Autechre - NTS 1-4 - reviews

  On 1/13/2025 at 10:25 PM, beerwolf said:

That was my feeling too. I'm not sure as I haven't listened much to NTS. It was at that point that I finally felt I was drowned by a wave, blacked out and engulfed into the abyss. The journey I had loyally traveled with Autechre was finally over. Year zero.

When it came out I kinda felt the same way, like it was just too much. "I love these guys but can I really listen to 18 minutes of t1a1?" I wasn't on watmm during the actual broadcasts so I missed out on the party, and I think if I had been around for that I might have loved the album right away. But my head was somewhere else in spring 2018 and I found out about it sometime later that year, out of context. 

Then I just kinda picked away at it over the years. The tracks are so long that they work well as standalone listening experiences. "I'm going to listen to gonk steady one while I do this batch of dishes" or whatever, a lot of them are 15 minutes which is about the length of my commute downtown. So mostly I have digested this album as single tracks, or a handful of 3-4 tracks at a time. 

The same thing worked for elseq although with the passing of time I've come to see elseq as more fleshed out and cohesive while NTS still feels pretty skeletal and has a lot more filler. 

As with all autechre material, in time I came around to it. Actually I did a lot of digestive listening to NTS tracks in the 2020/2021 lockdown era while out on long night-walks. So lots of these tracks now have a night feel to them, for me.

TBH I don't know if I've ever sat and listened to the sessions from beginning to end. I've always broken them up as individual listening experiences.

NTS sessions has become my "all-purpose Autechre", since I haven't made strong subjective associations/emotional memories with most of these tracks, if I want to hear some AE I can put on an NTS track or two any time of year. I feel like there's still a ton of stuff I haven't discovered in here.

I am liking this so much at the moment- never thought this would happen again but it’s always like that isn’t it

I didn't realize this until recently but the NTS residency is still looping all 8 hours: https://www.nts.live/projects/autechre-nts-residency/

It's nice to just jump in without having to pick a where to start.

It’s funny the tunes I think of as “short” tracks are 6 or 8 minutes long. I love how this album messes with my perception of time. Was it 10 minutes or 25? 

  On 2/12/2025 at 3:02 PM, nizzleone said:

I didn't realize this until recently but the NTS residency is still looping all 8 hours: https://www.nts.live/projects/autechre-nts-residency/

It's nice to just jump in without having to pick a where to start.

Very cool thanks