effect that no other type of music I can think of can evoke, at least not to that degree. But it requires a willingness to devote that kind of time and attention to it, and if you just think it sounds like shit and write it off the first time around, then of course you won't feel it.

 

But as far as their newer stuff having no semblance of melody that's horseshit. Some of the tracks bury it pretty deep and very few of them don't seem to have any at all, at least not an intentional one. But that's the exception and not the rule.

 

And of course the live sets have been pretty bangin' for the most part.

[Joyrex]

i wish i could meet someone IRL that really liked all era ae. so far everyone i talk to about them is joyrex :(

 

Probably because I'm oh, I dunno, RIGHT? I mean, it's just an opinion, but a lot of people seem to hold it as well.

 

I think most people, even those with "weird" taste, get their pleasure from art that is unambiguous and immediately approachable for them. To enjoy Autechre, I think you have to enjoy being surrounded, overwhelmed even, by details that are mostly confusing or mysterious, and figuring out the meaning of those details for yourself, potentially over a long period of time. It's like a place, like walking through the busiest parts of Tokyo. You have to be comfortable with the fact that you will almost certainly never fully understand the meaning and that of the parts you do understand, many or most are impossible to perceive simultaneously. The reward is that you can appreciate such a work thousands of times and experience new emotions, sensations, and ideas every single time.

 

The listening experience, for me and probably most other people who like post-LP5 Autechre, has a drug-like effect that no other type of music I can think of can evoke, at least not to that degree. But it requires a willingness to devote that kind of time and attention to it, and if you just think it sounds like shit and write it off the first time around, then of course you won't feel it.

 

But as far as their newer stuff having no semblance of melody that's horseshit. Some of the tracks bury it pretty deep and very few of them don't seem to have any at all, at least not an intentional one. But that's the exception and not the rule.

 

And of course the live sets have been pretty bangin' for the most part.

 

OK, give us some examples of their more recent material that has semblance of melody. Extra points for you if you use the Bleep player so us lazy sods can hear what you're talking about

[Guest theSun]

what do you mean by melody? chords? some fluttery synth line? what makes a melody a melody? are tuned percussion hits considered melody? why/why not?

 

for me, the point of ae lately has been to blur lines common throughout music. where does rhythm stop being rhythm and start being part of the melody? it can be both, correct? same goes for a synth line arpeggiated or cut up in some semblance of a pattern. melody or beat? what about lead drums?

 

however, all this discourse is of course meaningless. as we struggle to define what ae have produced in the past 10 years they're always just going to say they made it because it sounds cool or something. they aren't terribly proficient in traditional music theory, their stuff is just meant to be taken as it is. there are things hidden in the songs that reveal themselves with each new listen, and as our brains get a better grasp of where all these sounds fall in line with the groove, we can begin to appreciate the aural landscape rob and sean have created.

 

assuming i know what you (joyrex) mean by melody, i'd say there's a pretty neat if elementary melody in LCC, xylin room is cute, vi scose poise, pen expers, pretty much every track off confield now that i think of it. off quaristice, a few of the ambient tracks could be considered just a melody. i like simmm, bnc castl, plyPhon, theswere, chenc9 and outh9x. perlence too, but i detest that song so i refuse to mention it.

[modey]

OK, give us some examples of their more recent material that has semblance of melody. Extra points for you if you use the Bleep player so us lazy sods can hear what you're talking about

 

once the bassline comes in, man, it's like pow!

 

mostly at the end, but there are some melodies buried underneath the distorted drums in the first half.

 

cmon man! this is one of the prettiest 'new era' autechre tracks!

 

if you can't hear melodies in this, then there's no hope.

 

there are some really gorgeous chords and melodies underneath the big clicky drums. try about a third of the way in.

 

 

[Joyrex]

OK, give us some examples of their more recent material that has semblance of melody. Extra points for you if you use the Bleep player so us lazy sods can hear what you're talking about

 

once the bassline comes in, man, it's like pow!

 

mostly at the end, but there are some melodies buried underneath the distorted drums in the first half.

 

cmon man! this is one of the prettiest 'new era' autechre tracks!

 

if you can't hear melodies in this, then there's no hope.

 

there are some really gorgeous chords and melodies underneath the big clicky drums. try about a third of the way in.

 

 

 

All excellent examples, and yes, there are some melodies... HIDDEN UNDER ALL THE PRETENTIOUS DSP FUCKERY. I revise my statement - their recent output is not souless non-melodic music, but rather they choose to bury any semblance of structure and melody under sounds my old 80's era game console would make if I didn't blow the cartridge out before inserting it.

[sweepstakes]

All excellent examples, and yes, there are some melodies... HIDDEN UNDER ALL THE PRETENTIOUS DSP FUCKERY. I revise my statement - their recent output is not souless non-melodic music, but rather they choose to bury any semblance of structure and melody under sounds my old 80's era game console would make if I didn't blow the cartridge out before inserting it.

 

And the "DSP fuckery" is just as likely to be a crusty old beatbox through an old Boss RSD-10 delay pedal with some novel signal patched into its pitch input. Sure, it's unnecessary, but it adds extra textural detail, and even melodies/harmonies and rhythms. What's wrong with that?

 

What makes that pretentious? I don't see or hear the pretense. The only thing they claim to do is to trust their instincts, indulge themselves, and try to coax sounds out of machines that they weren't intended to do.

 

sounds my old 80's era game console would make if I didn't blow the cartridge out before inserting it.

 

See, I think this is actually something they might try. But if it sounds cool, who cares how you did it? I think this is a lot more sincere than, for an opposite example, making crappy punk on a gameboy, and then pressing "START" on it, and dancing around onstage as if you were doing something to control the playback. Now that's pretty pretentious, right?