XI year old Autechre Album Released: Exai (WARP234)

[Kavinsky]

I think Move of Ten is much more interesting than Oversteps.

 

Both of their first tracks have obnoxiously sloppy drum programming, but I think Itchygonads' make much more sense, and it has the cool ninja sword sounds, whereas r esssss's just kind of derp along.

 

ilanders has a great A part but the melody of the B part is kind of aimless; whereas the use of the static-y breathing pump in Nth Dafuser da B dub dub rubba B dub bubblelubba is fuckin cool, plus BOC flute!

 

Same with knownfacebook(1) - it has a cool A part but the B part doesn't move the track along in any new direction, it's just ... different; whereas iris I think is the track that gets it right with their attempt to program melodies like drums -- that step-wise synth part is just so cool.

 

pthththptphthtphtphhhhhffffffffffffartph8 is a throwaway. And y7 doesn't have a ton of change, but the sounds are incredible.

 

qplay is a weird mix of cool pads, an annoyingly cheesy byeow-byeow synth part on top, and the whiplash drums from Druqks, and no border is kind of like the distant echo of qplay

 

see on see on see, again, has a great part A melody, and then a pointless part B melody, which I think is better than pc freeze which just drags on with that beat

 

Treale uses that buzzy synth part on top in a less interesting way than y7, whereas M83 is an awesome autechre house tune, even though it's just variations on the one set-up with the bassline

 

os viex3 I just can't get into, it's polite and unassuming, while rewfacebook(1) is a great Gescom Skull Snap outtake that goes on for a bit too long but is a humorous farting hip-hop track

 

ylmo is like OO====D without the drums and bells, and both are okay, but again, I think iris does the same thing way better

 

fo sho cuz has some great huge beats, but here too I think the synth sounds are cheesy and have no direction, whereas the granular beats of Cep bisquick are really cool even if the background is just an indecipherable mess of dissonant noise.

 

 

So, overall, I think MoT wins this tete-a-tete. Objections welcome!

 

Funny review especially the title track knownfacebook(1)

[triachus]

Is it really that hard to just use the real names of the tracks?

 

 

2012 Most Fan winner

[marf]

I think if an artist goes too far downhill it's justified to be a bit butthurt; I know I was with Orbital when they jumped off the cliff into mediocrity.

 

That said I'm still curious what Ae will do next. Sean always looks a bit monged out in photos these days, so I do wonder if they can ever bring the multilayered intensity back. But then, there was a lot about their "multilayered and intense" period that seemed kind of uptight, formally. I liked Oversteps, still do, but it's not quite as alien as their earlier work (and is not really off-putting in any way, which I think is the biggest change...unless you count known(1)). Did not like MoT except for...M82?

 

Am cautiously optimistic about the new album, although I fear it will suffer from Quaristice lack of QC version diarrhea, and I don't like the "70's avocado rug swatches" cover.

 

how many aleatoric patches have they created by now? they could just change a few settings and pump out a whole new album just as bad ass. AE are lucky they do the aleatoric style music. Aphex has to write melodies which takes inspiration. I love AE but i think its half machine music, literally

[ambermonk]

Exai Promo jet

 

 

.......

[encey]

Is it really that hard to just use the real names of the tracks?

what did i do a typo?

[xox]

If it's random then why it has inner logic? There's no randomness in the final product if you control the process of development (there lies the inspiration), no matter if you start from the aleatoric end of things.

 

e

xample1

 

how many aleatoric patches have they created by now? they could just change a few settings and pump out a whole new album just as bad ass. AE are lucky they do the aleatoric style music. Aphex has to write melodies which takes inspiration. I love AE but i think its half machine music, literally

Edited December 19, 2012 by xox

[zleep]

how many aleatoric patches have they created by now? they could just change a few settings and pump out a whole new album just as bad ass. AE are lucky they do the aleatoric style music. Aphex has to write melodies which takes inspiration. I love AE but i think its half machine music, literally

it will be more difficult and need more inspiration to write an algorithm and use it to generate a good mMMEeelLLLlloodYYyyyyY,

[encey]

I read that last word as sung in a Prince-like falsetto.

[Guest]

in glados-autotune

[gl0tch]

THIS thread.

[mcbpete]

 

If it's random then why it has inner logic? There's no randomness in the final product if you control the process of development (there lies the inspiration), no matter if you start from the aleatoric end of things.

 

e

xample1

 

how many aleatoric patches have they created by now? they could just change a few settings and pump out a whole new album just as bad ass. AE are lucky they do the aleatoric style music. Aphex has to write melodies which takes inspiration. I love AE but i think its half machine music, literally

 

Absolutely - when I learned about Autechre's compositional style in the past (not sure how much it is done like that nowadays) I thought it was a bit of a cop out. But over the last couple of years I've started to try and do similar stuff myself, and believe me to get anything worth while does require a lot of input and setting of rules yourself

 

Here's a couple of better tracks I've managed to force out of my machine using the 'aleatoric' compositional method:

http://www.ilovecubus.co.uk/pete/cubus_-_redfall_fake.mp3

http://www.ilovecubus.co.uk/pete/cubus_-_Parameter_Window.mp3

[xox]

mcbpete, i can't open your mp3 files...

 

edit: okokokoko it works NICE...very nice! I like!

 

And i think Jonh Cage said something like: random stuff is not random because we chose which ones to keep.

Edited December 19, 2012 by xox

[mcbpete]

Yeah sorry - I'm having real difficulty posting under this whole web 2.0 thing BBCode Mode. It seems to randomly convert some things to links, some to a media player. Back in my day you'd just put a URL in and bung a couple of media tags either side, easy ! Bloody 'upgrades' (grumbles like an old man)

[xox]

On second listening the second one sounds more interesting.

 

Just saw on ilovecubus page tribute to Nikola Tesla compilation. So jealous at participants!

A few mnts ago i have visited the house where he was born...it's a museum now.

Edited December 19, 2012 by xox

[mcbpete]

Aye the first one was done a year or so ago when I was starting to learn how to compose with that method, and the second one about 6 months ago (there's a third one a few pages back on here that I did at the weekend for a piss about !)

[Soloman Tump]

Does anyone actually care that the vinyl is "Housed in a rigid slipcase wrapped in Cairn Eco Kraft stock with clear foil block to front"?

 

Bleep/Warp always make a big deal of telling us when releases have special grade packaging (the first Warp Brian Eno release really made me lol hard), although I am guessing the niche audience of audiophile's may also harbour some cartophile's who jizz hard over the quality of printing. Guessing it is down to TDR at the end of the day, and Warp decide what price to slap on it.

 

If my new autechre album came encased in a wheel of cheddar I would be just as happy.

[Plarkreluke Banloboh]

Fucking Warp announcing the abulum months in advance.. they don't make it easy for those of us who like to preserve ejaculation until the release date.

 

 

[azatoth]

They probably announced and put it on pre-order it so early to get a sense of how many vinyls to press.

[spptrl alt del]

Does anyone actually care that the vinyl is "Housed in a rigid slipcase wrapped in Cairn Eco Kraft stock with clear foil block to front"?

 

Bleep/Warp always make a big deal of telling us when releases have special grade packaging (the first Warp Brian Eno release really made me lol hard), although I am guessing the niche audience of audiophile's may also harbour some cartophile's who jizz hard over the quality of printing. Guessing it is down to TDR at the end of the day, and Warp decide what price to slap on it.

 

If my new autechre album came encased in a wheel of cheddar I would be just as happy.

people care about this (superfluous) shit, still. it's like decor for your living room. need something to fetishize, the audio ain't enough

[xox]

I only care for the first part.

 

Does anyone actually care that the vinyl is "Housed in a rigid slipcase wrapped in Cairn Eco Kraft stock with clear foil block to front"?

[jules]

If my new autechre album came encased in a wheel of cheddar I would be just as happy.

 

autecheeser.

[Guest Balance]

Who cares how they make the tracks, it's the end result I care about, not the process.

[entropi]

If it's random then why it has inner logic? There's no randomness in the final product if you control the process of development (there lies the inspiration), no matter if you start from the aleatoric end of things.

 

e

xample1

 

how many aleatoric patches have they created by now? they could just change a few settings and pump out a whole new album just as bad ass. AE are lucky they do the aleatoric style music. Aphex has to write melodies which takes inspiration. I love AE but i think its half machine music, literally

I really like "e

xample1"! - do you have any more?

[joseph]

There's a lot of back and forth about Oversteps, its place in their discography, how good it is, etc. Put me firmly in the "love" side of this discussion. Every time I listen to Oversteps it grows on me even more. I feel like I understand the internal logic of each track to a much greater extent than I did, and I realize now what a masterful, and beautiful work of art it is. When I first heard it I was pretty skeptical and underwhelmed, but now it's a favorite -- hard to compare with albums like Draft, say, or even chiastic slide, but way up there for me.

[encey]

I need someone to explain it to me!