Autechre. NTS Residency. (_O_)

[jules]

I saw swans a few months ago and wore earplugs for the first time at a concert. it sounded amazing. I took them off at one point just to see and it was just punishing. They played around 130 db. 

[Draft78]

 

 

Something struck me as a mild annoyance today, that I realized has kind of been the case for many tracks here on NTS, as well as elseq. That's the boys' cavalier attitude towards extremely loud high frequency noises. I can't find many examples off the top of my head except gonk steady one at 16:15 (and plenty of other parts) and mesh cinereaL's general high end loudness but I know I've had this thought many times while listening to the NTS sessions the last few days. I'm sitting there listening at work and I feel like I've really gotta just turn the volume down all of the sudden because of some unexpected 2-4khz burst of loud noise.

 

This is not a get off my lawn thing, I actually think NTS is shaping up to be my fav ae release yet, and gonk steady one is probably my fav track of the lot so far, but that high end stuff is really grating on my ears.

 

Does anyone else feel this way or am I broken?

 

Hey,

 

You are not alone in that . I find it really hard to listen to Mesh CinereaL as it almost 'hurts' my ears / brain... i've wondered if it is just a pain of processing that weird resonance effect (i.e. my brain hurts when it processes the visual)  or if its actually my cells dying from being exposed to loud high freqs. I haven't had the exact same effect listening to this one yet but have found myself turning it up and turning it down so now you mention it there is probably something to it. 

 

I'm seeing them in a few months and can only imagine that wearing ear plugs is a bad idea but don't wanna get an audio spear through my head either ... anyone had experience in a live setting recently and if plugs are in fact a terrible , terrible idea. 

 

Last time i wore plugs was at Sunn o))) and thank Christ i was. I took them out just for a little bit at one time and felt my brain being carved out

 

 

I find that live music almost always sounds better with earplugs anyway. Like, you can hear the entire spectrum much more clearly where I find things get particularly distorted without earplugs a lot of the time.

 

That said, I've seen them live thrice now and I don't think I had earplugs any of the times. It was loud sure, but not like legal liability loud like some of the metal shows I've been to.

 

I would say bring a set, and compare. If it sounds fine with them in, do your ears a favor and wear them.

 

Since I grew up with From Eslavement To Obliteration, and fell in love with all the work of Gore Beyond Necropsy up to try, for twenty years, to reproduce the right balance between harsh and grindcore, theoretically I should be the first to want a frontal assault by Ae, but I have to confess that, over time, I have come to the conclusion that the distorted sound only corresponds to the zeroing of the dynamics. There is an entire universe in the timbre of sound: a contemporary concert has two distinct and complementary aspects, which lead to a particular pleasure, which is that of "adventure in sound": on the one hand the evolution of the piece, with inflating zones, contractions, crescendo (and this concerns linear listening) then, on the other hand, the simple pleasure of the form of sound, as it manifests, complex, rich, in the present section, beyond the function that has in terms of development. These two elements are strongly present in Ae, while are missing (in my opinion), in the world of distorted sound (grindcore, noise, .. etc.), where the sound is more than anything else a necessary means to make the composition convincing and powerful: the idea of "adventure" is replaced by the "aggression", which is a sort of anesthetic of judgment: music pleases and fills the listener with immediacy, excluding the possibility of discovering hidden universes.

I think the new trend of Autechre (I refer to the distortions) has started with Irlite Get (0). In the past it seems to me that the distortions were so present, but used as excipient , not as a guideline like now. I must say, however, that in the case of Autechre, the distortions are, in fact, discontinuous saturations, very reasoned, which create dissonances and harmonics by binding with other frequencies. From this point of view, the choice of saturation is not equivalent to an "anesthesia", but to a precise element that fits perfectly in the search of our two (Mesh Chimereal, Feed1, 9 Chro, and so on ...). 

In my opinion there are still combinations that can be experimented with these asthmatic distortions, indeed: we could only be at the beginning.

 

...well, I have been long-winded and inconclusive: this happens when you use the google translator as the only resources.. take patience...

 

 

 

[jasondonervan]

git gonkin'

 

 

(All performed using 12xLP NTS set)

Edited April 18, 2018 by jasondonervan

[Username]

Birds were singing xflood outside my place early this morning.

[markedone]

flol @ gonk tuf turntablism

 

the breakdown around 6m where they all take turn gonkin' that shit is priceless.  i believe that was actually a classic gescom studio technique

Edited April 18, 2018 by Marked x 0ne

[whylessness]

is it thursday yet?

[zaizai]

Is it gonksday yet ?

[digit]

e0 sounds like it should be playing over the end credits of a1970's horror/suspense film. It's like a lost track from the Suspiria soundtrack. There's something really retro sounding about it to me. Maybe it's the chords or maybe it's that heavy phaser effect. I love the atmosphere.

[auxien]

Really curious if all you getting harsh high frequencies are sharing any of these qualities: younger (under 25ish?), listening to lower quality or streams, or listening via subpar means (headphones in particular). Or a combination of those things.

 

God I sound like a douche. Lol

[jaderpansen]

So I had the pleasure of listening to NTS2 in its entirety today whilst driving . A few thoughts :

 

I have become aware of an internal bias which I think is natural and that some others may share . It basically posits that if there is a lot of something or if something is cheap then the product must be of a lower quality due to the equal access to raw materialS. When the European supermarkets opened up in Australia and sold their products at a significantly lower price point the assumption was that the products must be inferior, and not that in fact these supermarkets had managed to transform supply chain optimisation, economies of scale, and incredibly precise category management strategies into cost savings that could be passed on the chain to the consumer. In a similar vein, system that has been developing since Exai can be used to create music to the same quality as previous but at a much more efficient rate .

 

I was blown away while listening to NTS2. The level of detail in these tracks is immense. With respect to the criticism that the tracks may meander slightly and are un necessarily long , I can relate to this. I'm a massive Ae fan and would much rather they release NTS and El Seq than add in an extra 2 years per release cycle whittling these tracks down quaristice style , but if each track was only 66% as long as they are on NTS would I think they all could have breathed more - not sure - but probably not. This being said, the long form approach delivers a pleasurable music listening experience for me and I find it easy to get lost in each world that each track creates.

 

With respect to the mixing I found with a bit of equing (reduction of top end, slight bass boost) I could listen with consistent volume with the exception of a few blasts at the end of the first track .

 

Whilst the Beatless tracks are shaping up to be some of the best "ambient" work they've done , the stand out track on this is gonk... , similar to the first session. I'm very keen for gonk3

 

I've become so accustomed to elseq/NTS scopes i caught myself thinking "aw, over already?" over and over while listening to draft for a change a few days ago. it's like my musical bumhole is so worn out by now normal peen just doesn't cut it anymore. curse you and your outrageously thick-ass pulsating tracks of late, autechres!

[jules]

I have become aware of an internal bias which I think is natural and that some others may share . It basically posits that if there is a lot of something or if something is cheap then the product must be of a lower quality due to the equal access to raw materialS. When the European supermarkets opened up in Australia and sold their products at a significantly lower price point the assumption was that the products must be inferior, and not that in fact these supermarkets had managed to transform supply chain optimisation, economies of scale, and incredibly precise category management strategies into cost savings that could be passed on the chain to the consumer. In a similar vein, system that has been developing since Exai can be used to create music to the same quality as previous but at a much more efficient rate .

 

 

I think the length adds to the approach. Just like their super long DJ sets. the AAA interview was massive and they were up for days answering and talking. Part of Autechre is endurance and they are exploiting that bigger than ever before with the NTS sessions. Its just part of their DNA. So many of the tracks wouldnt work if they were whittled down to quaristice bites. Im glad it is in this format.

 

 

 

e0 sounds like it should be playing over the end credits of a1970's horror/suspense film. It's like a lost track from the Suspiria soundtrack. There's something really retro sounding about it to me. Maybe it's the chords or maybe it's that heavy phaser effect. I love the atmosphere.

 

e0 is becoming a top track for me

[ignatius]

is it tomorrow yet? 

 

 i dont really know any of the names of the tracks.  so can't applaud your choices. of favs.. but will anyways.. 

clapclapclapclapc

Edited April 18, 2018 by ignatius

[d-a-m-o]

I'm ready for tomorrow guys, drop the gonk !!!

[AnwarAutokino]

gonk vol. 3 incoming

[jasondonervan]

gonk vol. 3 incoming

 

[jules]

[Nenlow66]

I'm still trying to wrap my mind around NTS2; no way I'll be ready to cope with NTS3 (in its entirety) if it's anywhere close to the magnitude of NTS2.

 

Also, I just wanna take a step back and state THE basic fact: AE is releasing an 8 hour album, played live (over the net), manipulated in real time. An "8 hour album." Prolific. Smh in disbelief

[BobDobalina]

I dunno about the "manipulated in real time" part...

[Nenlow66]

I dunno about the "manipulated in real time" part...

I honestly don't either...

[coax]

I get the high frequency / shrill thing, but way more on exai than elseq. Tuinorizn and spl9 and so on especially. Getting it a bit on l3 ctrl and debris_funk. hits right in the teeth sometimes!

[Ivan Ooze]

one more night of slep!

[manmower]

About the high fequency stuff, I can't hear shit. Must be going deaf after all.

 

And yeah ever since we found out this was a proper album I've wondered how live it is. Could be anywhere on a continuum from a) all the WAVs have been sitting there since day one with a timer to release the downloads, and the wait for the physicals is only because they want to gauge demand to b) performed live and released with some quick track splitting and tagging done at the last minute. It doesn't really matter I guess but that hasn't stopped me from wondering.

 

Telecommuting tomorrow and have the day off on Friday, come at me stan & bob.

[zkom]

[Guest]

fkn pin this to the fkn top.

[ambermonk]

turbile epic casual, stpl idle (last track on Session 2) makes me think of a sky colony in the upper atmosphere of Venus. It is theoretically plausible to establish a floating sky city just above the thick sulfuric acid clouds. But given that the Venusian surface temperature is roughly 462 C (about 864 F) and the atmospheric pressure is 92 times that of Earth's (basically like crush depth at nearly 1 km/ 0.62 mi deep in the ocean), we can rule out venturing any lower than that.

That's all I'm gonna add regarding Session 2 for now.