mot/oversteps sonically ahead of draft/confield?

going back to draft after endurance runs on move of ten and oversteps...it seems like both latters are miles ahead sonically. draft still sounds wicked good but no where near the qualities of the new stuff.

admittedly i got into Autechre quite late on so i look at their past work without the nostalgia and looking subjectively at their entire work (Gantz Graff aside) the newer stuff just sounds far more intricate to me especially since Untilted

  On 7/19/2010 at 1:06 AM, elusive4 said:

draft still sounds wicked good but no where near the qualities of the new stuff.

LOL

That's just like... your opinion... man...

maybe their complexity makes you think that, but i don't think they are sonically ahead of those records you mention. somehow i get your point.

im talking about the sonic quality, not the music quality.

how on earth did you misinterpret

  On 7/19/2010 at 2:20 AM, elusive4 said:

im talking about the sonic quality, not the music quality.

 

how on earth did you misinterpret

lol i am talking about the sonic quality as well. what is wrong with you man?

  On 7/19/2010 at 1:06 AM, elusive4 said:

going back to draft after endurance runs on move of ten and oversteps...it seems like both latters are miles ahead sonically. draft still sounds wicked good but no where near the qualities of the new stuff.

sonically ahead in what way?

they are using FM sounds they've been using heavily since LP5 and being more raw in their approach than ever before since perhaps Incunabula or Legofeet.

if anything it's a step backwards.

the mixing on the new stuff also sounds like they are inspired by 'dirty' production like that of Terror Danjah, J dilla, Mr. Oizo (or scorn's newest stuff). I know al of those producers are very different from one another but they all share a similar trait. I find that AE as mixing engineers don't have this sound succinctly 'down' yet in the same way Terror Danjah or Scorn does. I prefer when Autechre deals engineering wise with styles of mixing that they seem very accomplished with like the mixing on Draft to me is impeccable .It sounds like it was made by someone who's done a lot of experimenting and subtle tweaking with the right compressors to get it to sound *just* right. I get a much more 'rough' and haphazard sound out of their last 2 albums (especially moves of ten). Untilted was the last LP of theirs that was mixed in a consistently good way for me.

so in short i absolutely 100% disagree with your thesis (sonically or musically).

edit: Quaristice was a mixed bag sonically, it had a huge variety of things to very clean crispy and minature to large spacious dirty atmospheres. Oversteps is not mixed badly, my above criticisms are mostly in reference to moves of ten.

Have to agree with Awepittance on that...

Its bolder and more raw (Move of Ten in particular). But I guess it does have a different (not necessarily superior) integrity to the sonics. Hard to explain myself.. but I mean its got more variation with different sounds coming together. Different textures, different contrasts.

In short, its different. But all of their stuff is different v_v

I think I understand what you mean. The timbrel qualities sound more lush to me.

I think Oversteps/MoT sound intentionally retro. It sounds too me like new Autechre but made with old sounds.

It's certainly cleaner and more spacious than their earlier albums but I don't put that down to sound design, I think that's all mixing. They obviously put A LOT of effort into mixing or they wouldn't have released 24 bit wavs of them.

And also I quite like the dirty, muddy sounding mix that Confield has, clean doesn't necessarily equal forward thinking... although I guess there's a bit of opinion there too.

I like them all in their own right. >_>

confield yes, draft no. i never thought confield was mixed that great, in fact the whole album is pretty underwhelming considering everyone here vomits some iteration of "OMG CONFIELD IS BEST LOL". draft on the other hand, while it also doesn't REALLY click with me groove-wise (not like envane, cichlisuite, untilted), sonically it is basically perfect.

oversteps and mot are mixed well, but in a certain style that isn't as much about perfection as draft and not as much about pushing limits as confield. i don't know if i agree that they're "dirty" but i do like the idea that they are retro and inherently lower fidelity. of course they didn't go back in time and get shittier gear, but i think this is one of the effects of having a new system that they're still working out the kinks with.

but yeah, the day i hear something "sonically ahead" of draft is the day i poop my pants, meaning not for another 40-60 years.

  On 7/19/2010 at 1:47 AM, Enter a new display name said:

  On 7/19/2010 at 1:06 AM, elusive4 said:

draft still sounds wicked good but no where near the qualities of the new stuff.

LOL

i have to go against the consensus.. I don't know if draft is perfect. yeah there's a few amazing tracks on it but some of the production is pretty harsh. the use of dry, tinny, overly trebly, grating hip hop percussion samples.. for example i love the opening of v-proc but once the percussion kicks in it pretty much ruins the track for me. it's so out of place, recognizable and harsh compared with the lush abstraction of the background that it feels like being stabbed in the ears with a fork.

Agreed, I could never get into the latter half of Surripere or V-Proc really because the percussion is just so over the top and grating to me.

  On 7/19/2010 at 6:36 PM, six said:

Agreed, I could never get into fucking love the latter half of Surripere or V-Proc really because the percussion is just so over the top and grating to me.

Fixed for my opinion

When the percussion kicks in at the end of V-Proc, I want to break dance in zero gravity.

clearly im not communicating my initial thought well enough - should have known watmm

  On 7/19/2010 at 6:08 PM, TwiddleBot said:

feels like being stabbed in the ears with a fork.

this is not pleasure?

  On 7/19/2010 at 6:08 PM, TwiddleBot said:

i have to go against the consensus.. I don't know if draft is perfect. yeah there's a few amazing tracks on it but some of the production is pretty harsh. the use of dry, tinny, overly trebly, grating hip hop percussion samples.. for example i love the opening of v-proc but once the percussion kicks in it pretty much ruins the track for me. it's so out of place, recognizable and harsh compared with the lush abstraction of the background that it feels like being stabbed in the ears with a fork.

well don't get me wrong, i'm not trying to say that Draft was not 'harsh' but no where in it does it have intentionally dirty or distorted mixing techniques. The harshness is of a different flavor. When i refer to Moves of Ten i am describing a failed AE attempt at emulating 'dirty' production.

Oversteps is the most interesting progressive music I have heard in years. I have given it many many listens, while Draft/Confield are probably my least listened Autechre albums. I think the perfection of Draft's beats lead many to think it is sonically more impressive, but Oversteps feels like something that was slaved over. I can barely verbalize why its so impressive, but I really think its groundbreaking. Perhaps their best album yet.

I actually hated the sound design/mix on Draft for a long time but I'm starting to warm up to it. I think it was the first time since Amber that they've sounded so "synthetic"... Everything from Tri-Repetae through to Confield sounds like it was either dug out of the ground or a swamp, or built from actual machines and robots. But to me, everything from Draft onwards sounds more like it was made using synths and drum machines, albiet in a way that NO ONE ELSE possibly could. At first I didn't like this much, but now I kinda get into it.

It's kind of like they took electronic music as we know it and twisted it into something new and kind of disgusting but in a beautiful way.

Inconclusive Thread

Wouldn't read again

  On 7/20/2010 at 10:31 AM, Springymajig said:

I actually hated the sound design/mix on Draft for a long time but I'm starting to warm up to it. I think it was the first time since Amber that they've sounded so "synthetic"... Everything from Tri-Repetae through to Confield sounds like it was either dug out of the ground or a swamp, or built from actual machines and robots. But to me, everything from Draft onwards sounds more like it was made using synths and drum machines, albiet in a way that NO ONE ELSE possibly could. At first I didn't like this much, but now I kinda get into it.

 

It's kind of like they took electronic music as we know it and twisted it into something new and kind of disgusting but in a beautiful way.

Funny that you thought Draft sounded "synthetic" when it probably has the most organic samples of any Autechre album and used very little software at all.