Autechre - NTS 1-4 - reviews

I liked the review actually.

Thank y'all for reading it so I don't have to.

What score did they give it?

  On 5/15/2018 at 2:47 PM, Salvatorin said:

I liked the review actually.

#metoo

Though, I'd prefer a review to go more into the tracks or even just the feel of each session, rather than just outlining who the boise are and what they do.

Besides, the score is highest since Confield! NTS must be good then!

Deep cuts on yt announced that a review of NTS is in the works, that could be better.

  On 5/15/2018 at 2:47 PM, Salvatorin said:

I liked the review actually.

Same. One of the best I've read in fact.

More or less as good a review as possible I think, given the unprecedented circumstances (that is an 8 hour album by artists in a field of one). Rating to one decimal place notwithstanding.

Interesting choice of reviewer in Nos, given he's more generally known for writing about hip hop. Obviously knows his autechral onions.

It does at least demonstrate some maturation beyond "aphex", "bleeps and bloops" and aesthete chewing over song titles. "Warp" has all but warped into invisibility. All this appears even below Pitchfork now, making a gesture of atoning for that notorious Untilted "review".

Just, you know, I'd like to skip to the part where a music review organisation does just that, praise or pan. A quick skim of an opener and closer in a 36 track album and ticking off cliches renders whatever score as mute. I mean, at least they credibly conveyed that they had listened to the last couple, even if given worse scores.

=/

I didn't even really expect that much coming from Pitchfork...

But it would be nice to read a good review. Not a track-by-track review (as I tend to dislike those quite a bit), but at least go into some depth regarding the sound, textures, depth, atmosphere, density, complexity of synths/beats, ect...

¯\_(ツ)_/¯

Whatchoogonnado?

Considering it was the featured review on their homepage, I appreciate it's introductory tone. Lots of people probably discovered Autechre today.

  On 5/2/2018 at 1:07 PM, hello spiral said:

I miss the erdigger guy. I think he deleted his channel :^(

owdicker > erdigger

  On 5/16/2018 at 5:46 AM, seaburn said:

Considering it was the featured review on their homepage, I appreciate it's introductory tone. Lots of people probably discovered Autechre today.

Never a bad thing.

Here's hoping.

=P

At first reading I liked the idea of the pitchfork review, that which each album Autechre sounds more Autechre.

But on the second thought it's just good-sounding bullshit with no real meaning.

It was always 100% Autechre.

  On 5/16/2018 at 6:25 AM, Chabraendeky said:

But on the second thought it's just good-sounding bullshit with no real meaning.

I think that's a big part of the problem with media attention on Ae at this point in their career though, maybe purposefully coinciding with less 'big' promotion and officially Warp-machine-backed releases...it's all pretty useless. You've got a few young/new-to-the-scene kids I'm sure, but most people at this point know who they are, they are modern fixtures, really. Pillars of electronic music really, that's not fanboy-ism but just realistically looking at it. How do you review an 8 hour album of new music from them that's so varied and without narrative or obvious reference? It's literally just named after the outlet it was released via: NTS Sessions. That's it. Every session and every track is varied and only really worth talking about it reference to other of their own tracks...you can't compare pretty much any of it to anything else except a few slight nods/influences/whatever. It's just Autechre being Autechre and so how can you review it or media-blitz it? Would that help at all? Maybe help move some units once the extra copies of CDs and vinyls hit the shops in a couple months, but other than that are they going to gain any fans or sales or whatever by a bunch of reviews? I'm mostly just shitting in the dark and speculating but I really think the effort vs. return on promo/interviews/reviews/bullshit isn't worth it.

  On 5/17/2018 at 1:06 AM, auxien said:

 

  On 5/16/2018 at 6:25 AM, Chabraendeky said:

But on the second thought it's just good-sounding bullshit with no real meaning.

I think that's a big part of the problem with media attention on Ae at this point in their career though, maybe purposefully coinciding with less 'big' promotion and officially Warp-machine-backed releases...it's all pretty useless. You've got a few young/new-to-the-scene kids I'm sure, but most people at this point know who they are, they are modern fixtures, really. Pillars of electronic music really, that's not fanboy-ism but just realistically looking at it. How do you review an 8 hour album of new music from them that's so varied and without narrative or obvious reference? It's literally just named after the outlet it was released via: NTS Sessions. That's it. Every session and every track is varied and only really worth talking about it reference to other of their own tracks...you can't compare pretty much any of it to anything else except a few slight nods/influences/whatever. It's just Autechre being Autechre and so how can you review it or media-blitz it? Would that help at all? Maybe help move some units once the extra copies of CDs and vinyls hit the shops in a couple months, but other than that are they going to gain any fans or sales or whatever by a bunch of reviews? I'm mostly just shitting in the dark and speculating but I really think the effort vs. return on promo/interviews/reviews/bullshit isn't worth it.

I agree with everything you are saying here, and I don't think that's fanboyism.

I think the RA review where it said style: Autechre pretty much nailed it. They are their own idiom. The only context within which you can make any judgement is against their past work.

It's like trying to rate a tree.

That being said, as far as it goes I still think that review is a good effort. Some slightly iffy speculation wr to working processes but other than that, fine. I expect the rating is just tacked on editorially anyway.

  On 5/17/2018 at 1:06 AM, auxien said:

 

  On 5/16/2018 at 6:25 AM, Chabraendeky said:

But on the second thought it's just good-sounding bullshit with no real meaning.

 

I think that's a big part of the problem with media attention on Ae at this point in their career though, maybe purposefully coinciding with less 'big' promotion and officially Warp-machine-backed releases...it's all pretty useless. You've got a few young/new-to-the-scene kids I'm sure, but most people at this point know who they are, they are modern fixtures, really. Pillars of electronic music really, that's not fanboy-ism but just realistically looking at it. How do you review an 8 hour album of new music from them that's so varied and without narrative or obvious reference? It's literally just named after the outlet it was released via: NTS Sessions. That's it. Every session and every track is varied and only really worth talking about it reference to other of their own tracks...you can't compare pretty much any of it to anything else except a few slight nods/influences/whatever. It's just Autechre being Autechre and so how can you review it or media-blitz it? Would that help at all? Maybe help move some units once the extra copies of CDs and vinyls hit the shops in a couple months, but other than that are they going to gain any fans or sales or whatever by a bunch of reviews? I'm mostly just shitting in the dark and speculating but I really think the effort vs. return on promo/interviews/reviews/bullshit isn't worth it.

 

Maybe? Who knows. If there is no promotion, because everyone knows who the bois are, then this would imply that they aren't expanding their fanbase and aren't appealing to younger listeners, innit? That would be a shame. It was somehow confirmed when I saw them during the AE_LIVE and One Six tour (Kraków, Katowice, London), where each time the average age of the audience was over 30s....

Is Autechre relevant to younger generations then?

  On 5/17/2018 at 10:41 AM, wredny said:

 

  On 5/17/2018 at 1:06 AM, auxien said:

 

  On 5/16/2018 at 6:25 AM, Chabraendeky said:

But on the second thought it's just good-sounding bullshit with no real meaning.

I think that's a big part of the problem with media attention on Ae at this point in their career though, maybe purposefully coinciding with less 'big' promotion and officially Warp-machine-backed releases...it's all pretty useless. You've got a few young/new-to-the-scene kids I'm sure, but most people at this point know who they are, they are modern fixtures, really. Pillars of electronic music really, that's not fanboy-ism but just realistically looking at it. How do you review an 8 hour album of new music from them that's so varied and without narrative or obvious reference? It's literally just named after the outlet it was released via: NTS Sessions. That's it. Every session and every track is varied and only really worth talking about it reference to other of their own tracks...you can't compare pretty much any of it to anything else except a few slight nods/influences/whatever. It's just Autechre being Autechre and so how can you review it or media-blitz it? Would that help at all? Maybe help move some units once the extra copies of CDs and vinyls hit the shops in a couple months, but other than that are they going to gain any fans or sales or whatever by a bunch of reviews? I'm mostly just shitting in the dark and speculating but I really think the effort vs. return on promo/interviews/reviews/bullshit isn't worth it.

Maybe? Who knows. If there is no promotion, because everyone knows who the bois are, then this would imply that they aren't expanding their fanbase and aren't appealing to younger listeners, innit? That would be a shame. It was somehow confirmed when I saw them during the AE_LIVE and One Six tour (Kraków, Katowice, London), where each time the average age of the audience was over 30s....

 

Is Autechre relevant to younger generations then?

Not like Ed Sheeran is. Poor wee bastards.

  On 5/17/2018 at 10:40 AM, EXTRASUPER81 said:

It's like trying to rate The Trees.

fixt.

  On 5/17/2018 at 11:37 AM, jaderpansen said:

 

  On 5/17/2018 at 10:40 AM, EXTRASUPER81 said:

It's like trying to rate The Trees.

fixt.

Lol

  On 5/17/2018 at 1:06 AM, auxien said:

It's just Autechre being Autechre

This is the best review of NTS Sessions so far! Seriously what more is there to say?

Although having said this I did actually quite enjoy both the RA and pitchfork reviews.

  On 5/17/2018 at 10:41 AM, wredny said:

 

  On 5/17/2018 at 1:06 AM, auxien said:

 

  On 5/16/2018 at 6:25 AM, Chabraendeky said:

But on the second thought it's just good-sounding bullshit with no real meaning.

 

I think that's a big part of the problem with media attention on Ae at this point in their career though, maybe purposefully coinciding with less 'big' promotion and officially Warp-machine-backed releases...it's all pretty useless. You've got a few young/new-to-the-scene kids I'm sure, but most people at this point know who they are, they are modern fixtures, really. Pillars of electronic music really, that's not fanboy-ism but just realistically looking at it. How do you review an 8 hour album of new music from them that's so varied and without narrative or obvious reference? It's literally just named after the outlet it was released via: NTS Sessions. That's it. Every session and every track is varied and only really worth talking about it reference to other of their own tracks...you can't compare pretty much any of it to anything else except a few slight nods/influences/whatever. It's just Autechre being Autechre and so how can you review it or media-blitz it? Would that help at all? Maybe help move some units once the extra copies of CDs and vinyls hit the shops in a couple months, but other than that are they going to gain any fans or sales or whatever by a bunch of reviews? I'm mostly just shitting in the dark and speculating but I really think the effort vs. return on promo/interviews/reviews/bullshit isn't worth it.

Maybe? Who knows. If there is no promotion, because everyone knows who the bois are, then this would imply that they aren't expanding their fanbase and aren't appealing to younger listeners, innit? That would be a shame. It was somehow confirmed when I saw them during the AE_LIVE and One Six tour (Kraków, Katowice, London), where each time the average age of the audience was over 30s....

 

Is Autechre relevant to younger generations then?

I've seen plenty of younger/new fans even just here on WATMM that didn't know who Ae were before 10 years ago (or less in some cases) and that's great...I think in most cases it seems to be happening pretty organically, just being into similar stuff and getting recommendations online, or wherever, maybe some of that is coming from Pitchfork/etc. reviews? There's seem to be plenty of 'new' fans for sure, one way or another.

  On 5/17/2018 at 2:57 PM, auxien said:

 

  On 5/17/2018 at 10:41 AM, wredny said:

 

  On 5/17/2018 at 1:06 AM, auxien said:

 

  On 5/16/2018 at 6:25 AM, Chabraendeky said:

But on the second thought it's just good-sounding bullshit with no real meaning.

I think that's a big part of the problem with media attention on Ae at this point in their career though, maybe purposefully coinciding with less 'big' promotion and officially Warp-machine-backed releases...it's all pretty useless. You've got a few young/new-to-the-scene kids I'm sure, but most people at this point know who they are, they are modern fixtures, really. Pillars of electronic music really, that's not fanboy-ism but just realistically looking at it. How do you review an 8 hour album of new music from them that's so varied and without narrative or obvious reference? It's literally just named after the outlet it was released via: NTS Sessions. That's it. Every session and every track is varied and only really worth talking about it reference to other of their own tracks...you can't compare pretty much any of it to anything else except a few slight nods/influences/whatever. It's just Autechre being Autechre and so how can you review it or media-blitz it? Would that help at all? Maybe help move some units once the extra copies of CDs and vinyls hit the shops in a couple months, but other than that are they going to gain any fans or sales or whatever by a bunch of reviews? I'm mostly just shitting in the dark and speculating but I really think the effort vs. return on promo/interviews/reviews/bullshit isn't worth it.

Maybe? Who knows. If there is no promotion, because everyone knows who the bois are, then this would imply that they aren't expanding their fanbase and aren't appealing to younger listeners, innit? That would be a shame. It was somehow confirmed when I saw them during the AE_LIVE and One Six tour (Kraków, Katowice, London), where each time the average age of the audience was over 30s....

 

Is Autechre relevant to younger generations then?

I've seen plenty of younger/new fans even just here on WATMM that didn't know who Ae were before 10 years ago (or less in some cases) and that's great...I think in most cases it seems to be happening pretty organically, just being into similar stuff and getting recommendations online, or wherever, maybe some of that is coming from Pitchfork/etc. reviews? There's seem to be plenty of 'new' fans for sure, one way or another.

Given that they've never (except perhaps in the case of Amber) tried to meet their listenership halfway, coupled with a pretty imposing discography and no consensus on the best point of entry, it's not surprising that there aren't newer/younger fans appearing in their droves. But that's not to say that they don't exist. It's just, as auxien says, more of an organic uptake.

That being said, who knows what's going on in Japan? I've read interviews with Japanese artists (can't recall who, ages back) who said they are basically mainstream there. Whatever mainstream means in the context of Japan.

Also: https://forum.watmm.com/topic/79436-is-autechre-relevant-anymore/

lol @werp for running with that quote

sorry susan and roberta, it were the computer wot made it, not you two! 

i was desperately googling susan and roberta, and this is all i got

Yeah, that's not the best quote from the interview. 

Glad to see WATMM acknowledge and documented for posterity as part of the Autechre legacy. I still get giddy when I think about how exciting that time was. That AAA thread was so epic. 

As the OP said, hopefully this review will bring Ae to a wider audience.