Autechre Autechre-Quaristice

the track listing is weird, it kinda goes in sections; there are a couple tracks that sounds well next to each other and that's it. but who cares! the tracks are awesome.

i miss mary anne hobbs voice though...

Ok let us now commence with our early judgments of the new Autechre album Quaristice.

Firstly, it is difficult to judge any Ae album after only one day. I mean, I now consider Draft to be a masterpiece, but I didn't realize it's greatness until after many listens.

I have listened to Quaristice about seven times over the past 24 hours. Three of the times were just literally laying down with headphones and doing nothing but listening uninterrupted. Listened to it on three separate sets of headphones, and also while walking around. And also once while doing something else.

My initial 24 hour reaction I think is very different from most of you based on what I have read here and on That Other Site™. In short, I am disappointed because I basically expected an entire album of chenc9 and Tankekern. You know, live style beats with a lot of melodic material. I got so fired up when I heard chenc9, but disappointed when it didn't continue. I am also really angry that they very obviously cut up IO so much. That was my favorite part of the live set. And here it sounds so awkward with way too much vocoder. However, even though I didn't get what I expected, I am very pleased and surprised by much of the material on this album. Some of these more ambient sounding noisy tracks are fantastic! completely unexpected and innovative. In particular, I am thinking about Paralel Suns, rale, Fol3, Theswere, and especially Notwo, which upon first listen literally took me to another world.

At the present time, I don't think this album is better than Confield, Chiastic, Lp5, Draft, or Tri Repatae. I am not sure if I think it is better than Untilted yet. Untilted is another that took many listens but now I really really like it. I think an obvious fault of this album though, is that it doesn't feel much like an album so much as a collection of songs. Some of the transitions work really well, but many are obviously just cut up jam sessions. Sort of along the lines that qnio said.

I also don't understand how anyone is saying AE have gone retro or that they are going back to their early style. This sounds completely new to me. With the exception of maybe Altibzz which sounds a little like Speech, plyPhon which isn't that far removed from Draft ideas I think, bncCastle is similar to the Gescom release, Notwo has a similar but imo more interesting idea to that of Vietrmx. But I mean, ae sound completely different here to me. I mean, I would have recognized The Plc, Chenc 9, and IO which are all from their live sets, and Theswere sounds very Autechreish to me. But the rest sounds very different. I mean when I heard Outh9x, I was like, this is Autechre?

Overall, I am very happy with the album, but I very sincerely hope they release more material that builds on either the ideas of the heavy beats with melodies, or the more ambient noise type tracks. As was confirmed in the barcode interview, much of this album was made live and just cut down. So I imagine the extra disc will contain less cut down beats.

Anyway, I bet my opinion will change either for better or worse in a month or so.

well said.

Slick album but I have a lot of the same sentiments as Rook.

Favorites thus far are probably Tankakern, FwzE, Chenc9, The PLC and Rale. Paralel Suns is pretty slick too. I like some of the more downbeat/ambient tracks on this album and hope they explore that sound more.

The first 10 seconds of Bnc Castl remind me of some other song but I can't place where I've heard those sounds.

gonna listen to it on my ride home from work, hopefully it's way better than Untilted.

  Rook said:

Anyway, I bet my opinion will change either for better or worse in a month or so.

come back in a week, and i'm sure you'll reverse or alter some of your initial thoughts. i know i have.

the album doesn't make sense until you play it as it's meant to be heard - fucking loud through a good system with decent subs.

i hope so too the extra disc contains less cut down beats. :)

I really like the ambient tracks on this release too, some cool ideas here.

Fol3 sounded totally chaotic to me at first but it's a really cool track after a few listens. I know a lot of Ae sounds like badass robots kicking the shit out of each other, but this track literally sounds like just that to me. I imagine two robots just tearing up a downtown city block and chucking cars around before gradually powering down.

I think we should all give this some more time before judging, this has already grown on me incredibly after 5 listens.

Really looking forward to the bonus CD as well.

  Drahken said:

Slick album but I have a lot of the same sentiments as Rook.

 

Favorites thus far are probably Tankakern, FwzE, Chenc9, The PLC and Rale. Paralel Suns is pretty slick too. I like some of the more downbeat/ambient tracks on this album and hope they explore that sound more.

 

The first 10 seconds of Bnc Castl remind me of some other song but I can't place where I've heard those sounds.

you probably heard them in squarepusher - song: our underwater tourch

and basicly all old dub music (King Tubby) has those type of spring reverbed drums

WTF Rook, 7 times within 24 hours! You're an Autechwhore.

O_O

I think we can all agree that this album has basically proven beyond a shadow of a doubt that the Autechres are the master of reverbs.

Yea, definitely some quality reverb work. Seems reverb is back in style, Bogdan's new album has loads of lush reverb usage as well. I really like the contrast a heavily reverbed beat or melody has with the other raw sounds they use. Makes for a really space-oriented sound, which they've mentioned in interviews as being something they've been experimenting with more and more.

Reverb has never left Autechre's style. It might seem silly, but the way Autechre have used reverb throughout their career has very greatly influenced my music. Reverb is seriously the secret to happiness.

Who do you guys think would win in a fight, Sean or Rob? I mean, Sean looks much more like a brawler, but I think Rob is a little bigger.

rook i agree on the reverb. autechre has influenced my music a lot in the same way as you. reverb truly is the secret to happiness lol

As we speak I have just woken with Quari on loop play mode I would say I am now a Borg

The overall mastering has a pastel mist quality to it

Have you guys listened to Notwo stoned ???

This track is the best ambient track I've heard...

Honestly, it really puts you in a mood, I think it's really my favourite track of the album...

Well I can't say that, because i really love the album as a whole, but this track, and the last one as well, really deserve a deep, stoned, listening...But I guess we could say that for the whole album...

Recury without reverb would suck.

Listened to the whole thing in work today in our huge warehouse and tonight smashed on bongs. I think its a great record. No complaints.

1.41 on Paralel Suns reminds me of a track from an old X-101 12''. I forget the name and fucked if I am digging it out. It had 'Rave New World' on the same record though.

  zemudene said:

checked out this thing. datach`i- shock diamonds was a leak of quaristice back in 2006. lol

shock diamonds sounds like a max patch gone wrong

can't wait to listen at the gym today lol

it will be my first time w headphones

i like ae's reverb plus how they tweak it with fading and compressing so it kind of swells in and out

Oh wow yea. I mean the reverb swells on Gaekwad kill me every time. Amazing.

"The Plc" and "WNSN" still don't make sense for me so far... The rest is really good, though.

reverb is really a major composition tool on this record, and it's very well done.

otherwise, i still think afx is THE master of reverb. was quite surprised to hear spring reverb on an autechre album though. nice one.

The Plc is great.

This album is fucking awsome. Needs to be listened to lound and while looking at life a certian way.