squarepusher Oversteps - Initial Reactions (for real this time)

ok so like a few others, i completely held out until the official release. reading that megathread from when it was leaked has been entertaining to say the least. i started to form an opinion of this album and i still hadn't heard it. much to my delight, a lot of what i read, i totally disagree with.

first, the artwork. i totally see why tdr did this enso thing. there is a lot of asian sounding zen moments in here. the whole album feels like one unit and very zen-like. in no way ever did i see the shiny plastic full neon cover of that squarepusher record at all. this feels very organic and oozing with personality. something they seem to keep very well guarded.

i have only been through once, very loud. it is really a beautiful record on first listen. i can not wait to dive in and let this envelop my cranium and grow with it, but initial impressions are off the charts good.

The album sounds trippy and spaced out. I like it a lot.

i'm on see on see and oversteps so far is great but not what i expected: changes my view on quaristice but i still don't like either as much as past ae

i've now decided that Oversteps is superior to Quaristice (proper) but quarisice versions + quandrange still kind of blows Oversteps away in Autechreyness

  On 2/22/2010 at 9:21 PM, Awepittance said:

i've now decided that Oversteps is superior to Quaristice (proper) but quarisice versions + quandrange still kind of blows Oversteps away in Autechreyness

i don't think oversteps is done yet though...

I'm standing by my initial comments that this is my favorite release since Confield. I really love this album to bits and don't really see myself getting sick of it either, sounds like a future classic to me. Haven't heard it in all it's 24 bit glory yet, excited to get home and listen!!!

  On 2/22/2010 at 9:21 PM, Awepittance said:

i've now decided that Oversteps is superior to Quaristice (proper) but quarisice versions + quandrange still kind of blows Oversteps away in Autechreyness

agree currently

i would like to say that next time ae release i won't listen to any leaks but i doubt my resolve; pretty funny to find i had and didn't like a fake leak for the weeks prior

  On 2/22/2010 at 9:34 PM, six said:

This is my favorite release since Confield. I really love this album to bits and don't really see myself getting sick of it either, sounds like a future classic to me. Have heard it in all it's 24 bit glory , so you should get home and listen!!!

  On 2/22/2010 at 9:31 PM, jules said:

  On 2/22/2010 at 9:21 PM, Awepittance said:

i've now decided that Oversteps is superior to Quaristice (proper) but quarisice versions + quandrange still kind of blows Oversteps away in Autechreyness

 

i don't think oversteps is done yet though...

you could be right, although there isn't anything on Oversteps that i listen to and go 'i wish this was 4 minutes longer with some more progression' , most stuff on Oversteps works perfectly on it's own, but with Quaristice a good number of the songs sounded meek in their shorter forms.

  On 2/22/2010 at 9:36 PM, Awepittance said:

  On 2/22/2010 at 9:31 PM, jules said:

  On 2/22/2010 at 9:21 PM, Awepittance said:

i've now decided that Oversteps is superior to Quaristice (proper) but quarisice versions + quandrange still kind of blows Oversteps away in Autechreyness

 

i don't think oversteps is done yet though...

 

you could be right, although there isn't anything on Oversteps that i listen to and go 'i wish this was 4 minutes longer with some more progression' , most stuff on Oversteps works perfectly on it's own, but with Quaristice a good number of the songs sounded meek in their shorter forms.

this is very true. i wish a lot of the 90210 tracks were left off the quadrange/versions things and replaced by theswere and wnsn. rale. too. i but anyway, oversteps. treale...holy shit. this is what i want in my ae. this is just killer

got until known(1), my subwoofer did some crazy stuff during the two tracks before.

I totally didnt expect something like this: everything seemed disorientated and distant at first. it sounds like a blown machinery, whose fragments drift through a strange realm.

Does anyone else get the sense that Oversteps could invite interpretations referring to external things more easily? I don't know: sometimes it feels like this album is saying things, in a cheeky way. It's as if it's got a story, it's about people, about memories. It's more overtly emotional and nostalgic to me than anything they've done before.

Confield and Draft produced these long, bombastic, imaginative essays from fans about alien deserts and strange mechanical creatures, which is all good fun. But with Oversteps - it feels like there is something in there. I'd sure be happy to read up on what people feel. krYlon especially...isn't that or another one named after a spray can or whatever?

  On 2/22/2010 at 9:36 PM, Awepittance said:

  On 2/22/2010 at 9:31 PM, jules said:

  On 2/22/2010 at 9:21 PM, Awepittance said:

i've now decided that Oversteps is superior to Quaristice (proper) but quarisice versions + quandrange still kind of blows Oversteps away in Autechreyness

 

i don't think oversteps is done yet though...

 

you could be right, although there isn't anything on Oversteps that i listen to and go 'i wish this was 4 minutes longer with some more progression' , most stuff on Oversteps works perfectly on it's own, but with Quaristice a good number of the songs sounded meek in their shorter forms.

hmm i think the Quaristice++ package might just have grown on you more. At least that's how i feel about it… much of the material on Quaristice i would now consider "filler", not in a bad way but rather how it blends nicely with the environment and works as a kind of dynamic aesthetically enhancing soundtrack, this is a special quality of much of Autechre's music and on a good day works like aural LSD, i'm sure you're familiar with the feeling. Probably takes a bit to get used to the material, took me a while until i stopped listening consciously to the melodies or sound design in Quaristice but rather took in the organic structures… or something. Also Oversteps has more in your face melodies etc which grab the attention more…. dunno lol.

I swear to god I keep hearing samples from Untilted in this album... Just now in st epreo.

Anyway, I feel like this album is a much more matured Amber (as I said in the other forum). But I don't know, it's got a lot more of a real feel to it, as if it was made by carefully stitching together the duos thoughts and feelings... not just letting them go hog wild in max/msp.

It's a lot more, note oriented. A lot less focused on abrasive drum sounds (which truthfully I was a little sad about at first, but this album is an amazing advancement in the duos musical journey)

So after blasting Oversteps 24bit WAVs at a volume loud enough it upset the neighbours (by the way, the sound quality is amazing) I have to say this...

Some tracks are immediate. r ess is the most luscious opener to an album that I've heard and it's bookended perfectly with Yuop. However Krylon and pt2ph8 just do nothing for me (maybe I'm not listening hard enough? )

Highlights for me are:

Known(1)

Os Veix3

r ess

O=0

d-sho qub!

Quaristice took me less when I first heard it, but I grew to adore it and still listen to it a LOT. I'm not so sure it'll be a huge grower though, but who knows, it's the above tracks that will keep bringing me back.

All in all it's a beautiful counterpoint to the harsher last albums, nice to see I was spot on about those cavernous sounding synths. There are some gorgeous, ethereal sounds on offer. rly gr8 guise

  On 2/22/2010 at 9:34 PM, six said:

Haven't heard it in all it's 24 bit glory yet, excited to get home and listen!!!

Oh man. Seriously. It's pure sex in your ears.

it will indeed, the 24-bit one is like getting a smooth black penis to ejaculate in your ear drum, the 16-bit m4a one was like an asian man trying to put on a condom

  On 2/22/2010 at 10:08 PM, Awepittance said:

it will indeed, the 24-bit one is like getting a smooth black penis to ejaculate in your ear drum, the 16-bit m4a one was like an asian man trying to put on a condom

Fucking LOL

  On 2/22/2010 at 10:08 PM, Awepittance said:

it will indeed, the 24-bit one is like getting a smooth black penis to ejaculate in your ear drum, the 16-bit m4a one was like an asian man trying to put on a condom

omg I just loled on my conference call

Best AE album for me

it is extremely awesome

Still shit for me. Bland and insipid sum it up best. I'll download the better quality files, but no way am I spending money on it. I have no idea what other people are listening to. Oversteps, Over Autechre. The title does work now. The track titles don't. It's left a void that will never be filled. I genuinely think it's terrible, no exaggeration due by my disappointment of them going in a direction that I'm not happy with, cos that's not true. I hate the stuttering beat of r ess. I don't mind known(1), Qplay and pt2ph8. Can't stand Treale. Next 5 tracks offer nothing. Is that really Yuop?

I'd rather to listen to anything else.

Ok, im another first time listener to Oversteps (in any format) this evening. A first few initial thoughts then, as I am sure it will take a few weeks to fully sink in.

The WAV files sound amazing through my headphones.

r ess is fucking lush. A beautiful opener (as has already been said).

Initially, I do kinda miss the beats; that is what first drew me to Autechre. However (as already mentioned...) I believe there is more to come from Oversteps and when we hear some of this stuff live we may be treated to perhaps some beat-filled versions.

known1 is pretty epic. Although it does in parts remind me of -

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Ncj15V-Kj_c

(which is not a bad thing as Sasha's artist album was actually quite good). pt2ph8 feels like a melancholy continuation of known1, 2 parts of the same soundscape perhaps. Its like the younger, emo brother.

This album gets me very excited about the live show in London. It will either showcase versions of the tracks we find here (I cannot see them doing a beatless live show, but that would be cool...), or it will be a totally mindblowing experience of music that is nothing like this. Either way -

d-sho qub sounds amazing in wav - I think the beats make it stand out in amongst the ambient tracks either side and it fires in like being slapped around the face a few times by E Honda.

The only track that leaves me feeling underwhelmed is krYlon; im not quite sure why it is there. It might make sense one day perhaps.

This initial reactions review is quite difficult to write as I keep drifting off whilst listening to the stuff... slightly stoned is a good overall description really.

I am very impressed - and once again Autechre have ripped up the rulebooks that they never bothered to open in the first place.

  On 2/22/2010 at 10:30 PM, Suffocate Peon said:

Still shit for me. Bland and insipid sum it up best. I'll download the better quality files, but no way am I spending money on it. I have no idea what other people are listening to. Oversteps, Over Autechre. The title does work now. The track titles don't. It's left a void that will never be filled. I genuinely think it's terrible, no exaggeration due by my disappointment of them going in a direction that I'm not happy with, cos that's not true. I hate the stuttering beat of r ess. I don't mind known(1), Qplay and pt2ph8. Can't stand Treale. Next 5 tracks offer nothing. Is that really Yuop?

 

I'd rather to listen to anything else.

  On 2/22/2010 at 10:08 PM, Awepittance said:

it will indeed, the 24-bit one is like getting a smooth black penis to ejaculate in your ear drum, the 16-bit m4a one was like an asian man trying to put on a condom

holy shit. classic.