Autechre Autechre - Oversteps (WARP210) [The MegaThread]

You know I do strongly hear in this album (and of course Sean pops in very occasionally so he could certainly correct me) that they were trying to really put the elbow grease in to get the most out of Max and to make tools they could really feel fluent in. Which was a lot of work, even for them. And I don't think they quite got there by the time they were done with this album. Listening to the live sets at the time too confirms this for me. It's not that it's bad or phony, I just feel this sense of non-intentional restraint in it... like when you're using a sequencer live that only lets you do track mutes and pattern changes and you really feel the need to do some kind of fucked up morphing arpeggio.

Also Sean confirmed in Mixlr that he's been basically MSP-only since Exai, but on this Oversteps there were still some VSTs. Fluorescent Grey was on there and he correctly guessed some physical modeling VST they used in one of the tracks. So I think there's some feeling of fragility and volatility with the tools being used that they went a long way toward resolving in the years right after the release.

Just listen to some 2010 set and then anything from the 2015/2016 tours and you might hear what I'm talking about. For the latter, it sounded so alien and organic because I think they were able to do so much more, basically exactly what they wanted, when they wanted (at least comparatively).

So that's mostly what makes it sound dated to me. But yeah I could be full of shit. That's just what it seems like to me.

I love this album. Still.

got into oversteps when i had a long commute. good for long drives. good album flow. seemed like they were avoiding percussion on this album. it's like untilted had a lot of percussion and for oversteps they tried doing no percussion. 

i call him fluorescent gay... how about that huh 

  On 3/24/2020 at 2:21 PM, very honest said:

 

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This exceeded all my expectations.
Hearing it with sound is something superior. I could never stop.
And there are other excellent moments. 

THANKS THANKS THANKS

yes tim and eric is very funny

tim & eric just started a new show, like this week, on adult swim. haven't seen it yet but saw some good reviews.

beef house

lol need to watch asap

  On 3/24/2020 at 2:43 PM, sweepstakes said:

You know I do strongly hear in this album (and of course Sean pops in very occasionally so he could certainly correct me) that they were trying to really put the elbow grease in to get the most out of Max and to make tools they could really feel fluent in. Which was a lot of work, even for them. And I don't think they quite got there by the time they were done with this album. Listening to the live sets at the time too confirms this for me. It's not that it's bad or phony, I just feel this sense of non-intentional restraint in it... like when you're using a sequencer live that only lets you do track mutes and pattern changes and you really feel the need to do some kind of fucked up morphing arpeggio.

Also Sean confirmed in Mixlr that he's been basically MSP-only since Exai, but on this Oversteps there were still some VSTs. Fluorescent Grey was on there and he correctly guessed some physical modeling VST they used in one of the tracks. So I think there's some feeling of fragility and volatility with the tools being used that they went a long way toward resolving in the years right after the release.

Just listen to some 2010 set and then anything from the 2015/2016 tours and you might hear what I'm talking about. For the latter, it sounded so alien and organic because I think they were able to do so much more, basically exactly what they wanted, when they wanted (at least comparatively).

So that's mostly what makes it sound dated to me. But yeah I could be full of shit. That's just what it seems like to me.

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I understand what you’re saying and i mostly agree expect with the dated part bc art at its highest levels can’t be/become dated; it’s mutually exclusive imo

what gives timelessness to it is:

1. universality of ideas

2. self contained original rules that can’t be explained or presented otherwise

3. lack of nonsense (because originality is not enough bc a nonsense shit can be original too)

4. exemplarilty

= oversteps has it all imo and it has to possess all of those characteristics at the same time to be “art at the highest level”, so called genius level

but yes, we could argue that art can be partially dated and timeless at the same time

yeah I’m not sure I agree with this idea that the music suffers bc the technology wasn’t quite there. it’s possible that within the greater arch of the development of their current (post exai) system oversteps was done with a more limited version of it but I for one have never heard any unintentional restraint. certainly no more so then on more “limited” systems like unilted or quaristice (or even the late 90s nord era for that matter). 
 

I think ae have always shined when working with restraint. they’re really good at it. but wherever the technology was at for them during oversteps I think it stands alone as a really beautiful record that is almost particularly unique among their whole discography. especially when compared to the albums immediately proceeding it you can perceive drastic transformation there. it may be that in a certain sense it reflects an artistic or technological transition but works of this nature are found all throughout their catalog imo. I personally regard it less as limited and more as specific. it has a very distinct sound and appears to be an experiment within a set of creative constraints that appealed to them at the time. 

def one of their best albums imo. 

I honestly don't agree about it being one of their best but I don't mean that in a disrespectful way. I realize I've done a lot of shitposting about my feelings toward this record but I have a ton of respect for them and their work overall, so it not being their best for me is hardly even a criticism of it.

Maybe the fact that my perception of it as "dated" is one of my primary takeaways of it, points to something else about it that I am not being open to as a matter of something underdeveloped in my own character. I guess that sounds maybe inappropriately earnest or personal or something. I just feel like you guys are describing maybe a sort of sincerity or imperfection in it that is some essential part of it. Like, I'm being too hard on it for not being perfect, but the imperfection is an essential part of the work. I mean, there's a screaming clue right there on the cover art, right??

I think mostly I was annoyed at the time of release that we waited so long and didn't get BEATS or something, and maybe I never totally got over that association. Which is funny because I think about what I loved most on NTS, and g 1 e 1 was a real standout for me... no beat and probably the most skeletal textures they've ever done.

So yeah I should clearly go back and give it another proper listen, even as I think about the first 2/3 of Treale, the drums in d-sho qub, and basically all of krYlon and cringe just imagining them.

Oversteps is a really strong album, but I personally couldn't possibly place it any higher than #10 among their studio albums. Great albums can still end up being 'lesser' albums when discussing an act like Autechre. You see a similar thing in the Bad Seeds discography (although I think disagreement is even more widespread there, with Nocturama the only little-loved). I'm glad Oversteps has champions though!

Yeah I mean in my fanboy opinion autechre does not have bad albums. every one of them delivers so damn hard. 

but @sweepstakes I completely understand having negative associations with it or even just outright not liking it. I enjoy reading your posts, makes me think more about it
 

imo there are so many great tracks on oversteps but my fave is see on see. to me that felt like classic ae, almost like if something from amber mutated on another planet for a while and then dropped acid with Pule. 

  On 3/25/2020 at 2:54 AM, Alcofribas said:

Yeah I mean in my fanboy opinion autechre does not have bad albums. every one of them delivers so damn hard. 

but @sweepstakes I completely understand having negative associations with it or even just outright not liking it. I enjoy reading your posts, makes me think more about it
 

imo there are so many great tracks on oversteps but my fave is see on see. to me that felt like classic ae, almost like if something from amber mutated on another planet for a while and then dropped acid with Pule. 

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I appreciate it that and I appreciate your posts as well.

see on see is fucking fantastic. That one is timeless without a doubt. redfall as well. And Yuop isn't necessarily an iconic track but I think it's a great closer in its own right. Actually if I think of the flow and the tracks individually, it's mostly really solid. There's just a couple legit cringe moments in there that I'm not used to hearing out of Autechre.

It's weird though... Move of Ten came out right after Quaristice, and at first I thought Etchogon-S was the dumbest thing I ever heard. Now I think that rowdy, out-of-control energy is brilliant and I can't get enough of that.

  On 3/25/2020 at 12:56 AM, sweepstakes said:

as I think about the first 2/3 of Treale...and cringe just imagining them.

I’ve seen plenty of your post about not liking Oversteps, and known everyone has different tastes (I’m underwhelmed by Quaristice as an album, but I know you like it, so how can I judge right?) 

and to be fair, I’m not bowled over by oversteps overall, and my enjoyment varies greatly from “I like this a lot” to “this is patchy but OK-ish” 

but one thing that has been a constant is that Treale is the absolute gem in this album, and the one track that always brings me back to the album.

so.... I suppose I must just accept that whatever it is that draws us both to Autechre, we may have absolutely opposing taste. And I guess that’s ok 

  On 3/25/2020 at 4:14 AM, fizzkinz said:

I’ve seen plenty of your post about not liking Oversteps, and known everyone has different tastes (I’m underwhelmed by Quaristice as an album, but I know you like it, so how can I judge right?) 

and to be fair, I’m not bowled over by oversteps overall, and my enjoyment varies greatly from “I like this a lot” to “this is patchy but OK-ish” 

 

but one thing that has been a constant is that Treale is the absolute gem in this album, and the one track that always brings me back to the album.

so.... I suppose I must just accept that whatever it is that draws us both to Autechre, we may have absolutely opposing taste. And I guess that’s ok 

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With Autechre it's so weird when it comes to taste. I guess because their catalog is so diverse, and they're so abstract, and the motivations for people to listen to them are necessarily so personal compared to other artists. It's easy (or maybe it's not, really, that just seems to be what it always boils down to) to say, welp, everybody's different, that's that. Why is Treale corny and arbitrary-sounding to me, and an absolute gem and the hook of Oversteps for you? Every album is a world unto itself, and I think people are drawn to different sound-worlds just like they're drawn to different weather, flavors, colors. And there's totally subjective cross-associations, too - Quaristice is almost perfectly synonymous with late October for me, mostly grey with bits of orange and brown, new-ish but worn rough around the edges like comfortable Autumn clothes.

But if it's just subjective, what is there to talk about? What's the common language? Why even talk about Autechre at all? I honestly I want to believe in some universality of non-verbal, abstract communication like music (see: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Bouba/kiki_effect ), maybe to enable me to pretend that my intuitive understanding of humanity and perception isn't fundamentally delusional, maybe to feel less lonely and solipsistic. The only way for me to get anywhere with that approach is to be humble and assume that I'm missing something in the things I don't enjoy. In these cases I tend to ask people what it is they like about it, but this tends to get people's defenses up (i.e. "what do you see in them?")

So maybe your approach is wiser.

  On 3/25/2020 at 3:18 AM, sweepstakes said:

see on see is fucking fantastic. That one is timeless without a doubt

if you dig see on see, i highly recommend revisiting kylon.  they both have the cascading layers and a mid-track key change, but imo krylon is the track i discover more in with repeat listens.  it almost sounds like 3 tracks at once if you focus on the twinkly high end, plucky mid strings, and cavernous bass, and they are constantly shifting and intersecting in weird ways.  amazing headphone track.

  On 3/25/2020 at 4:14 AM, fizzkinz said:

but one thing that has been a constant is that Treale is the absolute gem in this album, and the one track that always brings me back to the album

i remember first at hating the super buzzy fm synth stuff, along with y7 which sounds like it uses the same instrument. i dig them more now, but both are really strange tracks that i have to be in a particular mood to listen to

Revisiting Move of Ten right now and I realize I've been underrating it for a long time. Might even prefer some parts of this to Oversteps. I think it will turn out to be one of those things where one might have the songs I like the most but the other is a better flowing listen from start to finish.

Nice to see Oversteps come up again. I've been listening to it this past couple of weeks and really enjoying it again, kind of in a whole new way post-SIGN. 

I could easily get into an NTS-style longform version of r ess. 

  On 3/31/2021 at 8:22 AM, toaoaoad said:

Nice to see Oversteps come up again. I've been listening to it this past couple of weeks and really enjoying it again, kind of in a whole new way post-SIGN. 

I could easily get into an NTS-style longform version of r ess. 

Yeah r ess really is just the perfect intro. Takes me the fuck away.

os veix3.

  On 3/30/2021 at 9:32 PM, splesh said:

Might even prefer some parts of this to Oversteps.

yeah i can definitely say i revisited mot more often. oversteps is certainly a more complete experience (as it should be as an album i guess), but mot is just more varied and digestible, i don't have to be fully in its "mode" to dig it, while oversteps is more for certain moments. also nth meistereder.b.

  On 3/31/2021 at 3:29 PM, dcom said:

os veix3.

this is what you hear during your journey to the afterlife

  On 3/31/2021 at 5:10 PM, brian trageskin said:

this is what you hear during your journey to the afterlife

yeah to me it sounds more like the waiting room musak once you arrived. deffo has a fluffy, "cloudy" sound.

This is on my top 3 for sure and as you mentioned, I appreciate this track so much just see how the silence breaks into that pattern, the kick and snare are incredible would like to know how they eq'zed it. known(1) seems a bizarre lush sitar trip, they're reversing some sound there or what about the melodic Treale with that hip hop rythm, st. epreo didn't click me first but liked more recently it's kinda opressive. This album was released before some disastrous events happened last decade, even the album itself remember that flag. Back in the days I was roaming near a peaceful beach or forest listening to this masterpiece.

nice one rob & sean