SIGN or PLUS?

We've been blessed with not one but TWO great AE releases in a short span of time, with 20 great tracks to consume, analyze, and absorb - but overall, which one is the better of the two?

Oof. I hate to choose, but SIGN feels more visceral to me. Haven't listened to PLUS as much though.

Too soon to actually decide properly but my gut says PLUS

Ask me in 6 months. Right now plus is my favourite babby, but it's early days

Where's AE_LIVE 16/18 as option?

Anywhoo, SIGN is definitely more fleshed out, well rounded and distinctive. PLUS is a great addition but in comparison a bit by the floating point numbers and as standalone rather uneven imo. That being said i'll probably still end up listening more to the latter, as i find the emo ride that is SIGN rather taxing.

Can’t answer this

PLUS certainly.

It isn't shaping as an album at all and the SIGN-style offcuts feel way weaker than their siblings, yet the highlights are a little plentier on PLUS for my taste.

The best track stays M4 Lema with closest competition coming from ecol4 and X4

If I had to choose I'd say I like PLUS slightly more. Ecol4 alone justifies this choice. I'm not really a fan of ranking albums, though. It's different vibes for different times.

I'm going with PLUS only cause I prefer their beats over their ambient stuff, but I feel like SIGN is a better overall album. Feels like a perfectly packaged selection of songs, whereas PLUS has a lot of ambient tracks that didn't hit as hard after listening to SIGN. Still prefer PLUS cause ecol4, X4 and TM1 open are incredible and I would miss them more if I had to choose between both albums.

  On 11/1/2020 at 6:36 PM, Amen Lare said:

The best track stays M4 Lema

Tend to agree. Had me go "woah" the most initially, and still does. Perfect mix of complexity and lushness, also super elaborate build up/ -down macro structure. Pretty much impeccable, basically.

More winner:

SIGN - si00, formz, r cazt

PLUS - marhide, TM1... Dr. Dre would be contender, but it's just too short to work as more than an intro, i'm afraid.

Plus is more like the ae we know and love.

Sign is starting to grow on me.

SIGN was more of a surprise and arguably a more cohesive and better album but PLUS is just more enjoyable, more fun. But this is only early, initial impression... 

too soon, this is Autechre, ffs

PLUS had a more visceral impact on first listen but I haven't even begun to fully internalize it yet, whereas SIGN I've already formed a really strong emotional connection to. so I have to vote S for now, even though P is still growing on me every day.

I feel like this pair will end up being my favorite material since Oversteps+MOT. I really enjoyed the contrast between those two releases, and I love that they did the same sort of thing here - an album of emotional catharsis followed by an album with a wide variety of bangers and a few nods to the melodic sound world of the former.

Too soon. PLUS was more immediately likeable, but SIGN continues to reveal itself.

Also :

What if they really are solo albums? Would we be unsuspectingly trying to choose between Sean and Rob? 

Have people dropped that theory yet btw?  It seems unlikely, but again we'd never know, especially as they've said how they like to try to imitate each other's styles.

Who do u choose mum or dad yo guys

  On 11/1/2020 at 10:56 PM, toaoaoad said:

Also :

What if they really are solo albums? Would we be unsuspectingly trying to choose between Sean and Rob? 

Have people dropped that theory yet btw?  It seems unlikely, but again we'd never know, especially as they've said how they like to try to imitate each other's styles.

M4 Lema have both bob and sun behind (in one of the recent interviews it was said that bob has completely changed the beat of sun, which was initially more direct), hence the theory of solo albums falls 

Thank you! It was not an idea I liked very much

I like SIGN but I feel like I don't completely get it yet. Some of it is legit brilliant, a couple things I disliked, and most of it passed right through me. 

PLUS I've listened through once, and I disliked it. I'm guessing it'll grow on me, though. 

Night

I voted SIGN cause of the liquidy feels, but I think I need to sit with PLUS a while longer - def has some scruffy bangers. Think i’m gonna try the listening to both straight through in a playlist method  

looks like ww came back to cast one last vote.

The album names combined make some snappy anagrams: slug pins, lisp guns, puls sing, snug slip, lung piss... oh, this wasn't Your pointless thoughts & observations.

My phone rates them like this...