Autechre Chiastic Slide

[Guest Turncoat Indian]

I'm just listening to this for the first time in like ONE WEEK and it just keeps growing on me. I mean, I loved it the first time, but now after about 100 more relistens I'm actually quite disturbed by my attachment to it. The first three tracks and last three especially. The only track I don't think is absolutely amazing is Hub. I seriously think this is their best album (imo, obv) and probably most influential - as soon as I listen to Matmos or any of the other decent electronic music contemporaries, I think CHIASTIC SLIDE straight away.

 

Does anyone else love this album more than is probably healthy?

 

[Guest Turncoat Indian]

Actually, Im listening to that Hub right now and it is awesome - subtlely awesome.

[six]

This was the first album that REALLY got me into Autechre, like an unhealthy amount. I think LP5 is my favorite overall but Chiastic Slide will always have a special place in my heart. I still have never heard an album anything like it.

 

The first 4 tracks are flawless, punishing beats with some of the best melodies ae have ever done. The rest of the album I didn't like as much initially, but grew on me. Hub is indeed a great track. The only track that I sometimes skip is Pule, it's a nice track, but goes on a little too long to stay interesting. But then Nuane drops and blows that shit out of the water.

 

A classic album, probably ae's most underrated, the transitionary middle child between Tri Rep (good but sounding dated now) and LP5 (still awesome).

[mcbpete]

It's really strange. I've found this the ONLY autechre album or EP that I really can't get into. I love the track Tewe, but I find all the other tracks either kinda irritating, over-repetitive or unpleasantly atonal (and usually I appreciate Ae's atonal style tracks). It's strange as I know loads of people see this album as their favourite but apart from Tewe I really don't like it.

[six]

It's really strange. I've found this the ONLY autechre album or EP that I really can't get into. I love the track Tewe, but I find all the other tracks either kinda irritating, over-repetitive or unpleasantly atonal (and usually I appreciate Ae's atonal style tracks). It's strange as I know loads of people see this album as their favourite but apart from Tewe I really don't like it.

 

You don't even like Cipater? That's one of my fav Autechre songs ever.

[mcbpete]

I kinda like the rhythm shift at around 4:00 with the hip-hoppish kinda vibe, but I'm not really a fan of the track.

 

 

My favourite Ae track of all time is Arch Carrier (LP5), but I think I'm the only one on here that thinks that. Just amazing chord progression and then when the orchestra-string like synth fades in it's just pure sex, fantastic stuff.

Edited April 6, 2006 by mcbpete

[six]

I love Arch Carrier, pretty much all of LP5 is fantastic

[Guest fox]

yeah this album is far and away my favorite of theirs. i put this, envane, keynell and the keynell mixes in a special category. ae at their finest.

[six]

Envane is ridiculously good, I remember the first time I "got" it and it still blows me away.

[not_vikur]

yeah envane is just perfect. twee weet tewe wete.. tewe is my favourite from this one tho.

[Guest mushroom]

Arch Carrier is my favorite ae track, so you're not alone on that.

 

I never really gave this album a fair shake, so I should get on that right about now.

[Guest contrapunctus]

This along with Envane, and Cichli Suite, are aesthetically ideal to me, Autechre being very digital and complex, yet very lush and melodic at the same time. Music that covers the whole gamut, beautiful.

[ishishiba]

chiastic slide is easily my fave Ae album. i still get goosebumps half way through cipater when the beat signature changes and those lush keys come in. awesome. plus nuane is an absolute crunchfest delight. plus, the best artwork of all their releases, i think.

[Guest contrapunctus]

i still get goosebumps half way through cipater when the beat signature changes and those lush keys come in.

Yeah! :omg:

[Guest Audiophile]

This was also my starting point for AE, along with Tri. Great distortions on all the tracks.

[springymajig]

I think it's their most solid release, I think the only miss is Recury... alot of people don't like Hub (I quite like it though) either way, for most people there's only one track that doesn't quite do it for them. And even Recury I think is at least 'good'... it's just not nearly as good as the rest of the album.

 

Anyway... that's besides the point...

 

I do like LP5 a bit more because, although I think it has a few more low points, overall it has more emotional impact.... it's their saddest and most disturbing album. Plus I've owned it for longer... it was the 3rd or 4th CD I ever owned, so it has nostalgic value for me personally.

 

But Chiastic Slide is defenitely second best for me... or first equal :)

[Guest DrumNBassJerk]

FACT: First electronic music release I ever owned.

[Guest ~ism]

still can't really get into CS. Probably my least favourite LP behind Draft 7.30.

 

Just can't quite place what they were doing at that time, and where it sits between Tri Rep and LP5. Cichli is the only track I cane regularly, but for album listening time, I usually find myself going for Amber, Tri Rep, LP5, Confield or Untilted...for some reason I find CS (and Draft) a little headless, directionless even.

 

I'm sure it will come one day, but since buying the CD it has spent more time on the shelf than any of the other 7 albums.

 

 

PS - Arch Carrier is one of my faves too Pete. A late fav from LP5 in fact, it used to be Acroyear2 and Vose In.

[mcbpete]

Just can't quite place what they were doing at that time, and where it sits between Tri Rep and LP5. Cichli is the only track I cane regularly, but for album listening time, I usually find myself going for Amber, Tri Rep, LP5, Confield or Untilted...for some reason I find CS (and Draft) a little headless, directionless even.

Yeah, ditto man. I find a similar reaction for me with the Cicli Suite EP as well (I've never even picked it up, it's the only [readily available] Ae release I don't own) the tracks just seem overlong and kinda irritating almost.

[six]

I think it's interesting how every ae fan likes vastly different stuff.

 

For me, the most interesting period was Envane through EP7, every one of those releases is gold for me.

I think Incunabula and Tri Rep are among their least interesting material, despite all the praise that they get (although I do love Amber). Confield grew on me but I'm still lost when it comes to Draft.

[spptrl alt del]

chiastic slide hasn't stuck with me the way other ae albums have. i haven't spent much time with it yet, but it seemed too solid (refined) and banging (solid) to remain interesting. just a first impression though. i imagine it would be a good starting point for a newcomer

[Guest Asymptote]

I would say Chiastic Slide is my favorite AE LP. The atmosphere presented on it is really unique for autechre, instead of a sleek, fururistic machine feel of all their albums, this one is dirty, oily, and rusty, yet still grand and complex. And I love it. (also note that my favorite of all AE is Garbage, which i feel has a very unique sound and atmosphere as well) Because of the unique atmosphere, to me it is their most "visual" album, it is able to paint quite vivid pictures in the mind, just like any AE album of course, but even moreso. The first 3 tracks bring to mind a grim, vast junkyard under grey skies... Rettic AC brings some seriously thick fog to the image, and just sounds awesome. As for Chicli, what more could be said about the beautiful melody of this track? This one is the spot of happiness on the album and manages to paint some coloful lights in the night. Then it fades into Hub, which is one of AE's most underrated tracks imo, i think it might be my favorite... This song places me in an old, abandoned warehouse filled with all sorts of rusty, run down, and some half functioning machines (think the scene in Star Wars where C3-PO is in the Jawa's Sandcrawler), the whole place lighted only by the eerie orange glow of the polluted sky outside leaking in through the stained, dirty windows. Calbruc and Recury continue these images, but with more activity.... Recury sounds like a massive factory of old, rusted, robots working yet not really making or accomplishing anything, and the amount of machinery grows and grows and grows until it seems like the entire enviroment is going to collapse. Pule is a bit of a weak spot I'll admit, it's a nice little track but it is a bit overlong and I'm having trouble placing specific images to it. Nuane on the other hand, another track where nothing else needs to be said about it... the machines here are sneaky, even angry sounding, but it fades away into static, a perfect sound to end this collection on.

 

So yeah, I think I really like this album. I can place vivid images and atmospheres to just about every song here. My main problem with LP5 is that much of it I cannot place any atmosphere/image to, tracks like Acroyear2, 777, Vose In, Corc, etc... just seem too sterile. I would say these songs are more overlong than any on CS, where most people would say the opposite.... it's just that to me CS earns a right to have repetitive songs because they succeed so well in their atmosphere.

[six]

Interesting imagery, I agree this is ae's most visual album

 

I always wanted to see someone make a feature length animation with this as the score, it could be most excellent in the right hands

[Franciscus]

Yes, I think this is one of their best, together with Confield (and Untilted comes close, with Tri Repetae).

 

It's really different, it creates it's own life, story and living. I always think of it as something mechanical, in a large factory

[ishishiba]

speaking of chiastic slide/visual images........ does anyone have a good image of the cover of this most rad album? just thinking that would make a kick-ass desktop wallpaper, and im in the mood for a change.