squarepusher Oversteps - Initial Reactions (for real this time)

krYlon is like getting lost in a very beautiful place. The melody has a touch of sadness and fear, like the pit in your stomach where you're not sure if you will make it home. The progression is meandering and doesn't really go anywhere, but it sparkles at each turn, as awe and beauty strike your heart.

Yes!

Instead of your mind racing to capture and recapture the wicked grooves in something like Parhelic Triangle it's now about capturing and recapturing the beauty in those mixed-up melodies.

i've got like every track stuck in my head wtf i don't even know all their names yet

This album is certainly very addictive! :-)

Obviously part of the initial hatred towards a new Autechre album stems from how different all their albums are. They go down any damn new road they please. But really, I wouldn't want it any other way. I love the feeling from their albums I get- the feeling that they're essentially pleasing themselves alone. I actually find it quite bothersome when music in this genre seems even slightly self-aware, you know? It doesn't matter with more popular forms - I can enjoy those on their own terms. But I sometimes find newer Clark or Squarepusher stuff (or even BoC in the case of TCH) slightly too knowing, a bit too in a hurry to please, but not in a hurry enough to make the jump to the other side... (this doesn't apply to their earlier material.) But Autechre don't care about anyone. They have mostly maintained a nice misanthropic innocence.

I always have trouble with ae names. I'm still stuck on the see on see and treale combo

  On 2/26/2010 at 1:35 AM, Lianne said:

I actually find it quite bothersome when music in this genre seems even slightly self-aware, you know? It doesn't matter with more popular forms - I can enjoy those on their own terms. But I sometimes find newer Clark or Squarepusher stuff (or even BoC in the case of TCH) slightly too knowing, a bit too in a hurry to please, but not in a hurry enough to make the jump to the other side... (this doesn't apply to their earlier material.) But Autechre don't care about anyone. They have mostly maintained a nice misanthropic innocence.

agree completely

  On 2/25/2010 at 9:44 PM, cyphersum said:

an EP with ilanders, qplay, Treale, os veix3, d-sho qub and st epreo would have been a stronger release... forget the lighter counterpoint interludes.

and not that i don't appreciate the 'wind chime' noodlings.

I'm revising my statement after several more listens through.

This LP is more like a movie soundtrack... it's cohesive as a whole with lots on sonic variety in each scene. I think this is going to bump one of my top 5 Ae LPs down a notch.

I'd like to see a video for Treale

I had my first listen yesterday. Dragged cables from my firewire interface to my amp 10 metres away in another room to listen to the 24 bit... and of course at first wondered if I'd done something wrong when I wasn't hearing anything!

Then the album. I don't know yet (what would you expect from one listen?) I was pleased that it was definitely a total surprise in a way that Quaristice wasn't. And to me, Quaristice feels like only 5 mins ago and I still listen to it a lot.

Obviously the main change is the move away from the beats. The sound and feel of it is fantastic. (You people using headphones should get yourselves a room filling stereo.)

Somebody on here said it was 'daylighty', and I feel that way too about the atmosphere.

With the melodic content, the sound is as if like they've gone back towards using more individual synths playing, well, melodic lines. This doesn't mean that the approach is typical of melody in electronic music, but instead of slashed melodies formed out of ghosts of stuttered fragments of multiple synths and whatnot, synths get to play some whole sounds that don't transform and aren't hacked up or stuttered or hidden. They may play 10 lines at once in some tracks but they're clearer lines. This to me brings it back a bit towards more conventional electronic music, but there's still a huge pile of layers and it obviously still sounds like Autechre, whatever that is.

Edit: There are a few tracks where I feel like if you just simplified the sound, it would be totally at home as a c64 game soundtrack. At other times the noodliness reminds me of LP5.

i don't understand why you all love this album. to me it's quite boring compared to quaristice.

  On 2/26/2010 at 8:31 AM, vamos scorcho said:

i don't understand why you all love this album. to me it's quite boring compared to quaristice.

give it some time, it may just envelop you. the other day I totally GOT the more ambient tracks and they just became the most beautiful thing ever

yeah i think i haven't given it much thought yet really. right now qplay sounds beautiful. also the other day when i was listening to known 1 i felt deeply moved. it's definitely their most emotional album, just hasn't clicked yet maybe.

i still think quaristice is way underappreciated around here.

  On 2/26/2010 at 8:31 AM, vamos scorcho said:

i don't understand why you all love this album. to me it's quite boring compared to quaristice.

I know you're talking about not just me, but I'd qualify, while I wasn't surprised by the content of Quaristice, I ultimately did like it. It took me a long time to like all of it (2 years!...) I just got my head round it when Oversteps came out.

And it's day 2 of Oversteps for me and lots of us so... I expect another long voyage ahead to really know what I think. All I know is, my initial reaction is positive, as it was to Quaristice.

One thing about Quaristice though. I liked the 'versions' better. I feel by now that Autechre probably shouldn't have put out 2 versions of so many tracks with that album. If they wanted to enforce their new aesthetic of short tracks, they should've forced it, not let people like me go back and sit around listening to longer versions instead because it was more like the previous 2 albums. But to me, most of my fave developments were in the longer versions.

all the rhythms in the beatless tracks are coming out of the fog for me.

i still have like all the songs in my head even though i only remember glimpses and bits

  On 2/26/2010 at 4:10 PM, theSun said:

all the rhythms in the beatless tracks are coming out of the fog for me.

 

i still have like all the songs in my head even though i only remember glimpses and bits

yep, same thing is happening to me

Just bought my copy yesterday and gave it my first listen in the car. Fucking excellent release, I'm so pleasantly surprised. I hadn't listened to the leak (or the fakes) and was worried by some of the negativity toward the album. Top stuff.

Dare I say this is the most addictive Autechre release to date? It might just be me but its so insanely addicting. Its like going into an audiophile trance with everything else sounding dull and dated compared to it. Its something to do with all the hidden movements in the mists of sequenced fuzz. I never thought it would have this effect when I first listened to it.

I might take a break from it untill I get the vinyl.

i'm absolutely losing my shit over this album. at first it was like "this is good but nowhere near the autechre quality i've come to love." in fact i was somewhat let down. now i'm thinking it's one of my favorites. WTF? isn't this the standard reaction an autechre fan has to a release of one of their new albums?

i'm getting this on vinyl, no doubt. this is possibly going to end up being my favorite autechre album - it's so damn enjoyable to listen to.

  On 2/26/2010 at 7:17 PM, vamos scorcho said:

i'm absolutely losing my shit over this album. at first it was like "this is good but nowhere near the autechre quality i've come to love." in fact i was somewhat let down. now i'm thinking it's one of my favorites. WTF? isn't this the standard reaction an autechre fan has to a release of one of their new albums?

 

i'm getting this on vinyl, no doubt. this is possibly going to end up being my favorite autechre album - it's so damn enjoyable to listen to.

lol, didn't you just ask what we were all going bananas over like yesterday? ae fans are a fickle bunch

yeah haha. this has happened before. untilted. then confield. then draft 7.30. with those three i've had that same "pretty good" to "holy shit" reaction.

i thought the same thing though. first listen i was like... eh i guess the melodies are cool, would have liked more beats a la glasgow but now i'm coming to the predictable conclusion that this album is unique and interesting the same way all the others are.

i don't know how ae can make something you're so against and then you love it after some repetition.

boooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooring

edit: seriously, their worst album by some margin.

I'm in love with this album. It's certainly the fastest Ae release to totally click with me thus far. That being said, there's still a good amount of depth to it. Mainly I like that it has a fairly steady coherent rhythm throughout and it makes it easier to listen to and relax, as opposed to like, Untilted or something. Not that I don't love that album, but sometimes it's too much energy for me.

  On 2/26/2010 at 10:49 PM, ieafs said:

  On 2/26/2010 at 10:37 PM, playbynumbers said:

boooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooring

 

 

 

edit: seriously, their worst album by some margin.

come back in a few months

lol

i find untilted very relaxing