Untilted

Hey everybody, it is time again to switch to the next album in the rotation. This week we are doing up the Untilted album, which will be our second last week for this experiment. Its crazy how quickly everything has passed, it seems like just yesterday we were listening to incunabula.

Anyways happy listening folks!

Ah, now here's where I come to a bit of a crossroad with the experiment. I've made some valuable contributions to the discussion of the previous weeks' albums, which I have fully heard from start to finish, but.. ya see... I haven't heard Untilted yet. Untilted was the last Autechre album to get after hearing the other eight, so when I finally got it, I decided not to listen to it. Instead, I have been saving it. We all know that we're not gonna get a new Ae album until at least 2011, and I know that there will come a time, before then, when I will be desperate to hear something by Ae that I've never heard before. And I take comfort in knowing that I can listen to a brand new album whenever I want it badly enough.

It's been four months. Should I just give in, and write an Untilted review based on my first ever listen?

yes

and i wish i had that much self control

  On 11/8/2009 at 6:30 PM, Dragon said:

Ah, now here's where I come to a bit of a crossroad with the experiment. I've made some valuable contributions to the discussion of the previous weeks' albums, which I have fully heard from start to finish, but.. ya see... I haven't heard Untilted yet. Untilted was the last Autechre album to get after hearing the other eight, so when I finally got it, I decided not to listen to it. Instead, I have been saving it. We all know that we're not gonna get a new Ae album until at least 2011, and I know that there will come a time, before then, when I will be desperate to hear something by Ae that I've never heard before. And I take comfort in knowing that I can listen to a brand new album whenever I want it badly enough.

 

It's been four months. Should I just give in, and write an Untilted review based on my first ever listen?

Definitely listen to it this week. If you smoke weed (or even if you don't) probably the best thing I can recommend is get access to a car with a really good sound system, drive to a remote spot (by yourself preferably unless your company will shut the fuck up the whole time) and smoke yourself stupid while listening to the album. It will blow you fucking testicles out from under your fingernails. If you don't blaze then I would recommend doing the same thing but inside and have a couple of beers instead.

Not that I'm saying you can't enjoy Ae without substances but lets face it, both booze and weed make listening to music SOOO much more enjoyable, engaging and emotional, and when you are talking about music that is the culmination of all of these three categories, it is only natural to boost it up a notch with some hedonism.

Seriously Dragon, listen now. If you need good Ae to listen to in the future then just listen to something you've already heard. I've never had an Ae track get worse over time, they all just get increasingly amazing the more times I listen so if anything you should start Untilted now so you can get through the "meh" phase as quick as possible and get right down to seriousness

edit: And while we're on the topic, if you're worried about running out of good new music to listen to, check for the thread I made asking for music that sounds like Ae. There's a whole bunch of pages and days of music listed there and probably about 80% of it is incredibly high quality and awesome, so once you tire of Ae, there is a whole world of similar artists out there.

To name one specific album, Salmataxia by Syndrome is really awesome and sounds quite alot like a more glitchy version of untilted just to name one but like I said there is tons and tons of other stuff that approaches Ae in terms of overall musical quality

this is the first Ae album I listened to

  On 11/8/2009 at 8:07 PM, Super lurker ultra V12 said:

this is the first Ae album I listened to

Pro Radii was one of the first tracks I heard from ae

I was immediately hooked after that

Second album from AE I heard. The Trees is what hooked me. The acidy bass line (if you'd call it that) just had so much attitude I couldn't help but love it.

Untilted is my fave, I found it repellent the first few listens, it seemed to have an obscene amount of beats.

Then I started to pick out moments from each track that I thought were fantastic, then after more listens I love all the tracks in their entirety except Fermium(sorry).

I love how the tracks totally change two or three times throughout the duration, it makes each track an adventure and there's always new things to discover with each listen.

  On 11/8/2009 at 8:07 PM, Super lurker ultra V12 said:

this is the first Ae album I listened to

me too. was so fucken cold and unlistenable. it did click though :)

even now that i am familiar with it and i do like, it still sometimes clicks and sometimes doesn't click. like sublimit can be the most amazing thing sometimes, and other times i'll jsut be listening waiting for it to get good. haha. didn't participate in this autechre thread thing at all but better late than never and will listen to untilted abit later :)

at first i was like lol wat but then i liked the trees a little.

a few months later i went back and listened to the whole cd. 1st 3 tracks made me cum stupid hard in my car it was kewl more later when im not really tired

  On 11/9/2009 at 4:16 AM, theSun said:

1st 3 tracks made me cum stupid hard in my car it was kewl

Lol! You crease me up sometimes mate I swear

I'm still not intensely familiar with this one but it's grown on me a lot over the years. Pro Radii has one of my favorite AE song openings (after V-proc). I find the last third of Ipacial Section to be strangely emotional.

this album is taking fucking ages to grow on me. i like it more than i did when it came out, but only slightly. i still think it's a step backward. iera and sublimit are well wicked though. and i find most of the tracks start out kinda average and get really awesome towards the end.

This album is great to rock the fuck out to

Now this is what I'm talking about! A continuation of things that defined LP5 and Confield.

LCC is incredible. It's not particularly bassy but it still hits hard as hell and the rhythm is incredible. The way it changes seamlessly between CLAP CLAP CLAP! and CLUNK CLUNK CLUNK! is just friggin' awesome. Then there's the very Rae change midway through the song where it goes all slow and all chillout on you, a completely unexpected turn for such a track to make. Some interesting progression, and a potentionally annoying melody that isn't only because of how hypnotising it is. Makes me think of people running endlessly, and fast, until the change where God knows what-

Ipacial Section was the first song that really clicked with me on Untilted - it's just so damn perfect. It's like Pen Expers and Acroyear2 had a baby and out came this 10 minutes of pure awesome. The melody that enters around about 3:20 is so delightfully happy, and the whole thing is so calming. I loved someone's description of this on a youtube video (which has been taken down). It went something like:

0:00 - 3:20 - computer that's running smoothly

3:20 - 5:24 - problems, it attempts to fix itself

5:25 - 7:05 - failure and recovery

7:06 - end - rebirth, then back to work: but cautious

The movement throughout the song is impeccably done.

Pro Radii is more straightforward than the previous two tracks. It's quite Draft 7.30 (not in a bad way) whilst still retaining it's own unique charm. Although I enjoy it, I am not particularly fond of it. It has my interest and I suspect it'll one day (maybe this week) click for me.

Augmatic Disport. Oh my. Not really sure how to convey a track like this into legible words. Rhythm is similar to LCC - makes me think of really bizarre machines in some sort of farm doing weird unintelligable machiney-shit that serves no real purpose whatsoever, fucking around entirely for shits and giggles. When the beat kicks in at 6:41 I laughed then promptly begin grooving with it - it works so fucking well and it sounds so fucking awesome! Such a perfect way to close the track. Also love how occasionally the bass will distort slightly throughout the final minute.

Iera... hated it until my last listen. It's very Confield-esque, and had it been a little more accessible then perhaps it would have fit perfectly after Uviol. Now I love the track, and I think of most of it as a buildup to the climax that kicks in around 3:34. Which is in typical Autechre fashion, again, a seamless transition. Yes. Confield indeed. Would have been better placed AFTER The Trees but works fine here - a very fussy complaint.

Fermium. The girls in that SHAMEFUL video captured the mood of this song perfectly. It is a downright playful tune, a listenable Melve or Pule. It makes me think of being 5 and running around endlessly in a garden, not giving a shit about things I cannot either comprehend or do not yet know about. I fucking love it. I really do. It is the craziest and fastest Ae melody that I have heard thus far, yet has a relatively gentle and steady beat. Just amazing.

Continuing on with the theme of childhood innocence is The Trees, or rather: completely destroying the theme of childhood innocence is The Trees. I'd honestly go so far as to call Fermium/The Trees the same song. Considering the progression of previous tracks I'd find it easy to believe if they were both composed on the same project, and simply spliced for the CD. Regardless of this, it's an incredible tune that completely fucks with the images of the garden and that five year old kid. A very nice acidy bass that Ae don't use often enough is a welcome addition to a variety of sounds that perhaps represent thousands of... things coming alive to torment... well, thousands. No-one is slaughtered, just sent into a depression that cannot be relieved by a suicide that the people are simply unable to inflict upon themselves, even willingly. I think this track has one of the most fitting titles in any Autechre release, even though it's extremely tongue-in-cheek.

Sublimit is much like Lentic Catachresis. It closes the album and sounds incredible for the first five minutes or so, but the rest comes across as "listen to these really cool sounds until you feel like pressing stop". Hell I just described ANY album then... I guess what I'm saying is that it seems to be the least compelling track. Of course I've sat through it, and like Pro Radii time will tell if it grows on me.

A refreshing album and a logical step for Ae to have taken after Confield. I really wouldn't know how to explain Draft 7.30 now, even if I tried, it feels like such a detour, especially against the two giants that surround it... But this is the Untilted thread, and Untilted fucking rules!

Pro Radii leading in to Augmatic Disport

  On 11/9/2009 at 9:43 AM, modey said:

i find most of the tracks start out kinda average and get really awesome towards the end.

it's all about the layers man. you just gotta give em a few minutes to lay down the context of the song. i assume you're referring to songs like LCC that start out all crazy and progress into something more groovy, but that first few minutes of LCC became so great to me when i was more familiar with the progression of the song.

ipacial section is probably the most interestingly arranged ae song i can think about right now, seems like it was spawned from several different tracks.

sublimit is ae's best closer on a full length.

nuane comes close but sublimit. omg. the synth part in the background that starts to cut through around 10 minutes gives me chills, especially when the reverbed sounds start accompanying it. the way that beat is just fluttering all over the place with that quick delay is a perfect example of how ae can manipulate rhythms into something far greater than the sum of its parts. any time i listen to this song at a loudish volume i never want it to end. however at 13:40 or so the other synth part kicks in (and is also awesome) and starts to calm the beat down into submission while it walks the song home.

always remember kids, no matter how crazy the syncopation is, tap your foot and you'll keep landing right on the beat. the end of the first part of LCC is a perfect example. most ae is in 4/4, i think 100% of untilted is (correct me if i'm wrong)

  On 11/9/2009 at 1:27 AM, pigster said:

  On 11/8/2009 at 8:07 PM, Super lurker ultra V12 said:

this is the first Ae album I listened to

 

me too. was so fucken cold and unlistenable. it did click though :)

yeah, that's what makes it special to me

ataraxy2 that was an awesome breakdown, good read

  On 11/9/2009 at 4:42 PM, theSun said:

i think 100% of untilted is (correct me if i'm wrong)

Off the top of my head I know Pro Radii starts out in 6/4 and doesn't switch to 4/4 till about halfway through.

Also I just wanted to mention I think I'm finally really enjoying Fermium which would make this my first ever flawless Ae album

eh i just see it as 3 bars of 4/4, but it's so inconsistent, the phrases aren't well defined. my point is that it's easy to tap along and fall into place, unlike some afx or snares shit that just falls apart

  On 11/9/2009 at 7:16 PM, thehauntingsoul said:

Also I just wanted to mention I think I'm finally really enjoying Fermium which would make this my first ever flawless Ae album

i would say that started with Amber

I really enjoy the overall sound design on Untilted, as I keep saying, this is my favourite album from them and has been so for a long time.

There really isn't any track that lets down the record as a whole; sure, Fermium isn't up to par with the likes of Pro Radii and Sublimit but it's still enjoyable to an extent. I'll post my overall review later in the week - For now though, I'm just going to play this every night this week after returning from my dull 9-5. I'll never get bored of this album

  On 11/9/2009 at 7:35 PM, theSun said:

eh i just see it as 3 bars of 4/4, but it's so inconsistent, the phrases aren't well defined. my point is that it's easy to tap along and fall into place, unlike some afx or snares shit that just falls apart

Well the very first beat is definitely 6/4, but yeah it stabilizes to a 4/4 beat pretty quick, but it settles into an pretty noticable 6/4 again around 2:07 until about 3:35 but upon retrospect yeah most of this track is 4/4