Autechre Chiastic Slide

[splesh]

It's not really my favourite, but I have to give major respects to it because of how it came between LP5 and Confield.. and all three of those albums are solid as hell.

[Guest Calx Sherbet]

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

 

the whole KABWUM BWUM BWUMMMMMMM, kchew chew chw is one of my favorite autechre moments, i hope people understand what i mean when i spell that out lol. that must look retarded

 

It's not really my favourite, but I have to give major respects to it because of how it came between LP5 and Confield.. and all three of those albums are solid as hell.

 

i'd say i've listned to chiastic the most, with confield in 2nd place

 

wait a second.....between LP5 and confield...?

Edited March 7, 2010 by Calx Sherbet

[thehauntingsoul]

Cichli is absolutely mind-blowing. It's choc full of all these little noises that enhance an already thundering, pounding beat. Every clunk seemed unexpected when I first heard it, but now I can clap along to it. The melody is so beautiful. I've tried to re-create it in a MIDI, but it's tricky. At the ending.. just.. wow. It suddenly transits from utter pandemonium into a delicate coral, and somehow Ae manage to do this perfectly. It's up there with some of the most emotional musical moments ever conceived, along with the best BoC moments.

 

Another great track is Pule, the underrated masterpiece. It has a perfect, continuous, non-repetitive melody which sets the tone for a wonderfully rich landscape, a feeling which is so hard to describe. Like you are at the height of natural beauty, at a swamp teeming with life, surrounded by the smell of prehistoric nutrients. You can sit down and watch the sunset painted across a misty sky. Then we reach the ending, where you and all your fellow creatures can listen to the communal lullaby and drift off to sleep. You almost cry at the very idea of such beauty. And then...BANG GOES NUANE!

Yeah I agree with everything you've said here. I can play the Cichli melody in time on my midi keyboard though.

[Guest theSun]

cichli is in 5/4. feels like a 6 then a 4 to me but you could say 5/4.

 

one of the first albums i really fell in love with. for some reason i only had cipater, cichli and tewe on mp3 for a while before i got the whole ablum, but shit the whole thing is just awesome. this is one of the many that works best all the way through.

[Guest Seginustemple]

As for the post with all the imagery, which I loved, I personally find "pule" reminds me of a swamp or pond.. the synths sound a bit froggy to me.

 

Same. That one always comes across as very damp and festering, sober or otherwise.

[splesh]

k I was wrong about the chronology but it's still from a good transitional period

[thehauntingsoul]

cichli is in 5/4. feels like a 6 then a 4 to me but you could say 5/4.

 

one of the first albums i really fell in love with. for some reason i only had cipater, cichli and tewe on mp3 for a while before i got the whole ablum, but shit the whole thing is just awesome. this is one of the many that works best all the way through.

We need more offbeat time sigs from Ae. It's been a while since something really solidly structured in a sig like 5/4 or 7/4 has come out of these guys. Well I could be wrong about that, but keep in mind that most of their recent staggeringly abstract and difficult rhythms have still been in 4/4. Even IV VV IV VV VIII is 4/4. Some of the Quaristice stuff dabbled in 3/4 or something similar as far as I remember but on Oversteps the only really non 4/4 time sig is d-sho qub which is in 4/5 iirc.

[thehauntingsoul]

you know what I mean.

 

 

4 beats per bar, 5 bars per measure

also someone tell me if I fucked up there

I mean with the wording, I know the timing is 4/5

 

 

 

 

Edited March 8, 2010 by thehauntingsoul

[Guest Greg Reason]

To me Chiastic is the first truly brilliant ae album. And I think it's worlds better than LP5.

[Lianne]

To me Chiastic is the first truly brilliant ae album. And I think it's worlds better than LP5.

 

I absolutely agree with this.

 

I enjoy many moments of the first three albums, and the E.Ps from the same period even more, but Chiastic Slide was the first I heard from them that totally satisfied me. I find the first three either a bit cheesy or too repetitive in places (though they're still great, and Clipper is a masterpiece ) - but somehow the repetition in Chiastic works a whole lot better, and its just got more boldness and presence to it. It's beautiful, intricate and fragile, but it's also full of hard-hitting, industrial crunch. It really tells a story and it's so visual.

 

LP5 is a very smart record, and I can't believe they were doing that kind of stuff in 1998, but I just find Chiastic Slide a much easier listen, as it's generally more obviously atmospheric, and it seems warmer and far less brittle than LP5. I know LP5 is supposed to sound super digital and brittle and FM-ridden or whatever, but my ears just prefer Chiastic's bit-crushed rusty machinery to Lp5's super sharp shards of hi-fi year 2050 computer stuff.

Edited March 8, 2010 by Lianne

[TwiddleBot]

i find lp5 pretty brilliant (corc, arch carrier..just great). i think i just 'got it' a lot quicker than their other releases and hence don't feel the need to play it as often. it was the same for me with draft. always a treat to play now and then though.

 

i find chiastic slide, with it's slow, evolving repetitive textures almost hypnotic, lp5 is a very different kind of feel, it's not a put my feet up and close my eyes kind of album. it is however particularly good for road trips

[Guest Abuse]

I never understood that Pule track. One of my least favourite Ae albums but i'll have to give it another listen soon.

Edited March 8, 2010 by Abuse

[six]

Not only my favorite ae album but probably my favorite album ever. The timbre is amazing and it's one of their grooviest albums ever. It is the most visual album I've ever heard, bringing to mind abandoned factories with clunky machines still running but slowly breaking down. For some reason I always think of the outside levels in Doom II when I hear this.

[Guest theSun]

I never understood that Pule track. One of my least favourite Ae albums but i'll have to give it another listen soon.

 

i really started digging this track when i put a click in my head to it. just tap your foot and trust it, it will line up all the time. i think this is just like one of the slip-esque lines that isn't really played in a specific time sig and the loop is repeated. i srsly <3 this track though, i love the percussive smacks that accompany the main line. plus it's a great palette cleanser between the awfully industrial progression of calbruc/recury and nuane.

 

i think chiastic slide is ae demonstrating everything that they were really fucking ace at up til that point. i put this album on a similar level as cichli suite (obv) and envane just for assumed intent of the albums. i think all 3 are early ae at their best. there's not really as much progression in songs (cipater obvious contradiction) as other albums but the grooves they lay down are out of this world, especially considering it was released 13 years ago now. as i said regarding ep7, they started to turn away from layered drum machine/synth songs that were the blueprint of much of their early work and with lp5 then ep7 they started experimenting more heavily with production techniques leading to songs like drane2, fold4wrap5 and vose in to name a few.

 

also i love the triplets scattered through the line in pule. listening to it now, this track reeks of pre-oversteps oversteps-feel.

[TwiddleBot]

same, actually the last three tracks on chiastic slide were probably my top favorite autechre tracks for a long time

 

pule. just love the melodies, phrasing, sounds.. the way it so gently winds down.. the lush trancy loops in the background.. yum

[lumpenprol]

this is my favorite ae album. I think it represents the perfect balance between accessible and off-putting ae. It's its own little ecosystem. Lovely, and nuane is the perfect closer.

[Lianne]

Does anyone else think Chiastic Slide also sounds like it had the most work put into it out of all the albums Ae has released so far? I'm not saying that the longer something takes to construct, the better it is - and I know it's impossible to tell from the listener's side, really ... but do any of you musicians here agree?

 

Actually, this or Draft 7.30 sound like the most anally worked at albums.

[Guest Calx Sherbet]

it's kinda like crunchy white snow

[Guest Greg Reason]

Does anyone else think Chiastic Slide also sounds like it had the most work put into it out of all the albums Ae has released so far? I'm not saying that the longer something takes to construct, the better it is - and I know it's impossible to tell from the listener's side, really ... but do any of you musicians here agree?

 

Actually, this or Draft 7.30 sound like the most anally worked at albums.

 

As a producer, Draft definitely sounds like it had the most work of all of their records. And while I agree that doesn't necessarily guarantee that maximal work creates the best result, I think in the case of Draft it happened to coincide with a period of utterly inspired creativity and good material to apply that focus and energy to.

 

Chiastic Slide definitely sounds like a lot of work though. Most ae records do. I don't think they've issued too much since '95 that sounds terribly quick/easy to make. There's been the odd piece here and there but sometimes spare is necessary (like on outh9x, etc)

[Guest theSun]

don't get me started on outh9x

 

marvelous

[TwiddleBot]

agreed, none of those albums sound easy to make. i can't imagine the work that went into untilted, so much material in part of their career, especially when you hear the live stuff. also as a musician i find it kind of a strange question.. i mean it takes a lifetime to develop your skills, so how long it takes you to make something is no real indication of how -difficult- it is to make. it's more relative to your skills and the amount of practice you have put into your art/technique

[Guest Greg Reason]

Yeah and sometimes things just fall into place. You get on a roll and you can achieve more in two days than you did in two months! There's really no accounting for this side of things, it's sort of not up to us in a way. Skill level and practice etc certainly have their uses but it's really as if we're waiting on the right moment to solidify our creative energies into something tangible.

[Guest theSun]

which is why it's fucking amazing that ae are still able to conjure up interesting records 20 years later!

 

that is rare talent.

[Guest username7410]

I find the crunchy, dirty aesthetic people seem to like about Chiastic Slide to be the thing that keeps me from liking it as much as Autechre's other releases. To me it dates the material somewhat. I guess without context of knowing when it was released I wouldn't have the hang-up. But it sounds like something made in the late 90's, which is off putting for me. I have the same issue with Amber, it sounds dated.

 

I love the Envane EP and Cichli Suite EP, but I just can't really love Chiastic Slide as a whole.

Edited March 25, 2010 by username7410

[Guest kelvanE]

one of my favorites Ae albums. Chiastic Slide, Confield, Amber, and Oversteps

 

Untilted, LP5, and EP7 all tie on the second tier for great albums...

 

Draft 7.30, and Quaristice on the third tier, although there are great sounds in both (it's hard to call any Ae album poor).

Edited March 26, 2010 by kelvanE