Autechre the current era of AE

I feel there is something ominous and deliciously eerie in the current phase of Autechre that i think has always been present, but has now fully manifested itself especially since Oversteps and listening to Exai sometimes nearly reminds me of the feeling i get from watching Eraserhead, but in a good way if that makes sense. I just love how their early industrial influence and I guess their love of bands like Coil, Throbbing Gristle and Cabaret Voltaire is captured in their music these day

Any comments?

no comment

I feel they hit a new ground with Oversteps, and has taken a more complete form with Exai. Definitaly feel a progress in this new album by Autechre.

nah

We're now in the year CEAE 5. And Exai is still better than Oversteps.

Well it is the beginning of a new cycle according the Mayans. Go with the flow guys :D

Good point.

I think Untilted was balanced midway between old ae and new ae. Quaristice was the real change into weird territory, Oversteps was better but still weird, Exai is good but also quite weird. I think the progression from Incunab through Draft was pretty logical, but everything after has been kinda...interesting

their earlier albums felt quite clever and catchy. not so much anymore. more organic and meditative nowadays. wiki doesn't give their ages but I reckon they are middle aged now? i'd have a clearer opinion but MOT throws a wrench in my perception of whats going on with their recent output.

  On 2/24/2013 at 6:10 AM, RadarJammer said:

wiki doesn't give their ages but I reckon they are middle aged now?

SB and RB were born in 1970 and 1972 respectively.

ae legofeet-quaristice were expansions of similar ideas. after quaristice tour, i think they felt that style of composing/arranging had reached it's peak. they used hardware extensively and had really dancey, repetitive structures built up through layers of increasing complexity.

bladelores and yjy ux are most reminiscent of this idea, with 4+ layers vying for your attention over 10 minutes. but there is stil far more variation in either of these beats than say, milk dx or rotar or lcc.

since oversteps (with glimpses in quaristice), they're squishing the complex parts into more a more fleeting arrangement, less based on layers and more based on the variation within the layers. those noodly leads on oversteps aren't predictable, let alone repetitive.

i also just want to throw an lol in there, that ae seems to have completely said "fuck it" with regards to proper theory and chord progressions. vekoS and 1 1 is are prime examples, along with the very end of irlite get 0. once you're familiar with the track, it sounds better but on the initial listen you're just like WAT

  On 2/24/2013 at 5:48 AM, lumpenprol said:

I think Untilted was balanced midway between old ae and new ae. Quaristice was the real change into weird territory, Oversteps was better but still weird, Exai is good but also quite weird. I think the progression from Incunab through Draft was pretty logical, but everything after has been kinda...interesting

Quaristice was their gateway into surrealism. And Oversteps and Exai has cemented that surreal quality. there is in my opinion a strong and dark dreamlike feel to those releases. Their focus seems to have shifted more to the atmospheric. Whereas their apparent striving for clinical perfection saw its end with Untilted.

their latests works are the best fucking psychodelic musick ever

Shit, this thread is reminding me how much goodness there is to go back through (and yet here I sit with exai on repeat). I'm a little more partial to the Amber thru "white period" material (Chastic, Cichlisuite, Envane, Radio Mix!, LP5, ep7) because they seem have crafted with more emotion, at least to me anyway. The breadth of the Ae sound was pretty much carved out by Untilted; the more recent stuff seems to be more about exploring different depths/dimensions of it, which is still interesting albeit in a different way.

worst first topic posted ever.

I think their linear progression into complexity has to do with the simultaneous exponential advance to computing power that happened throughout the 90/2000's. Also a move from thrift store find gear to more elaborate set up also cannot be forgotten.

As far as huge jumps in possibilities for working with audio, we're not seeing that as much, industry wise right now. It's more of a refinement of ideas. (or detours/left turns) and we're seeing that with Ae as well..

1 1 is is so psychedelic

The melancholy feel reminds me of Rae

Tbh I think it could have used some parts of Rae. Idk why I get that feel from it. Will try to pinpoint samples or structure.

  On 2/25/2013 at 4:26 PM, theSun said:

ae legofeet-quaristice were expansions of similar ideas. after quaristice tour, i think they felt that style of composing/arranging had reached it's peak. they used hardware extensively and had really dancey, repetitive structures built up through layers of increasing complexity.

 

bladelores and yjy ux are most reminiscent of this idea, with 4+ layers vying for your attention over 10 minutes. but there is stil far more variation in either of these beats than say, milk dx or rotar or lcc.

 

since oversteps (with glimpses in quaristice), they're squishing the complex parts into more a more fleeting arrangement, less based on layers and more based on the variation within the layers. those noodly leads on oversteps aren't predictable, let alone repetitive.

 

i also just want to throw an lol in there, that ae seems to have completely said "fuck it" with regards to proper theory and chord progressions. vekoS and 1 1 is are prime examples, along with the very end of irlite get 0. once you're familiar with the track, it sounds better but on the initial listen you're just like WAT

great fucking post

I guess Untilted could be read as the zenith of their 'audio architecture' approach. Quaristice is probably the most important LP in their career, in terms of the new pathways it has created for them to follow. After Untilted, I feel they needed a reset, that album achieved a pinnacle of their previous decades work. Quaristice was going back to the drawing board and rediscovering a love for the many possibilities in their music.

I do hear a lot of Oversteps in Exai, especially in the first several tracks. Its like Oversteps filtered through Untilted or something, or both albums wrestling.

Still don't find Exai to have Oversteps elements really. Oversteps stands on its own. Stands strong too.

oversteps that is in exai - the irlite noodly monkey synths, FM SYNTHESIS

they are seriously in love with this fm shit

  On 2/27/2013 at 8:06 AM, Roo said:

I guess Untilted could be read as the zenith of their 'audio architecture' approach. Quaristice is probably the most important LP in their career, in terms of the new pathways it has created for them to follow. After Untilted, I feel they needed a reset, that album achieved a pinnacle of their previous decades work. Quaristice was going back to the drawing board and rediscovering a love for the many possibilities in their music.

 

I do hear a lot of Oversteps in Exai, especially in the first several tracks. Its like Oversteps filtered through Untilted or something, or both albums wrestling.

i also see untilted as the culmination of all autechre before. i see quaristice as a jam-fun album. oversteps was their huge change in direction. to me, quaristice honestly is just rob and sean playing with hardware for hours and hours and hours. oversteps was a change in the method for track creation.

there are elements in quaristice (throwing live untilted and live quari sets in too) that are present in oversteps, but the quaristice->oversteps transition is like a fundamental shift, illustrated well by the oversteps live sets, which are easily distinguishable from all other era ae.

  On 2/27/2013 at 4:51 AM, usagi said:

 

it's a decent enough topic. I personally feel Exai is pretty dark, especially with the rising synths in Bladelores which actually remind me a bit of Skinny Puppy's Worlock. also some of the tracks towards the end of the Quaristice versions release are the most ominous, bleak Ae tracks I've ever heard. Oversteps is the odd one out though, I find it pretty calm and blissful and inquisitive. so overall I don't agree with the notion that the "current era" is consistently dark and industrial.

In my opinion Oversteps has a haunting and eerie quality to it that I feel accompanies Exai and Quaristice quite well.........But hey, after all its all in the eye of the beholder.