Autechre Tri Repetae

[vamos scorcho]

I think this is my favorite Autechre album.

 

It's a strange feeling, because this was the first AE record I heard. I was like 10 years old and I listened to "Dael" after downloading it and "Clipper" on Napster. I didn't like it at the time [i would have preferred to listen to the Power Pill remix over and over. and the Mortal Kombat theme].

 

A few years later, as a teen, I discovered Confield. And I think that was when I REALLY started to obsess over this group. All along I would return to Tri Repetae, but I found it lacking and dull in comparison with most of their other work. I mean, I liked it - I liked ALL Autechre to some degree. But it wasn't as fun to listen to for me as some of their other albums.

 

Recently though... something clicked. I've discovered the atmosphere on this album - it's unparalleled in all of their work. The depth inside of the music is somehow further...deeper. While the technical elements of the sound are not as interesting perhaps as they will get later on... the feeling is like a gigantic trench. When you're listening to "Stud," your mind just goes deeper into a feeling of nothingness.

 

I think Amber is very similar in approach, but somehow they went 'all the way' with Tri Repetae. To infinity and beyond.

 

The dissociative effect of the music is wonderful.

[QBLA]

This was my favorite AE for a while during the late 90s and early 00s. it was like the mid point of their ambient techno and the experimentalism of what was to come.

[Capsaicin]

Dael is such a monstrous song. In a great way, like a huge metallic beast eating and stomping everything in its path with no sense of reason or order.

 

But maybe with a little less eating and stomping and more just moving around robotically.

[vamos scorcho]

"C/Pach" is a banger. One of their best head nodder beats.

[vamos scorcho]

I find it weird that "Stud" isn't a more widely loved AE track. It's extremely hypnotic. The melody is so perfect as well. It's just an odd, trance inducing piece of music.

 

"Clipper" is a masterpiece, a defining moment for AE.

 

"Rsdio" is underrated.

 

 

 

I think the reason I underrated this album is that I'm not fond of the melody in "Leterel." Never really have been.

[sweepstakes]

It's a solid album although it's just about empty of emotional resonance for me. Really tasty, fat, juicy textures throughout though.

 

(Indulgent synopses of my favorite tracks)..."Clipper" is so warm and bright and big like sunshine on a snow-covered mountainside. "Rotar" is so cold and weird but geometric and funky like the surface of the moon. "Eutow" is a pretty awesome take on Detroit electro, again with those whale-sized pads. "C/Pach" is funky as hell, somehow it's more funky for its weird textures. "Overand" is probably the first genuinely creepy Autechre track, some of the colors and moods from this track resurfaced in Draft 7.30. "Rsdio" is a nice closer too, I love how wet it sounds. Again weird but organic textures.

 

For some reason a few years ago I'd always want to listen to it when I went to Couer d'Alene, Idaho. And then I'd usually want to listen to A Tribe Called Quest's Midnight Marauders on the way back. Also it reminds me of the day that I figured out how to fix my MC50's flaky transport buttons and AC port. That was a good day.

 

Something about this album reminds me of 90s anime when I listen to it now. In a good way. But I wore this one out; I can barely listen to it anymore.

[Guest theSun]

i came close to wearing this out. it was one of the first ae albums i really got into.

 

clipper, rotar, stud, cpach and rsdio all A++

 

overall i would listen to this album again

[Guest Xenblake]

Doesn't seem Gnit gets the love it deserves.

 

For me it does this thing that Autechre are really good at.

 

Making sounds somehow replicate a conversation, a clashing of two different moods or point of views. Each melody plays out its "opinion" and is rebuked by the opposing melody.

Sometimes a neutral, submissive melody will complete the "conversation" and it feels like an agreement has been met.

 

Another good example that pops into mind is Tilapia.

[sweepstakes]

Tasting notes: Helvetica Neue, Bavaria, dry perfectly white overcast weather, pawn shops, sunny winter weather, all caps Eurostile Bold Extended, full-page color mid-80s airline ads, 1/2 inch reel to reel tape, German-manufactured steel machine parts, NASA photography, mountain roads, study hall, Amiga, chain link fence, empty race tracks, new sneakers, 90s anime, new plastic smell, built-in chorus, European-made mixers, well-maintained public transportation.

[auxien]

Doesn't seem Gnit gets the love it deserves.

 

For me it does this thing that Autechre are really good at.

 

Making sounds somehow replicate a conversation, a clashing of two different moods or point of views. Each melody plays out its "opinion" and is rebuked by the opposing melody.

Sometimes a neutral, submissive melody will complete the "conversation" and it feels like an agreement has been met.

 

Another good example that pops into mind is Tilapia.

 

they don't seem to have that much any more...Second Scepe is probably the most obvious example of the idea (i think?) you're trying to get across. there's a couple of tracks on Draft that fall into this grouping, but after that there's not much. everything seems a little too dense the past few albums. (excluding Quaristice/Quadrange stuff, that was often sparse, but that's obviously jams, and i doubt that kind of conversational songtype can be achieved on the fly very easily, even by Autechre)

Edited November 10, 2011 by auxien

[Lianne]

'Overand' is my favourite off this album by far - it's wonderful. I really like the way the 'dissociative effect' has been mentioned in the OP. That track does it best... perfect to listen to when you're wondering around certain grey, drizzly, 'nothing-ey' areas.

 

But to be honest I don't find the rest of this album so enjoyable anymore, apart from that one and 'Dael'. It's a bit too repetitive for me these days, but I appreciate that the slow manner in which it unfolds is part of the charm for many people. This and Amber have gone to being my least favourite Autechre releases (though obviously they're still great), a feeling few seem to share! :-)

Edited November 10, 2011 by Lianne

[joseph]

This and Amber have gone to being my least favourite Autechre releases (though obviously they're still great), a feeling few seem to share! :-)

I agree with this, except that I like amber more than incunabula (and tri rep).

[sheatheman]

i was playing "overand" on these huge 1980's kenwood speakers that my roommate had in college. we had such a minimal apartment. i was playing it for a friend, and it sounded so good on those speakers, and he just started to cringe at those really high tones that come in. i never thought they were unpleasant at all, but he couldn't take it. he doesn't know what autechre is though. i've listened to that track on repeat for hours, it puts me in such a specific, open, indifferent state of mind. really good to read to.

 

the whole album is like if autechre kept making songs in the direction of amber and incunabula forever. like if autechre kept making songs hundreds of years into the future with those same production techniques-completely mastered-and tri repetae is just a cherry picked selection of their many thousands of songs.

 

it's hard to pick a favorite album because their catalogue spans from garbage planet brown galaxy colonialism to windy, meditative sky hymns. sometime i think quaristice is my favorite, but then i have a good session with chiasitc slide(hub, calbruc) or confield(parhelic triangle), and i know that a decision can never be made.

Edited November 10, 2011 by sheatheman

[modey]

Whenever I listen to Tri Repetae and Amber I think that they must have been listening to a lot of Harmonia at the time. Not that they ripped them off, just a very similar psychedelic sound.

 

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=1e3JryZd7Jg

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=he7E63qKPng

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=4kVr8_c-HJY

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=AvHWawwN3dw

 

[Guest iep]

I find it weird that "Stud" isn't a more widely loved AE track. It's extremely hypnotic. The melody is so perfect as well. It's just an odd, trance inducing piece of music.

 

i don't know whether it is widely loved or not, but it's a stand-out allrite. repetitive and, yes, hypnotic, like Hub from Chiastic Slide. golden oldie.

[QBLA]

at the time I first got this, stud and second peng were my favorites.

[YELLOW]

One of my favorite parts of Tri Repetae is the transition from Eutow to C/Pach. How that synth just kinda keeps zippering up until the echo-y drums come in

[Guest Xenblake]

I find it weird that "Stud" isn't a more widely loved AE track. It's extremely hypnotic. The melody is so perfect as well. It's just an odd, trance inducing piece of music.

 

i don't know whether it is widely loved or not, but it's a stand-out allrite. repetitive and, yes, hypnotic, like Hub from Chiastic Slide. golden oldie.

 

Much less sparse, but yeah I see the Hub likeness. Very hypnotic. Those sounds like someone standing at the back of the mix clicking their fingers is wicked.

[QBLA]

One of my favorite parts of Tri Repetae is the transition from Eutow to C/Pach. How that synth just kinda keeps zippering up until the echo-y drums come in

 

I remember loving that transition too.

[jules]

Tasting notes: Helvetica Neue, Bavaria, dry perfectly white overcast weather, pawn shops, sunny winter weather, all caps Eurostile Bold Extended, full-page color mid-80s airline ads, 1/2 inch reel to reel tape, German-manufactured steel machine parts, NASA photography, mountain roads, study hall, Amiga, chain link fence, empty race tracks, new sneakers, 90s anime, new plastic smell, built-in chorus, European-made mixers, well-maintained public transportation.

 

lol, good stuff.

 

lately whenever a repetae track comes on on shuffle I immediately put the flex set on. that eutow is a beast.

Edited November 11, 2011 by jules

[Mindphaser]

It`s probably their most perfect album...it`s futuristic, accessible, enjoyable, it hasn`t dated and It`s a bit of a move away from the typical warm artificial intelligence sound of the first 2 albums into something a bit more unique, but still with that overworldy vibe/atmoshere, the beats, and more subtlety/details. I remember buying it on the vinyl the day it came out and being instantly blown away by it.

[dr lopez]

It's austere but never dour.

[SR4]

Rsdio. nuff said.

[Guest RadarJammer]

Disc 1 will always feel like snuggling into a warm fuzzy blanket.

 

Disc 2 will always vaguely feel like an uncomfortable drug comedown or the general feeling that something a bit off.

[dr lopez]

erm yeah but disc 2 isn't really the album.

 

Rsdio. nuff said.

 

also yes.