Autechre - SIGN 16.10.20

4. esc desc - escape descape - imprison yourself and stay there hidden

8. great - worst

9. the red alien

11. arecast - free - without a broken bone - outcast - deserted

pick these apart

SIGN's artwork now feels to me like an eclipse of Paralel Suns

  On 10/9/2020 at 4:06 AM, auxien said:

album art really is weak af compared to how great this music is. just doesn't match at all first impressions hearing it.

really impressed with this overall tho. absolutely lush as fuck.

I am listening to lossless M4 Lema with Sennheiser HD650, through a Tascam US-2x2 straight from my AMD Ryzen 7 rig, and it is pretty vast.

Excellent and huge reverb oceans, a real modern LP5 vibe to it.   Feels fucking otherworldly and absolutely ultra technology.

A very mature and balanced control to it as well.  

they really soundtracked the shit out of this apocalypse

F7 now.  The opening bars are heavenly, dissonant, and really incredible.  That fucking whole sound they do is epic.

By 1:36 I want something new to happen.  This feeling remains until about 4:56 when it starts to wind down and the howling is stripped back.

Been fun following the discussion all day. This is already topping both Exai and Oversteps for me, I honestly think it’s possibly my favorite since LP5, which is hard to believe as I type it out. This is just really hitting me, I don’t know what else to say other than I didn’t expect it. 
 

The final three track run alone puts this in the conversation for one of their best LPs. I think Metaz form 8 and Th red A are my favorites right not tbh.

si00.

Was taken back by the bubbly keys at the start.  Really weird and alien-aquatic.

The huge slow cycling sine that comes in at 2:18 is the one.  Layering up more leads and slow phasing pads over this is wicked and 3 mins I am somewhere else.  The bass getting closer and more rezzy as it goes on it sick.  Loses it a bit after about 4:30 and could have added more madness, or cut off early, but this was cool.

esc desc.

Opening bars are huge and I love the sound, but it doesn't go anywhere...  Shame.  Still good though, but yeah.

au14.

More into this the second time.  A real nice update to the vibe from LP5 and EP7.  Excellent hard kicks, and a flowing song structure.  Loved the whole journey, the balance, and the fucking sheer Baroque of it.  

If I was being really picky, it could have done with a massive brass lead in the second half to completely kill us all but that was fucking good.

Metaz form8.

The synths sound good, but it doesn't really get me going and doesn't take me to the other place.  Song structure is boring and repetitive.  Would work as a sound track in a film, but not as a song on an album.

Just my opinion, don't shoot me.

ardidjer

sch.mefd.2

Fucking sorrow in the synths straight from the beginning.  Big shaking bass as well, which shudders and slides around behind the intricate leads.

I detect a bit of red-lining in the mix in the left channel, which I am not sure is intentional.

The subtle gear change at 1:40 is really nice, then the energy pick up that follows really works well.

This thing just keeps firing melody variation after complex melody variation at you; you get the shortest time to feel the emotion from them, then it is pulled away and replaced with another even better one and another gear change.  Really good.

gr4.

I want to like these synth tracks but I just can't get that excited by them.  The end of this one with the nice synth keys is good, and the processing shifts, and I feel more into it by the end that the beginning, but yeah.

th red a.

This just repeats the same 4 notes on loop the whole way through.  I like the textures and dissonance in the synths and I like it more the second time, but that 4 note loop, on the beat gets boring.  Shame, as the sounds in it are fucking great.

psin AM

Nice mournful 4/4, with some cool modern side-chaining.  Synths sound nice... synthy.  Could do with some extra interest by the 3 min mark. 

r cazt

Some big synth sounds in here, and the bass is nice and heavy.  The constant brass stab becomes exhausting though and kind of jolts you awake all the time as you get bored throughout this aimless 7 minute "epic"

So, 

Highlights;

M4 Lena

si00

au14

sch.mefd.2

Mediumlights;

gr4

psin AM

The rest of it, nah.

Fucking hell I’m at work and reading the thread, can’t wait to get back home AND BLAST THIS ALBUM AT FULL VOLUME !!!

This is such a surprising departure from Draft. I guess you move through plenty of stylistic changes when you don't release anything for 17 years

bzz-heavy

I really don't like picking "best tracks", because I enjoy them all, but if you put a gun to my head, and I had to choose the "best track of SIGN", I would choose gr4.

The lush polyphony, the intervowing melodylines are just soooo fucking amazing!

But really the whole album is an wonderful experience on its own.

Now first listening to the wavs on my Marantz NA6005/PM6006/Celestion Ditton 22 System.

hearing F7 for the first time was as much of an emotional experience as hearing g 1 e 1. amazing tracks

  On 10/9/2020 at 8:00 AM, Chabraendeky said:

I really don't like picking "best tracks", because I enjoy them all, but if you put a gun to my head, and I had to choose the "best track of SIGN", I would choose gr4.

The lush polyphony, the intervowing melodylines are just soooo fucking amazing!

But really the whole album is an wonderful experience on its own.

Now first listening to the wavs on my Marantz NA6005/PM6006/Celestion Ditton 22 System.

Ah Celestion. I used to have a pair of ditton 15s. Great vintage speakers. 

si00

like everyone, i thought that the cover was shit. now i understand why...

If the brothers call this their hip hop album, then there may definitely be some truth in them sampling of previous tracks. 

I'm gonna roll with that theory for now.

  On 10/9/2020 at 8:22 AM, Soloman Tump said:

If the brothers call this their hip hop album, then there may definitely be some truth in them sampling of previous tracks. 

I'm gonna roll with that theory for now.

Yeah, that makes sense.