Autechre and Melody

If I had been a member of watmm when AE did their ask-me-anything, I definitely would have asked about their approach to melody. Don't understand people who say they wish Autechre would return to their earlier days when they had melodies, for I feel every one of their releases has interesting and arresting melodies. 

There was an interview from Oversteps era where they said that beat stuff came naturally to them, so they decided to focus more on 'harmony, melody, and counterpoint.' Always wondered what this looked like on their end: cannot see them sitting down to study Bach's chorales. I imagine them doing everything intuitively, experimenting guess-and-check style with microtonal tunings, building sequencers in max that are more suited to four-part harmony expression than percussion, etc. 

Was curious if anyone else speculates on what their harmonic turn looked like, or for any reflections upon the non-beat side of their music, or just favorite melodic AE tracks. I really like Move Of Ten for this, especially the second half. 

them use maths

this was definetly asked on the AAA

who member

Experiments, enjoyment and taste. 

I'd like to discover if even simple melodies such as Simmm use microtonality...and if this aspect that makes them so unique.

I'll probably play them by ear on a standard keyboard to verify :)

outh9x could be one of the most relevant example of the close pact between autechre and microtonal intervals ...

it's one of those pieces that took us a long time to get in my head, today we get along, we exchange shrewd opinions like old friends and we talk to each other without preconceptions.

  On 3/15/2019 at 6:50 PM, AE35unit said:

outh9x 

it's one of those pieces that took us a long time to get in my head, today we get along, we exchange shrewd opinions like old friends and we talk to each other without preconceptions.

Damn. I really underestimated how deep your love runs for Autechre's music. Very interesting, a most humane kind of music appreciation. 

I remember interacting with you about the relation between Autechre and film before, wanted to see if I could pick your brain about some film stuff, kind of unrelated to this thread however, but nevertheless: I have been jonesing to binge a director's filmography (or as much of it as I can procure) and have settled upon David Cronenberg. Was curious of your assessment of his works. Bonus points if you can somehow respond in a way that relates to this thread's topic. 

I watched A Dangerous Method recently, and liked it even more than my initial viewing a few years ago. Kiera Knightley's performance stands out to me, especially since I thought of her as a fashion model more than an actress. She definitely goes beyond herself in this film, not sure if she let's go of the reins entirely (one thinks of Nicholson in The Shining) or retains some sense of control. Really inspired performance in my eyes. Cronenberg always captivated me for his prescience on cultural issues (especially related to technology and the individual's perception of his/her own body). Really looking forward to checking out The Dead Zone and Cosmopolis again, not to mention A History of Violence. I don't think I will rewatch Videodrome, however, as I have already seen it probably a dozen times. Gotta save it for a few years to try and retain some kind of freshness. 

i love the oversteps-style melodic cascade tracks so much. so glad we got some lush gems like e0 and column thirteen on NTS, i could listen to them all day.

but even in their most discordant and rhythmic stuff i think there's usually lots of melody lurking beneath the surface. so many changes in timbre of percussive elements, touches of harmonizing in the reverb, delays speeding up and starting to become granular tones, etc.

Yaporigami's We Dance Alone from last month had Oversteps/Move of Ten-esque melodies tucked away on 2 tracks (title track and "Translucent Harbour"). Could easily slot in on those albums without being a straight sample.

beats and chunks can be melody too don't discriminate

#confield

^ on related note, I think they describe their approach w/ a term like 'implied melody' in an interview or something? just that phrase alone was really helpful for understanding how to listen to a lot of their tracks.

as far as what it would be referring to, I think it's partly what someone here identified as hocketing, and partly the "beats and chunks can be melody" thing. 2nd half of 13x0 is probably my favorite example of the former technique, and maybe augmatic disport for the latter one. flep and vekoS are REALLY good examples of both those techniques working together imo.

so I took implied melody as meaning the melody/motif isn't presented explicitly; you have to be listening carefully to every element to pick up on it. maybe this sort of plays into the claim that the presence of melody in their newer music is weakened--but I'd say it has the opposite effect. it's basically a very trippy/mystical way of presenting melodic ideas.

edit: basically I agree w/ Boxus

t ess xi is probably my favourite Ae piece when talking about harmony and programming - referring to the chord progression heard at the start. I can explain the process behind that chord progression in a different thread if there's demand for it.

I friccin love t ess xi. It's deceptively the weirdest track on exai imo

  On 3/16/2019 at 3:22 PM, IOS said:

t ess xi is probably my favourite Ae piece when talking about harmony and programming - referring to the chord progression heard at the start. I can explain the process behind that chord progression in a different thread if there's demand for it.

I'm down for this for sure.

  On 3/16/2019 at 3:22 PM, IOS said:

t ess xi is probably my favourite Ae piece when talking about harmony and programming - referring to the chord progression heard at the start. I can explain the process behind that chord progression in a different thread if there's demand for it.

yes please

  On 3/16/2019 at 4:13 PM, AnwarAutokino said:

 

  On 3/16/2019 at 3:22 PM, IOS said:

t ess xi is probably my favourite Ae piece when talking about harmony and programming - referring to the chord progression heard at the start. I can explain the process behind that chord progression in a different thread if there's demand for it.

yes please

Dunno.

They have alot of those CHORD-2-3-4 CHORD-2-3-4 tracks (like tess), and they're all fine and dandy but to me the most interesting track in terms of melodic progression might actually be IV VV IV VV VIII, it's almost like some modern classical shit level of intricacy imo.

Also melve...

  On 3/16/2019 at 1:55 AM, Godwin Austen said:

beats and chunks can be melody too don't discriminate

#confield

and this.

edit: irlite is also quite fascinating with its almost human-like "gestus" / jazzy approach, all the while being just ever so slighty "off" to make for this weird uncanny valley post human AI vibe. or something.

qv5g

  On 3/16/2019 at 3:22 PM, IOS said:

t ess xi is probably my favourite Ae piece when talking about harmony and programming - referring to the chord progression heard at the start. I can explain the process behind that chord progression in a different thread if there's demand for it.

+1

  On 3/15/2019 at 10:33 PM, Drum Up said:

 

  On 3/15/2019 at 6:50 PM, AE35unit said:

outh9x 

it's one of those pieces that took us a long time to get in my head, today we get along, we exchange shrewd opinions like old friends and we talk to each other without preconceptions.

Damn. I really underestimated how deep your love runs for Autechre's music. Very interesting, a most humane kind of music appreciation. 

 

I remember interacting with you about the relation between Autechre and film before, wanted to see if I could pick your brain about some film stuff, kind of unrelated to this thread however, but nevertheless: I have been jonesing to binge a director's filmography (or as much of it as I can procure) and have settled upon David Cronenberg. Was curious of your assessment of his works. Bonus points if you can somehow respond in a way that relates to this thread's topic. 

 

I watched A Dangerous Method recently, and liked it even more than my initial viewing a few years ago. Kiera Knightley's performance stands out to me, especially since I thought of her as a fashion model more than an actress. She definitely goes beyond herself in this film, not sure if she let's go of the reins entirely (one thinks of Nicholson in The Shining) or retains some sense of control. Really inspired performance in my eyes. Cronenberg always captivated me for his prescience on cultural issues (especially related to technology and the individual's perception of his/her own body). Really looking forward to checking out The Dead Zone and Cosmopolis again, not to mention A History of Violence. I don't think I will rewatch Videodrome, however, as I have already seen it probably a dozen times. Gotta save it for a few years to try and retain some kind of freshness. 

 

I'm glad you remember the previous post, and I'm interested in my cinematographic "rants": there are many things I like about Cronenberg: as soon as I have a moment, I open the old post and try to translate what I think about his work 

  On 3/16/2019 at 4:44 PM, tneuvm said:

 

  On 3/16/2019 at 4:13 PM, AnwarAutokino said:

 

  On 3/16/2019 at 3:22 PM, IOS said:

t ess xi is probably my favourite Ae piece when talking about harmony and programming - referring to the chord progression heard at the start. I can explain the process behind that chord progression in a different thread if there's demand for it.

yes please

 

Arch Carrier has a seemingly orchestra-style chord progression throughout, but also appears to serve as the track's "vertebrae" in a rhythmic sense. And whatever synth they're using at the end of 6ie.cr sounds like fresh spring bloom, albeit with a tinge of foreboding. But in terms of melodic work, these two trax stand out the most to me.

Then again, both LP5 and Draft are melody-rich in general imo. Same with pretty much all of their 1997 releases (Envane, Chiastic Slide, & Cichli Suite)

  On 3/19/2019 at 11:52 PM, ambermonk said:

Arch Carrier has a seemingly orchestra-style chord progression throughout, but also appears to serve as the track's "vertebrae" in a rhythmic sense. And whatever synth they're using at the end of 6ie.cr sounds like fresh spring bloom, albeit with a tinge of foreboding. But in terms of melodic work, these two trax stand out the most to me.

 

Then again, both LP5 and Draft are melody-rich in general imo. Same with pretty much all of their 1997 releases (Envane, Chiastic Slide, & Cichli Suite)

to me, the orchestral part in arch carrier lures you inside the machine. and then, on 3:49 more or less, you are left alone, trapped inside. but beautiful mini sounds emerge from underneath and it's so beautiful that you don't care, you stay there forever...

t ess xi progression: 

t ess xi piano.mp3Fetching info...

jazz ae  

the harmony is quite simple, i'll let IOS explain it. 

missing the short high stabs though, they appear unconnected until they slowly and slightly descend in pitch, then they become the missing 50% of the whole.