Still can't get into draft.

Would it be too flat and non dimensional to say that the precision and focus here on Draft 7.30 is more on the beats and less on the melody? I mean very less on the melody. Almost as if the beats are trying to replicate the function of the melody. And the melody is running scared, bombarded by rampant, overtaking beats.

Maybe this is true for Autechre in general, but still, it's how I explain not being able to get fully into this release.

Saying that there are some sweet numbers on this one. V-proc, VL AL 5, Reniform Puls.

Also I really wish there was more of both Tapr and Theme Of Sudden Roundabout. Seems like they stop before they've come into full flower. Shame really.

I've never thought that Draft is scant on melody... there's about as much (if not moreso) than on Confield and DEFINITELY more than on Untilted.

But for me the problem is that I just don't find any of the melodies appealing... they're dark but in a way that sounds kinda cartoony and haloweeny, whereas tracks like Parhelic Triangle and UnderBOAC are really dark and barely melodic, but I find them to be more genuinely terrifying.

But then on Quaristice, these quirky cutesy "scarey" tunes work ok because the sound design and everything is really playful and cutesy and quirky too.

Also, Draft is where their sound design lost all the grittiness and earthiness they used to have, which I miss but the ultra clean sound design does work well on Oversteps.

I'd like to balance out my argument by saying that I think Draft does do somethings exceptionally well, the sort of straight up hiphop robotty bits like V-Proc, 6IE.CR, P.:NTIL and the beginning of Reniform Puls are fantastic.

  On 11/6/2011 at 5:53 PM, sergeantk said:

After all this time, Draft is the only studio album of theirs I have trouble listening to. I enjoy Confield, Quaristice, Oversteps, LP5 etc a lot, but I still can't get into Draft.

 

What is it about this album that makes it so unaccessable?

Maybe the fact that it's their best?

  On 11/7/2011 at 9:35 PM, Super lurker ultra V12 said:

Haha, one of my all time favorite WATMM images from way back.

  On 11/11/2011 at 6:22 AM, Springymajig said:

the beginning of Reniform Puls are fantastic.

The entire track is in my top three, and I actually like the second, ingenious half more than the first, brilliant half. But that mentioning of beginning of reniform puls being fantastic reminded me of Surripere some have mentioned here. To me, after like 6:30 it sounds like a failed experiment (oh, and if you want to say "YOU sound like a failed experiment" it's out there so it won't be half as funny anymore). Anyone else?

  On 11/11/2011 at 6:22 AM, Springymajig said:

I've never thought that Draft is scant on melody... there's about as much (if not moreso) than on Confield and DEFINITELY more than on Untilted.

 

But for me the problem is that I just don't find any of the melodies appealing... they're dark but in a way that sounds kinda cartoony and haloweeny, whereas tracks like Parhelic Triangle and UnderBOAC are really dark and barely melodic, but I find them to be more genuinely terrifying.

 

But then on Quaristice, these quirky cutesy "scarey" tunes work ok because the sound design and everything is really playful and cutesy and quirky too.

 

Also, Draft is where their sound design lost all the grittiness and earthiness they used to have, which I miss but the ultra clean sound design does work well on Oversteps.

 

I'd like to balance out my argument by saying that I think Draft does do somethings exceptionally well, the sort of straight up hiphop robotty bits like V-Proc, 6IE.CR, P.:NTIL and the beginning of Reniform Puls are fantastic.

Maybe not scant on melody, but on Draft it sounds like the melody and beats are kind of unsure of each others motives and move around each other in a "lazy" kind of way. Whereas on Untilted they seem more in sync and have a better understanding of each other (less TILTED than Draft )

But yeah, Draft lacks the dense surgical terror of Confield. And hasn't got the fast/frantic/direct sound of Untilted, though I reckon Iera could have easily worked on Draft on account of its "sluggish" lopsided feel.

  On 11/13/2011 at 5:17 PM, Xenblake said:

Maybe not scant on melody, but on Draft it sounds like the melody and beats are kind of unsure of each others motives and move around each other in a "lazy" kind of way... Iera could have easily worked on Draft on account of its "sluggish" lopsided feel.

Actually YES this is EXACTLY how I feel about Draft.... not that it sounds like they didn't put hard work into it (I mean, it's incredibly detailed) but the feel of it is lazy, sluggish, draining, lethargic, bored etc. And I really have just never been able to enjoy music like that. Same thing about BoC's Campfire Headphase.... beautifully produced, but it just makes me feel like I've been sitting in the sun for too long.

And Draft just makes me feel like I've got a cold.

Just picked up draft on LP. I love it.

you would

I like to put this on at night with the lights off and since I use a cd player the light from the cd player + the music produces this cool, futuristic headspace, or so i think. Draft is pretty damn cold and dark in places, really cool imo.

Draft is my favorite after Confield. I imagine it's inaccessible for a lot of people because the rhythms are more obtuse (for the most part) than any of their other releases. It's not foot tapping music, but the sound design is orgasmic.

  On 11/13/2011 at 5:17 PM, Xenblake said:

  On 11/11/2011 at 6:22 AM, Springymajig said:

I've never thought that Draft is scant on melody... there's about as much (if not moreso) than on Confield and DEFINITELY more than on Untilted.

 

But for me the problem is that I just don't find any of the melodies appealing... they're dark but in a way that sounds kinda cartoony and haloweeny, whereas tracks like Parhelic Triangle and UnderBOAC are really dark and barely melodic, but I find them to be more genuinely terrifying.

 

But then on Quaristice, these quirky cutesy "scarey" tunes work ok because the sound design and everything is really playful and cutesy and quirky too.

 

Also, Draft is where their sound design lost all the grittiness and earthiness they used to have, which I miss but the ultra clean sound design does work well on Oversteps.

 

I'd like to balance out my argument by saying that I think Draft does do somethings exceptionally well, the sort of straight up hiphop robotty bits like V-Proc, 6IE.CR, P.:NTIL and the beginning of Reniform Puls are fantastic.

 

Maybe not scant on melody, but on Draft it sounds like the melody and beats are kind of unsure of each others motives and move around each other in a "lazy" kind of way. Whereas on Untilted they seem more in sync and have a better understanding of each other (less TILTED than Draft )

But yeah, Draft lacks the dense surgical terror of Confield. And hasn't got the fast/frantic/direct sound of Untilted, though I reckon Iera could have easily worked on Draft on account of its "sluggish" lopsided feel.

I honestly think Sean and Rob were aware of this and playing off expectations in Untilted. I've said this before, but I think what makes Draft a bit inaccessible is in the way the 'Chre makes the deconstruction of the tracks so uncompromising-- you start with something borderline accessible, and generally end on a more abstracted, less accessible note with Draft (this isn't true with every track, but it seems to be a conscious theme of the album, with Surripere as obvious thematic centerpiece).

On Untilted, the compositional theme seems to run in the other direction; the 'Chre tend to start off abstracted and abrasive and end on a solid groove. So, yeah, hence the title. It's like Draft resolving itself. And that's the "issue," if you can call it that, with Draft-- the fellas don't give you much resolution. (The middle ground is on Confield I think, which starts alien as fuck and ends alien as fuck and you get a sense of inhabiting some ambient, exotic, unfamiliar space rather than following a musical composition's progression).

I think Draft is brilliant, though. The only part I question is the juicy farts in the otherwise wonderful Reniform Puls, but I guess you can't have a track about kidney beans without including the effects of kidney beans.

  On 11/15/2011 at 12:04 AM, baph said:

I honestly think Sean and Rob were aware of this and playing off expectations in Untilted. I've said this before, but I think what makes Draft a bit inaccessible is in the way the 'Chre makes the deconstruction of the tracks so uncompromising-- you start with something borderline accessible, and generally end on a more abstracted, less accessible note with Draft (this isn't true with every track, but it seems to be a conscious theme of the album, with Surripere as obvious thematic centerpiece).

 

On Untilted, the compositional theme seems to run in the other direction; the 'Chre tend to start off abstracted and abrasive and end on a solid groove. So, yeah, hence the title. It's like Draft resolving itself. And that's the "issue," if you can call it that, with Draft-- the fellas don't give you much resolution. (The middle ground is on Confield I think, which starts alien as fuck and ends alien as fuck and you get a sense of inhabiting some ambient, exotic, unfamiliar space rather than following a musical composition's progression).

Yeah that all makes a lot of sense, Reniform Puls is a good example of starting out really strong and then falling to pieces, meandering and then fizzling out.

I like the way they do this sometimes though, like P.:NTL, one of the few tracks off the album I can enjoy quite thoroughly, I think it falls apart beautifully.

good post baff

  On 11/7/2011 at 9:35 PM, Super lurker ultra V12 said:

lol

  On 11/15/2011 at 12:04 AM, baph said:

 

what makes Draft a bit inaccessible is in the way the 'Chre makes the deconstruction of the tracks so uncompromising-- you start with something borderline accessible, and generally end on a more abstracted, less accessible note with Draft (this isn't true with every track, but it seems to be a conscious theme of the album, with Surripere as obvious thematic centerpiece).

 

On Untilted, the compositional theme seems to run in the other direction; the 'Chre tend to start off abstracted and abrasive and end on a solid groove. So, yeah, hence the title. It's like Draft resolving itself.

Troof.

Just listened to Draft all the way through for the first time in years bc of this and re-fell in love with Surripere

But I still can't fully get into EP7, Draft, Confield, Untitled as much as their other stuff (Draft is my fav out of those 4 though). I could never remember which songs go with which track titles because it all blended together to me ..a load of clicks and thumps with melodies scarcely thrown in between. For the most part, there is no warmness to be found and I can only live in a cold dark environment for so long.

Wait, scratch that.. I just realized that "Pir" is on EP7 -which provides enough warmth to make up for 10000 confields.

Of those four I'd say there is plenty of warmth on EP7, also the most varied IMO.

Funny, I think draft is easily the "warmest" of those albums

  On 11/6/2011 at 8:27 PM, sweepstakes said:

The last track of this and Confield don't really work for me - they sound sort of melancholy but there's not really a good sense of closure or release. They just arrive at a stasis and end.

You used the words i'd use to describe Confield to myself. But let me play with them: Confield is like an observation of sculpture, something you look at closely, still kind of emotionless and reveried - like when you see something for the first time. To me it is elaborate, but without good sense of closure or release; when you're just woken up from a stasis. Chiastic is probably my favourite, and just like you said, the only thing that makes sense when it's there. Recury. And it's the same with Confield which also makes some proper sense, y'kno what I mean?

Didnt mean ep7 was warm... just pir. I definitely agree that draft doesn't sound as cold as the others in that group though

Confield to me remains their most organic album. To me it's like a horror film, where each track represents the forces of nature making mince meat out of us, often despite our advances in technology. It's all about blizzards and lava and earthquakes and overgrowing fungus. Lentic Catachresis is about lightning to me.

  On 11/18/2011 at 6:18 AM, Springymajig said:

Confield to me remains their most organic album. To me it's like a horror film, where each track represents the forces of nature making mince meat out of us, often despite our advances in technology. It's all about blizzards and lava and earthquakes and overgrowing fungus. Lentic Catachresis is about lightning to me.

Yep.

To me, Confield and Draft represent the same thing. Except Confield was 'grown' and Draft was 'built'.

VL AL5 is like being trapped inside a black cloud. I think anyone struggling to get into the album should start with that track. I much prefer the tracks on Draft like this, like Theme of Sudden Roundabout and Tapr that are fuzzy, and have swirling, mysterious and an almost poetic magnetic beauty to them that surpasses any music I can compare it to. As opposed to the tracks that relentlessly beat you down, like the last halves of Surripere, V-Proc and IV Vv IV Vv VIII. I've always thought they are the weakest parts of the album and I still think they are. They're not as fun and enjoyable to listen to as I think they're supposed to be. 61e.CR almost descends into the same repetitive tedium before the melody saves it. I love engimatic Autechre.