Are Ae getting better as they age?

  On 12/13/2015 at 12:37 AM, misc said:

 

  On 12/13/2015 at 12:19 AM, Herr Jan said:

Everytime this emotion discussion in old vs. new Autechre comes up, this pops up in my head:

 

 

Well fair enough i guess, just tryna have a discussion though. It's interesting to hear other peoples' view. If we stop every discussion with "it's not as simple as that, you can't categorise this" type attitude well we may as well just stop the forum.

 

Like spiral said, I was agreeing with your point ;)

  On 12/13/2015 at 12:41 AM, hello spiral said:

But....but...

 

He's agreeing with you....

shit did i completely misinterpret what you were saying herr jan?

sorry, thought you were tryna say there was no point in the discussion

alright i wasnt trying to make it seem so one-sided as far as the "emotion" goes. they had alot of emotional material on oversteps imo, but when i put on amber it's like damn i'm hit by so much emotion...

you know the more i think about that maybe alot of it is nostalgia, but still i think there's a disconnect with their new stuff. any kind of emotion is hard to attain for me because it so "out there". i'm really mostly talking about the live stuff they just put out, it really does nothing for me. i can appreciate the sound design, etc. but besides that it's nothing i'm all that into.

i have to say that yes, they have gotten better over the years. earlier works like confield were a bit more avant than the new stuff, but it seems they've used all the techniques they've learned over the years to construct this monster that we are hearing now.

Old material tends to have a stronger emotional resonance for me, but the newer material makes me feel like an ape from 2001 bewildered by the monolith, which I love.

I bought the live sets knowing that it is a lifetime investment — there will always be something to discover. The newer stuff stimulates me in completely different ways, unlike 99% of other music. There are split second moments that tease a little melody which puts a smile on my face, because I know it will disappear in a split second. It reminds me of those photographs you see of earth taken from space. A tiny familiar speck in a huge void.

  On 12/13/2015 at 2:52 AM, gnarlybog said:

Old material tends to have a stronger emotional resonance for me, but the newer material makes me feel like an ape from 2001 bewildered by the monolith, which I love.

  On 12/13/2015 at 2:09 AM, Blank said:

Welp, I think all of their stuff connects with me emotionally in one way or another. Yeah, the sound design is different now and the technical aspects of it are way more complex than before, but... I dunno - Bladelores, Cap IV, Pen Expers, Sublimit, Tkakanren... Are none of those are emotional or characterful for example?

yeah those are like the only tracks i really loved on exai actually, which isn't that good in my book considering there are another 11 or so tracks. don't get me wrong, i like all of their music still. i like it alot actually but im just saying you will find me listening to their older stuff way more often then the new stuff.

you might want to check out exai, gantz graf, cornfield, untilted and quaristice again...

  On 12/13/2015 at 3:14 AM, jules said:

cornfield

i heard they used a lot of grainular synthesis on this one

there are kernels of that buttery tone all over the place.

lentic is like a maize.

  On 12/13/2015 at 12:25 AM, hello spiral said:

 

  On 12/12/2015 at 11:28 PM, orangebattery said:

now i know the true ae fans are gonna disagree with this cause they get riled up anytime someone hates on their two bfs sean and rob

 

http://i.imgur.com/lK9xrXW.gifv

Edit: why on earth are these url tags generated!?

the events occurring in the AE_LIVE recordings have a unified feel, where on Exai the elements feel more more discretely assembled. i think it was sweepstakes who remarked on this in the AE_LIVE thread.. most (all?) of the sounds/processes are interconnected, or 'aware' of one another, every object's action is dependent on each other's, so it feels alive in a sense. like one massive, trembling organism. i like this feature, it's an improvement on Exai's format (a series of pieces). maybe this is their process all along, but these live documents are a fucking marvel.

typically when they release an album, i regress back to earlier albums and hear them fresh, in a broader context. with these live sets i don't feel so compelled to return to exai et al, because the new recordings are massive-sounding, teeming with raw details

  On 12/12/2015 at 12:19 PM, Jev said:

 

  On 12/12/2015 at 11:53 AM, Npoess said:

 

But think there's this thing with AE fans that just because they said themselves that Incunabula was cheesy in some interview (if I remember correct), some fans think they're supposed to think the same.

 

If there are truly fans like that (I have a tendency to doubt it though), I am glad I am not that stupid.

 

However, Incunabula has many cheesy/beginner/basic moments that I truly don't enjoy (still better and more mature sounding than most of the electronic music at that time). It reminds me of my first music attempts which is not really a compliment. There is also many moments that are great and managed to stand the test of time. Amber was a much better produced album but a bit cold sounding frequency-wise and too minimal at times. Again many great moments. Tri Repetae has some excellent tracks but I dislike the cold frequency spectrum again (I prefer the Anvil Vapre EP, Second Peng is one of my absolutely favourite tracks).

 

The worst album for me is Chiastic Slide, though. Two excellent tracks, less cold sounding than previous albums but the rest of the tracks completely forgettable with very boring compositions and not enough development for my taste (might change in the future but I gave it many chances already throughout the years).

 

EDIT: Also, may I ask how old were you when you first heard Incunabula/Amber, Npoess?

 

I think Incunabula has great moment, but a lot of tracks don't really hit the mark for me honestly. It doesn't have the solidity of, say, Bola Soup in my mind.

Chiastic Slide is a FANTASTIC album though! One of my favourite AE releases.

Are Autechre getting better? It's hard to really say, because the old albums hold a lot of memories for me and are so far removed from their current output. I will say, though, that they are certainly not getting worse nor are they standing still. Most artists just can't maintain this level of quality and continual motion for 20+ years. So damn good.

Yeah I gotta say Chiastic Slide is a great example of some lovely textures and ideas that didn't survive the jump into the 2010s. It's evidence that the latest material is not 100% "better" than the 90s stuff, just different.

  On 12/12/2015 at 11:28 PM, orangebattery said:

ae peepz gonna shit on me but i say nah. i honestly don't like alot of what they do these days. when they first shifted styles i was like "damn i like dis alien funk" but now it all sounds samey and too glitchytryhard, i think they ditched alot of the emotion in their earlier stuff.

 

now i know the true ae fans are gonna disagree with this cause they get riled up anytime someone hates on their two bfs sean and rob and they'll say i just don't get it but i'll take amber and tri repetae over exai any day of the week.

That is interesting because I experience more emotions with their later output than with quite cold Tri Repetae. I would not label their later output as glitch-try-hard music but I have certainly heard music from different producers I would label this way. There is a lot of elegance and smoothness to their later output. 1 1 is or Osla for n are flowing smoothly like water imo. A seamless flow of emotional music. And Oversteps...

  On 12/13/2015 at 1:38 AM, orangebattery said:

you know the more i think about that maybe alot of it is nostalgia,

Yeah it's nostalgia. I got into ae properly when Draft was released and it's still the album I feel clicks most with me, as I've been listening to that one the longest. On the other hand I found Amber the hardest to get into because of its minimal nature.

This is also the reason you get the same reaction from around 50% of people on here when a new album drops for one of the popular artists "eurgh, this is nowhere near as good as the earlier album that I've listened to 5000 times and become familiar with" (See: Syro)

  On 12/13/2015 at 4:33 AM, barbara planar said:

the events occurring in the AE_LIVE recordings have a unified feel, where on Exai the elements feel more more discretely assembled. i think it was sweepstakes who remarked on this in the AE_LIVE thread.. most (all?) of the sounds/processes are interconnected, or 'aware' of one another, every object's action is dependent on each other's, so it feels alive in a sense. like one massive, trembling organism. i like this feature, it's an improvement on Exai's format (a series of pieces). maybe this is their process all along, but these live documents are a fucking marvel.

 

typically when they release an album, i regress back to earlier albums and hear them fresh, in a broader context. with these live sets i don't feel so compelled to return to exai et al, because the new recordings are massive-sounding, teeming with raw details

That's why I like their albums so much though. They come across as painstakingly made thinkpieces, each track its own little universe. The live stuff is always more immediate because it's improvised/done on the fly. I appreciate both obviously but for different reasons.

Agreed on the living organism feeling.

I'm still doing the regressing thing, always will I think.

Slowly coming around to Oversteps more and for some reason I find myself putting on Quaristice (versions) lately, post-liveset listen.

I'm certainly getting a lot more mileage out of 'em.

  On 12/13/2015 at 12:12 PM, hello spiral said:

Yeah it's nostalgia. I got into ae properly when Draft was released and it's still the album I feel clicks most with me, as I've been listening to that one the longest. On the other hand I found Amber the hardest to get into because of its minimal nature.

Yeah i'm sure nostalgia is a big part of it, amber was the first ae album i listened to and i fell in love right away.

  On 12/13/2015 at 11:48 AM, Jev said:

 

  On 12/12/2015 at 11:28 PM, orangebattery said:

ae peepz gonna shit on me but i say nah. i honestly don't like alot of what they do these days. when they first shifted styles i was like "damn i like dis alien funk" but now it all sounds samey and too glitchytryhard, i think they ditched alot of the emotion in their earlier stuff.

 

now i know the true ae fans are gonna disagree with this cause they get riled up anytime someone hates on their two bfs sean and rob and they'll say i just don't get it but i'll take amber and tri repetae over exai any day of the week.

That is interesting because I experience more emotions with their later output than with quite cold Tri Repetae. I would not label their later output as glitch-try-hard music but I have certainly heard music from different producers I would label this way. There is a lot of elegance and smoothness to their later output. 1 1 is or Osla for n are flowing smoothly like water imo. A seamless flow of emotional music. And Oversteps...

 

I love the coldness and grittiness of Tri Repetae, that's in fact what brings out the emotions for me with that album. At the end of the day what makes someone emotional is completely subjective, and is a debate that can go on forever, so I'm done in that department. As far as glitchytryhard, that's the impression i got with the live stuff but see below for more on that. They certainly do it the best, I'm not disagreeing with that at all.

Quaristice and the live stuff has certainly been my least favorite of their recent stuff, with oversteps being probably my favorite. is there a better live set than the krakow one? that's the only one i downloaded since people on here were hyping it up so much, but i really did not like it. i think they were just pushing it way too far, too chaotic...kinda became a chore to listen to. i understand that's because they improvise the live stuff and i can totally understand why some people like that but it's not for me. i prefer the more controlled chaos they do on their albums. if there's a live set people think i will like better, im all for trying it out.

and just to reiterate, I still like their music, they still make some of the finest electronic music known to man.

  On 12/13/2015 at 7:13 PM, orangebattery said:

 

  On 12/13/2015 at 12:12 PM, hello spiral said:

Yeah it's nostalgia. I got into ae properly when Draft was released and it's still the album I feel clicks most with me, as I've been listening to that one the longest. On the other hand I found Amber the hardest to get into because of its minimal nature.

Yeah i'm sure nostalgia is a big part of it, amber was the first ae album i listened to and i fell in love right away.

 

  On 12/13/2015 at 11:48 AM, Jev said:

 

  On 12/12/2015 at 11:28 PM, orangebattery said:

ae peepz gonna shit on me but i say nah. i honestly don't like alot of what they do these days. when they first shifted styles i was like "damn i like dis alien funk" but now it all sounds samey and too glitchytryhard, i think they ditched alot of the emotion in their earlier stuff.

 

now i know the true ae fans are gonna disagree with this cause they get riled up anytime someone hates on their two bfs sean and rob and they'll say i just don't get it but i'll take amber and tri repetae over exai any day of the week.

That is interesting because I experience more emotions with their later output than with quite cold Tri Repetae. I would not label their later output as glitch-try-hard music but I have certainly heard music from different producers I would label this way. There is a lot of elegance and smoothness to their later output. 1 1 is or Osla for n are flowing smoothly like water imo. A seamless flow of emotional music. And Oversteps...

 

I love the coldness and grittiness of Tri Repetae, that's in fact what brings out the emotions for me with that album. At the end of the day what makes someone emotional is completely subjective, and is a debate that can go on forever, so I'm done in that department. As far as glitchytryhard, that's the impression i got with the live stuff but see below for more on that. They certainly do it the best, I'm not disagreeing with that at all.

 

Quaristice and the live stuff has certainly been my least favorite of their recent stuff, with oversteps being probably my favorite. is there a better live set than the krakow one? that's the only one i downloaded since people on here were hyping it up so much, but i really did not like it. i think they were just pushing it way too far, too chaotic...kinda became a chore to listen to. i understand that's because they improvise the live stuff and i can totally understand why some people like that but it's not for me. i prefer the more controlled chaos they do on their albums. if there's a live set people think i will like better, im all for trying it out.

 

and just to reiterate, I still like their music, they still make some of the finest electronic music known to man.

 

I would say that the Krakow set is needed to be listened to carefully and repetitively. It is just too much to absorb at once. It is a complicated, not chaotic music imo. After a while it will all start give a sense. I had the same problem as you have with the set. Now I really like it. I suggest you just to stick with it and really try to listen carefully.

Dublin > Krakow

^this man knows

Kraków is chaotic and noizaey, so I understand you might be not convinced at first. Try Utrecht. A mindbogling track!

  On 12/12/2015 at 11:57 PM, jules said:

that being said, this new live stuff is beastly. at time it's almost impenetrable and difficult. since there are now 9 hours of it (and counting) id love if the next album was more accessible.

Weird how perceptions differ, I find what I've heard of the soundboards so far (I've listened to Krakow, Brussels and Utrecht several times each) some of their more accessible work.

  On 12/14/2015 at 6:23 PM, Rotwang said:

 

  On 12/12/2015 at 11:57 PM, jules said:

that being said, this new live stuff is beastly. at time it's almost impenetrable and difficult. since there are now 9 hours of it (and counting) id love if the next album was more accessible.

Weird how perceptions differ, I find what I've heard of the soundboards so far (I've listened to Krakow, Brussels and Utrecht several times each) some of their more accessible work.

 

the beauty of ae

I've found the accessibility varies set to set which is pretty interesting. Seems to go with their moods or something. When they throw in a curveball like the guitar chords at the end of Krakow it reminded me of known(1) a bit. They like these acoustic sounds on their machines but only use them briefly and it works to great effect.

  On 12/14/2015 at 6:23 PM, Rotwang said:

 

  On 12/12/2015 at 11:57 PM, jules said:

that being said, this new live stuff is beastly. at time it's almost impenetrable and difficult. since there are now 9 hours of it (and counting) id love if the next album was more accessible.

Weird how perceptions differ, I find what I've heard of the soundboards so far (I've listened to Krakow, Brussels and Utrecht several times each) some of their more accessible work.

 

It really depends on what part of the frequency spectrum a listener prefers. A listener used to listen to mids (because of rock music for example) may not be very attentive to compositions happening in the bass for example. I remember when I first heard Orbital's Brown Album, I thought it was a repetitive, boring music. Then I realized I was listening only to the most prominent parts I was so used to listen to around that time instead of the stuff elsewhere in the frequency spectrum that were actually evolving and really taking care of the whole composition. It was a major change in thinking for me back then. It is all about finding a pattern in the music. Then it all makes sense. Those sub-bass kicks in the sets are easy to overlook (depending on your audio system) yet they carry much of all the clues to the music. At least this is my theory.

Or maybe I can just boil it down to "it depends on a listener's experience and ratios of various combinations of familiar and unfamiliar stuff".

Just thinking out loud...