is Confield AE's best album?

[Zephyr_Nova]

Oh shit is Exai out already?? I'm afraid to open that thread again.

[soundwave]

I got into Autechre a little late and lapped up Untilted and Quaristice (versions is the better album) and there are some gems on Move on Ten. Going earlier into their back catalogue and the music somehow isn't as intricate and I kinda missed out on the innovative novelty of Confield when it first came out.

[tardbarker]

Amen Lare: That is a good point, and one I take into mind.

 

beerwolf: two blokes here met Sean.

 

I do not know if you can count or not.

 

So what.

 

Two nothings.

[thehauntingsoul]

 

Is Confield Ae's best album?

 

Not anymore

[YEK]

 

 

Is Confield Ae's best album?

 

Not anymore

lolz. i was going to say the same, maybe, but didn't have the balls

[thehauntingsoul]

Actually before this that title was held by Draft 7.30 imho but it was still a good joke.

 

 

[ambermonk]

Truth is

Exai is badass.

Can't stop the Exai invasion baby.

Even if you've met Sean before.

Yeah.

[Roo]

I had been into Ae for a few years. They were already one of my favourite acts, I had a few of their albums, and had owned Confield for about 18 months. Then, on Dec 21st 2009 just before midnight, Confield suddenly clicked with me like no album ever had before.

 

Instantly it became my No.1

 

Later I had a similar experience with Untilted. I had already owned it for 12 months when it clicked in similar fashion. The difference was, Untilted is a fun, interactive ride, great to blast in the car, and overall more replayable, so it usurped Confield as my personal favourite.

 

But in terms of ae's best, I have no issues with Confield winning. Each track on that album is very distinctly different, yet it all forms a cohesive atmosphere. Although, I will admit that I sometimes turn it off at the end of Uviol, you have to be in the mood for Lentic Catachresis. I always found Tear Tear on Amber to be a bit of a cop-out closer, not Lentic which is fine, but Uviol is just such a lush way to complete the album.

 

Funnily enough, I've found the rest of their (lesser but still stellar) efforts to be immediate, except LP5 which I still dont 'get' (I really havent given it the proper opportunity though).

[Polymershapes]

for fans of confield:

 

glen velez - internal combustion

glen velez - hand dance

nuno canavarro - plux quba

[lumpenprol]

Funnily enough, I've found the rest of their (lesser but still stellar) efforts to be immediate, except LP5 which I still dont 'get' (I really havent given it the proper opportunity though).

Not sure how people couldn't get LP5. I found it immediately accessible and still rank it as one of their best. I guess I prefer their more "humanistic" side, so I'd probably rank their albums something like:

1) Chiastic

2) Envane/Cichli Suite/Garbage/AnvilVapre (that whole run of EPs taken as a whole)

3) LP5

4) EP7

5) Exai

6) Oversteps

7) Confield/Draft (sort of a tie, I respect them but have to be in the mood)

8) Tri Rep/Incunabula (listen to them about the same frequency)

9) Amber: still like it, but listen to it the least

10) MoT: yikes, like one good track

[fizzkinz]

1) Chiastic

2) Envane/Cichli Suite/Garbage/AnvilVapre (that whole run of EPs taken as a whole)

3) LP5

4) EP7

5) Exai

6) Oversteps

7) Confield/Draft (sort of a tie, I respect them but have to be in the mood)

8) Tri Rep/Incunabula (listen to them about the same frequency)

9) Amber: still like it, but listen to it the least

10) MoT: yikes, like one good track

Can't help but notice the omission of Untilted and Quaristice.

I could read into this, but since you mentioned the ones you don't like... ?

[zlemflolia]

Exai

Draft

Confield

Oversteps

Untilted

Quaristice

Move of Ten

[lumpenprol]

yeah, could bump up tri rep...but I think I prefer the ++ eps. Lol, left of untilted and quaristice, well I guess that shows where I rate them. I know untilted is "quite good", but I hate fermium and I don't have the album on my laptop. Quaristice I don't rate really.

[awepittance]

I don't know if I'd put Chiastic as my favorite AE album of all time, but I don't think they've made a track as powerful and emotional as Nuane since then. That track is very top tier

[lumpenprol]

yeah Nuane is superb. Over time the other tracks have all opened up to me as well, I think it's one of the very best "grower" albums in my collection. I don't see any other ae album knocking it from the top of my list, but as for the rest, that does fluctuate a bit. To be honest the stretch from Chiastic through EP7 is pure gold to me and I could put that whole slab of music as my #1. Heck, maybe even throw in Tri Rep ++ into that group. It's an almost unbroken string of "10s" for me.

 

Confield was where things started to go a bit sideways for me. I really "respect" Confield, but it's a very chilly and aggro album. I do "ooh" and "ah" whenever I revisit Pen Expers or Bine, but I can't say I enjoy the album a lot. It's impressive, it's some kind of statement, I think it's coherent and "artistically whole", but I don't love it (yet).

 

Draft I think has magnificent sound design and some banging tracks, but it's not very emotional for me. And I think all the praise heaped on Surripere is unwarranted. I still think the second-half breakdown is just ae laziness, doesn't seem inspired to me. Again a very sonically impressive album, it has flavors of both Chiastic and EP7, and its own hip-hop goodness, but it's not quite a fave.

 

Untilted was when I started drifting away from ae. I should probably give it another listen. I do remember I love the way the tracks evolve on it, in a very unhurried way and with some pretty fascinating mutations. I think Untilted has the most potential to rise up my ae list, but I haven't given it the chance. Hated fermium, and found sublimit a bit overrated: yes the ending is amazing, but it meanders a bit in wankery before it gets there.

 

Quaristice I felt was really disjointed and basically just unpleasant to listen to. I'm still angry my steel slipcase version had glue all over the inside, so that I could never listen to the second cd. Some great sound experimentation on the album (love the way Rale and Tankakern sound), but it never coheres. The ambient pieces *are* nice, but also a bit generic.

 

Oversteps is a return to something: a return to the concept of actually giving the audience some "listening pleasure." Call this pop if you will. Some of the tracks are fantastic but I think the album falls apart in the latter half. I forget which track is which but the one with the choir (st. epreo?) is an interesting experiment but should probably have been left on MoT, and same with redfall (?), the heavy acid track. Overall a strong album but maybe doesn't quite hit the heights of some earlier releases. Hate the TDR artwork.

 

So yeah...I could probably just have a shorter favorites list:

1) Tri Rep ++ through EP7

2) Exai

3) Oversteps

4) Draft

5) Confield, Untilted, Amber

6) Quaristice

7) MoT

[Lianne]

Generally I think they've just got better and better. With the exception of Chiastic Slide, which has its own unique atmosphere like no other album I've heard before (and two or three of the best pieces of their career), I find their new stuff gives me the fix I used to get from, say Tri Repetae or LP5, but in a less repetitive and more interesting way. Everything has become more movement-based (songs don't just do one sort of thing for 7 minutes), and the sonic decimations have become more unique, subtle and shocking. Of course the first two albums are in a different world altogether...They're not my kind of thing anymore, but they have charm. Confield is one of their best. I like it even more than Draft because I find the atmospheres to be stronger and the stereo image more fun on headphones. Draft is kind of dry sounding compared to Confield, which is very interesting but not as pleasurable to me. Untilted is a lot of fun; I love the new ways tracks mutate and re-structure. They aren't slowing down, that's for sure!

[lumpenprol]

i thought you were all negative about their most recent output, or at least doing 180s on it frequently :-D

[AJW]

for fans of confield:

 

glen velez - internal combustion

glen velez - hand dance

nuno canavarro - plux quba

 

Been listening to the Internal Combustion album, alot of it reminds me of tracks like Cfern, Sim Gishel, Parhelic Triangle, Uviol. Really nice stuff, Thanks for reccomending!

 

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[awepittance]

i should check those out as well, there is little if any other music that evokes the same emotions as Confield for me. Phonecia and Syndrone (early machinedrum alias on merck) come close at times.

[Friendly Foil]

Confield is hella deep.

[joseph]

Yeah Internal Combustion is great, in fact Phoenecia have sampled it once or twice. Schematic also did a remix compilation called "External Combustion" based on it.

[Guest]

Tri Repetae is their best album, to me... Confield is their bestest!

[Alcofribas]

does anyone agree with lump about Autechre becoming exponentially more famous when Confield came out?

and does anyone believe that this is around the same time Aphex was de-throned the king of idm because of the very mixed reaction to Drukqs, at that point the expectations were so high i don't see how he could have kept the crown. Then this caused a sort of Autechre > Aphex dynamic among idm fans. Even though Analord is quite an effort, and impressive in it's own right i don't think the IDM super nerds really saw it with the same value they continued to see Autechre's post confield output. I know i didn't

 

this is an interesting idea, especially since iirc in 2001 aphex claimed "confield" was one of his favorite records* whereas he had been somewhat dismissive of them in the past, even saying he didn't really rate them.

 

i think "confield" was definitely a huge turning point not just for ae but for the genre entirely but i think even with lp5 ae began to "trump" aphex somewhat, particularly by taking his "bouncing ball" shit to a whole new level with "drane2" (and i've always felt the end of "vose in" might be something of a shout out/piss take on "bouncing ball"). i also think the whole "drukqs" mythology (mp3 player left on a plane, just doing it for cash lol) was something of a misfire, especially in context of "confield" which really pushed the ae boys into this kind of masters of the universe vibe. like, it was cool back when he was basically peerless to hear legends of richard in his bedroom with a homemade sampler when he was 5 years old banging out ambient tunes before brian eno even came out or whatever but the whole "i'm just doing this for money and have loads of lush albums i'll never release" thing just felt...idk, tired and cheesy. especially so with ae around. don't get me wrong, drukqs had some amazing next level shit and no one can touch richard when he's hot. and the piano stuff was certainly an awesome development that brought us another emo classic "avril 14th" that i know everyone on here was crying to when they first heard it. but "drukqs" ended up seeming like some compilation of random shit (and the legend richard spread about it certainly contributed to this perception) and since "confield" seemed like such a deep and focused album (hell, even "go plastic" seemed more honed in than "drukqs") it could definitely be argued that around this time richard kind of lost his mystique a little imo and the ae bros climbed up a bit higher. the fact that it ended up being his last aphex album and the fact that he followed it up with a(nother) compilation (with a fucking mp3 on it ffs) yet again milking this "oh i'm just doing all this for money lol" definitely contributed to this sense of diminishing mystique. it was definitely with "confield" that ae cemented their next level status and while they continue to put out amazing deep albums at the very forefront of the genre aphex seems kind of whack just sitting around in the background in his bohemian jesus garb talking about all his amazing unreleased albums and how he composes masterpieces in his car or whatever. even reading the interviews from that time were amazing. remember sean saying to one interviewer "you don't know what you're talking about. do you even know anything about generative music?" fucking lol amazing. they were really on fire at this time.

 

i'm not saying i really buy into this "royalty of idm" mythos per se but it is interesting to consider and fwiw it seems pretty obvious the ae catalog is the most consistent path-breaking and rich of the warp idm lineage.

 

fuck it, all hail the 'chre.

 

 

* can't seem to find the interview but it was during the drukqs era for sure and richard is describing some kind of record shelf of favorites or something like that. he mentioned eric satie's piano music as well. surely some one on here knows what i'm talking about.

[lumpenprol]

 

 

 

 

fwiw it seems pretty obvious the ae catalog is the most consistent path-breaking and rich of the warp idm lineage.

 

fuck it, all hail the 'chre.

werd, I tend to agree.

[Guest the anonymous forumite]

does anyone agree with lump about Autechre becoming exponentially more famous when Confield came out?

and does anyone believe that this is around the same time Aphex was de-throned the king of idm because of the very mixed reaction to Drukqs, at that point the expectations were so high i don't see how he could have kept the crown. Then this caused a sort of Autechre > Aphex dynamic among idm fans. Even though Analord is quite an effort, and impressive in it's own right i don't think the IDM super nerds really saw it with the same value they continued to see Autechre's post confield output. I know i didn't

 

This is how the story happened and yes, lump is right. As I see it, Ae got more famous at the time of Confield because there was that IDM (warp?) golden age going on: Music has the right to Children, Richard D.james Album, Come to Daddy, Go Plastic as far as the main players were concerned. Warp was the exciting label it had been, relasing the abovementionned masterpieces. Many people like myself discovered these artists at the time, and would listen to every Warp release with favorable attention. Confield is the first AE record I liked. The dynamic AE > AFX happened over time, with afx releasing disposable records.