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NTS is the worst ae release in a while


coax

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it will sound overly harsh but yes, I think NTS lacks the depth and the compositional quality that earlier ae had.
There are several problems, including lack of sound quality, good compositions, good climaxes, a lot of cheesy ambient,
and no single track I can point to as a 'blockbuster' track that I want to go back to and listen to a lot.
 
No track has the mindmelting puzzling difficulty of earlier ae. I find that every track sounds exactly how I imagined they
would after taking a break since the first listen. On Elseq and previous releases many tracks didn't make sense until several listens.
This 'difficulty' is gone on NTS. Osla for N, feed1, latentcall and os veix3 all are much better in all dimensions than any nts track,
just to pick random examples. I listen to NTS now and there is almost nothing. 
 
Four of seven, clustro casual and ninefly are the single most interesting tracks to me, as they are original-ish for ae and relatively fresh.
column thirteen, glos ceramic and tt1pd all have the the signs of blockbuster tracks but the two latter are too straightforward without a payoff, which makes column thirteen one of the top tracks on there.
This 'straightforwardness' is a big problem to me. feed1 and latentcall are relatively 'straightforward' but they have a much better composition. those elseq tracks also have traces of all the previous ae tracks that have this form like irlite, osla for n, ilanders, tankakern, parhelic triangle, uviol etv, with a good 'payoff' and composition that makes me want to relisten a lot. nts has none of this.
This is the most accessible ae release since the mid 90s I would argue and it suffers from it.
 
Regarding the 'cheesy ambient' bit, the tracks are pretty, but they feel a bit derivative and almost like they don't belong. this includes 'all end', even though bladelores is cool. they don't have anything new to offer i think and as such are a slog to get through. 
The cavernous ambience of quaristice and the weird gamey/baroque/wahetevr ambience of oversteps is way more interesting.
 
last part is just the sound quality itself. it has a softer more "synth patch"-esque sound, and not the more complex sound of elseq/etc. 
I don't know exactly how to explain it other than each sound sounds thinner and less full.
 
so overall, and I'm very open to my mind changing on this, but I'm not sure it will, nts to me is a kind of unfinished jam that doesn't work in the same way as earlier stuff. 
i love ae but i just had to write it, they are my #1 and I don't want to sound so harsh :P

 

remember when everyone hated oversteps

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Their releases usually take years to sink in, but ever since Exai they have been on this trajectory where it seems more like work than enjoyment for me. I don't think I have managed to make it through many of the NTS tracks. I appreciate the idea in the abstract, but listening to it is another thing. Usually sound design can carry me through any abstract structureless thing, but here I am just not feeling it.  I type this as I cradle a copy of oversteps like a baby.

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I've listened to 1, 2 and 3 in a row today while painting walls and I liked every bit of it. Of course some tracks are worse than others, e.g. four of seven, but this release is pretty amazing and it doesn't "take years to sink in" for me. Why would you even spend years to listen to something you don't like, hoping that it finally "sinks in"? Usually you should notice pretty soon if it's your thing or not

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Lol.

 

To the OP though, when NTS is referenced as the worst release in a 'while', what were the other worst releases?

 

They have like no bad albums but the one I feel is the most sparse is Untilted, even though I love the atmosphere and visuals I get with it. Visuals for nts is more nature/pastoral/farm on several tracks which I can dig, haven't made up my mind on how much that makes up for the lack of interesting tracks to me so far though

I do find in interesting though to hear why people don't like NTS, so fair play to the detailed OP (but your still wrong!)

 

Seriously though seems to me that generally NTS seems to be one of the best received Ae in recent memory both on here and the wider press.

 

I think the idea that this is one of the best received ae in recent memory is kind of bad considering how good elseq is, and L-event EP as well is epic.

It does feel like a step down right now but my perception changes so we'll see.

To me, NTS is actually their best release since Untilted, although your mention of sparseness articulates your preference a little better.

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This thread will seem quaint in a few years when they've beamed a 24hr album straight into our conciousness and the autechre effect has kicked in and anything they released more than 4 years ago is 'rediscovered' as amazing.

 

I'm being facetious. But there will be a 'new album is the greatest' and 'new album is the worst' thread here after anything they release. Case in point: you use latentcall as an example of good elseq track but in my opinion that is in the bottom 5 of elseq for me. And nts is the business. In my opinion.

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The comments of OP about the "lack of depth" on NTS and it being "their most accessible release" remind me of what some other people here said in the Exai thread shortly after its release: It was initially, as with any new AE album/EP, perceived by some as being not challenging enough, but is now, after a few years, looked back at as a reference point for when they were still making challenging music. So, as others here mentioned already, I'm sure once the next 128-hour album comes along, NTS will be fondly remembered as their last great release before selling out altogether.

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There are a few tracks that overstay their welcome but there is just so much to digest that I think its way to soon to say if it is their best or worst release. It's hard to give it a final judgment since its difficulty to listen to it all in one go, but you can hear there is an overall structure to it that, along with their previous works, I'm sure will keep unlocking more secrets and building a deeper appreciation for what they're doing. They've essentially released 10 years worth of albums in one go. Releasing an 8 hour album that is both diverse and interesting all the way through is a huge undertaking.

 

It took about 10 years for Quarastice and it's alternative editions to finally click with me. (Quaristice versions and quadrange were waaaay better and a good prototype of what was to come with el-seq/nts)

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as i shuffle through the ae topics, two things keep being repeated that i do not understand at all...

 

- their output is too much to digest

 

what the fuck does that mean? your brain is able to digest v*times more than that even if you are retarded like me.

nts is fascinating to me for its data/sec value and i can't get enough of it. the "machine" is the most fascinating development

since we saw the potential in sound manipulation back in the days of lp5, ep7, confield etc.

if i could say just two words for the exai / elseq / nts saga, that would be "at last"...

 

- their gigs should be seated.

 

being quiet is one thing. but to remain seated through all this mind-fuckery is seriously laughable.

i guess i was the only one dancing during the london gig, which is scary if you think about it...

 

the point is, we are offered the fruits of a 25 years carreer with the latest setup. finally, the machines are singing on their own

and, finally, we are able to immerse ourselves in live experiences much more detailed and fluid than ever before. isn't that worth something?

the past was glorious, no point for nostalgia though. i'm much more curious to see where the boys go next...

 

(nts kicks ass)

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...Where we run the risk of making a mistake, I think it is wanting to compare the NTS (or Elseq) with previous works as if they were similar things on which we can bestow a judgment in terms of "better or worse".

 In the last four or five years, I have the impression that our two have focused on aspects so far removed from previous productions that the comparison becomes almost impossible.
 If, before, the attention was focused on "what", now is focused on "how": we have no more ten-minute tracks oriented on complicated structures, to listen dozens of times to understand it's nature and the mysterious transformation, today we have musical scenarios in which you can immerse yourself for a long time, until you become imbued with a specific atmosphere. No matter how much the song is "new" (in fact they often use the same basic ideas, as could often happen in the classical, take for example the inventions of Ligeti in "Movimento Preciso, Meccanico", which we can found in the third movement of the chamber concerto and in the Mysteries OF The Macabre, or the well-known motif of Piano trio in E-Flat, by Schubert, which often appears here and there, partially reinvented): the Ae of today, if anything, are focused in the costant changing way of interpreting something and making it a new musical panorama. 
This does not mean that the new music of autechre does not have progression, but it is evident that over a distance of eight hours, the objective can not materially be to overload the composition of details and continuous changes. I find it obvious that the purpose has really changed. Probably, for S and R, it's simply more fun to create long spaces of lustful self-indulgence, where they can play freely, rather than focusing on short sonorous brackets in which to squeeze the brain on infinitesimal fractions: they have done it in the past, now that they are beyond , they are more interested in long and gratifying controlled "improvisations". Unlike time ago, the live dimension and the studio are merging into one. From this point of view it is true that the new releases are more immediate to understand: for example, two years have passed from Elseq, and my impression has remained more or less the same, while for Oversteps, Draft, Quaristice or Untilted, every two years my opinion it's incredibly changed. I think the "give time to get it" season is over. 
 I can not hide from you that I have a certain nostalgia for the old Autechre, micragnose and hermetic, but this does not mean that it is not gratifying to sink for eight hours on a planet that, otherwise, I would never have explored. And one thing remains certain: what they play is always unique, unmistakable, and of an alien and imperishable beauty.
 Probably we must accept that the Autechre have changed in intentions, so, I believe, the judgment must be expressed bearing in mind this precise, explicit new will.
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buying new Autechre used to be like buying a sapling and watching it grow, nowadays you get a full grown fucking tree to take home instead ^^

 

 

From here to the day of my death, I hope to have enough space to be able to lose myself in a rainforest. Tree after tree.
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Just listen only to the bits you like and cut the rest out

Was also gonna say this: there should be enough from Elseq and NTS to make your own album/playlist.

 

I'm personally not too concerned with how NTS works as an album or a release. I like that it was created with the radio sessions in mind, and that it's part of the AE_LIVE/Elseq continuum. NTS started with them asking æ to do another radio mix, and instead we got more great original work from them.

 

I do agree with clustro casual being top level though.

 

Also, tt1pd > feed1 composition, personally. Subjective

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NTS could perhaps be my favorite ae release ever.

 

It flows incredibly well and really only drags in a few areas, which is no easy feat for 8 hours of music.

 

It contains not only some of their greatest bangers ever (gonk steady one, tt1pd, violvoic, glos ceramic), but also some of their best ambient works of all time (column thirteen, shimripl casual, all end).

 

Did I mention that those bangers are 15-25 minutes long? I can't name another electronic artist who can keep my attention for that long on a single track.

 

To me it seems like a fully realized version of the sound they were going for on elseq 1-5. It retains the same "difficulty" of sound design all while somehow being more accessible at the same time.

 

Ae are at the top of their game right now and NTS 1-4 is a monumental testament to that.

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Personally, I find autechre always clicks for me in the fall. Idk why, but a chilly October night brings out something in their music much more than any other season. Second would be winter. Maybe give it more than a few months, cause I'd say the same for pretty much any music I listen to, each season complements my playlists differently.

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It's definitely got depth that takes awhile to piece through. The worst in awhile? Heck no! Maybe one of their most subtle releases in some time, perhaps since perlence subrange 6-36. While it may seem not very complex, there is nonetheless the trademark impeccable sound design with increased clarity since last time.

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Weird. I find most of four of seven boring, but the ending is possibly my favourite part of the whole sessions.

Absolutely - Its the soundtrack to a delicate geisha robot performing a slow ceremonial dance in the light snow.
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