Autechre - PLUS 20.11.20

https://lonelymachines.org/2020/10/31/autechre-plus-review/

Plus being "SIGN’s extroverted brother."

  On 11/2/2020 at 10:11 PM, wredny said:

https://lonelymachines.org/2020/10/31/autechre-plus-review/

 

Plus being "SIGN’s extroverted brother."

"The problem is, this feels more like a collection of tracks rather than a cohesive album.  The sequencing is odd, and I’m not sure how it fits."

"Then the record hits a bit of a wall when “iipre esc” and “esle 0” come along and stall the momentum.  There’s nothing wrong with either track.  They’re both gorgeous, but they both sound like SIGN outtakes, and the positioning is weird."

yup.

Just at the end of my first "back-to-back" listen. It made the the more beat-driven tracks on SIGN stand out more, which I predicted, but what I didn't expect is that it also makes SIGN feel REALLY short for some reason. Perception of time can be a weird thing.

I agree with the comments that PLUS has a weird flow to it, but it seems less noticeable  when listening to these back to back because there's just so much going on.

Overall I really liked the effect of the two combined. I really curious to know what made them decide to split the two releases...

I just baked a pecan pie while listening to PLUS, I think it's my new favorite combo...baking and autechre

  On 11/2/2020 at 11:53 PM, jaderpansen said:

"The problem is, this feels more like a collection of tracks rather than a cohesive album.  The sequencing is odd, and I’m not sure how it fits."

"Then the record hits a bit of a wall when “iipre esc” and “esle 0” come along and stall the momentum.  There’s nothing wrong with either track.  They’re both gorgeous, but they both sound like SIGN outtakes, and the positioning is weird."

yup.

i'm still not sure about the tracklists of either record, but listening to PLUS again now and X4 > ii.pre esc > esle 0 works very well imo. 

honestly the one i find ruining the flow for me most is marhide. very nice little weird track, but just stops all the energy of the first two dead, and not in a good way imo. 

also, idk about TM1 open. this is probably how i felt the first 20 times i listened to much of Confield tho, it feels like it's just miles ahead of me and i can't grasp onto anything with it. weird mashup of different ideas is what it feels like. very disparate elements that honestly just seem to clash almost constantly for most of the track. where it gets towards the end works, but the journey there....idk.

review at beatsperminute

edit: the other one had been posted before in this thread

another one from belgium (in vlaams, apparently)

Yeah I can't quite get a grip on TM1 open either. Those fluttery arpeggios just seem too random and goofy to me. Still holding out for an autechre 'click' moment though.

pre esc is very very pretty! makes me want to listen to see on see which is a good thing

TM1 open is one of my favorite tracks from PLUS. I think that exactly the transformation from the hectic arpeggios in the beginning via the acid bassline to the sweet Ae strings in the end is what makes it. If you just took the strings in the end and made a track out of them it would sound pretty standard late 90s Ae track but the weirdness in the beginning works as a contrast and gives it a kind of alienness that makes the whole track work and not just sound stuffy old IDM.

Ae are pretty good at pulling this kind of switcheroo, either from familiar to strange or vice versa. And then maybe back again.

  On 11/4/2020 at 10:05 PM, zkom said:

If you just took the strings in the end and made a track out of them it would sound pretty standard late 90s Ae track but the weirdness in the beginning works as a contrast and gives it a kind of alienness that makes the whole track work and not just sound stuffy old IDM. 

Yeah that's what I love about it, it's like Peel Sessions 1 or Envane put through the Move of Ten system.

I think if I was new to Autechre I would find it too goofy but in the context of their entire back catalogue it gives it a different feeling.

I’m not seeing a lot of love for 7FM? For me that’s one of the weirder, stereotypically autechre-y tracks from the two albums. One of my favs

To me it doesn't goofy at all, rather disorienting and agitated in an unnervingly energizing way. It's a jam fo sho.

Edit: @TM1

  On 11/4/2020 at 10:46 PM, Hugh Mughnus said:

I’m not seeing a lot of love for 7FM? For me that’s one of the weirder, stereotypically autechre-y tracks from the two albums. One of my favs

I usually skip it at some point. Sometimes immediately, sometimes after being a couple of minutes in. Not because it's a bad track or anything, just sounds a bit too annoying to me in most situations. Reminds me on people who speak at a too high pitch and volume all the time. I'd really like to strangle them to death with a steel cable.

TM1 is really open, like a portal to my pineal gland. At first listening I felt a sense of disorientation, not knowing which web to follow, then yes, it opened, wide open, and a sense of lightness reached me, something that I had not felt since the days of irlite get (0), with the addition of a strange, laconic melancholy, which is then magnified by the final chords. This instead is a feeling that brings me back to the ending of 6852, although the two songs have nothing in common  

  On 11/4/2020 at 10:46 PM, Hugh Mughnus said:

I’m not seeing a lot of love for 7FM? For me that’s one of the weirder, stereotypically autechre-y tracks from the two albums. One of my favs

Also one of mine. Immediately stood out to me, from my first listen of PLUS.

  On 11/4/2020 at 10:46 PM, Hugh Mughnus said:

I’m not seeing a lot of love for 7FM? For me that’s one of the weirder, stereotypically autechre-y tracks from the two albums. One of my favs

I can't really get into this one yet, to me it sounds like Afx's Akunk with fol3 playing over the top.

  On 11/5/2020 at 6:25 AM, Key said:

I can't really get into this one yet, to me it sounds like Afx's Akunk with fol3 playing over the top.

Heh! You say that like it’s a bad thing

I’ll admit it took me a couple listens but once it starts to develop fully (around 2:50) it’s a bit of a melty trippy beast imo 

I still have to absorb 7FM ... in the first listening I felt like I was listening to the beat of c18 deep tread (actually if you listen to the two songs at the same time, they overlap quite well) with some waves of sound design above, but slowly I'm recognizing an harmonic structure in those waves. But, again, it seems to me a piece that proceeds breaking down rather than expanding and guiding me somewhere (also in this I find an affinity with c18 deep t.). Let's see if and how it will change over time..

  On 11/4/2020 at 10:46 PM, Hugh Mughnus said:

I’m not seeing a lot of love for 7FM? For me that’s one of the weirder, stereotypically autechre-y tracks from the two albums. One of my favs

its still my favorite (or at least tied with ecol4)!  it has more hip hop swagger than any other track on these 2 albums.

x4 is the only track im not in love with on PLUS.  it really dwells on those farty sounds..

ii.pre esc

  On 11/4/2020 at 10:46 PM, Hugh Mughnus said:

I’m not seeing a lot of love for 7FM? For me that’s one of the weirder, stereotypically autechre-y tracks from the two albums. One of my favs

first listening experience began like this: 

DekDre Scap B:  "Yeah!" 

7FM ic:  "YEAH!" 

marhide:  Yassssssssss

i honestly wish ecol4 was even longer. those last couple minutes are amazing

review on exclaim.ca

  On 11/6/2020 at 9:58 AM, kieselguhr kid said:

review on exclaim.ca

  Quote

Autechre Return to Their Abstract Tendencies 

lol