Autechre - SIGN 16.10.20

  On 10/10/2020 at 11:08 AM, ooqpoo said:

Kid A brings back memories. The anticipation of where they were gonna go after Ok Computer and the sobering suprise that was Kid A. Such an autumny album, warm yet distant and subdued. SIGN also seems to have that wistful autumny feel to it. 

It's also ten years since Oversteps, which was similarly a relatively short release with more focus on chill than bangers. 

I remember it being released and debuting atop the album charts. But I was 11 and with no singles it was hard to know what to make of it, what it might sound like. I didn’t get into Radiohead proper until 2005 (this would be very close to the album’s 15th anniversary for me actually). I was very hyped for the Wolfmother debut and was looking to pick this up around the same time after a recent sensational experience with OKC and the Bends. Kid A was the very first album I played on my first iPod, and I still have that CD in my car. 

3rd for me behind OKC & IR. I preferred Amnesiac in my youth, and it still isn’t far off. HTDC is my most preferred RH track.

I come from the Southern Hemisphere and I tend to associate Kid A with sweltering weather. Oversteps has always been pastoral to me more than seasonal. Thinking back, it was one of the first new releases of the decade for me. Heligoland was 1st and then I picked up Broken Bells at a similar time. I was already referencing/using WATMM then.

  On 10/10/2020 at 8:44 AM, yekker said:

psin AM :

 

I keep hearing this chord, cannot unhear:

 

 

 

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Similar chord progression indeed. The first chord is almost the same, then in psin AM comes an additional chord, and the third chord in psin AM is similar to the scond chord in the BoC track. The last chord is different though.

You could call it an hommage or an accidental similarity. I don't know. 

  On 10/10/2020 at 4:07 AM, FEF said:

I disagree because the pianist either plays a score or otherwise decides what to play (e.g. improvisation) as distinct from generative elements. I only have a sketchy understanding of how Max works but as I understand it you can use it to trigger musical events within defined parameters and then refine the parameters to produce more desirable results. I would assume Sean & Rob construct parts with instructions like "play notes in this scale within these rhythmic limitations" or "play combinations of these six notes" and apply conditions and exceptions. Or maybe they invent a melody or chord sequence and have randomized (but controllable) things happening to it or against it.  

Edit: and I know they've mentioned using "if A then B" type commands

My overall point being that it's a different method of composition / performance than sitting down at the old joanna, "Seinfeld voice" not that there's anything wrong with that. One of the most revealing comments they've made about their process, I think, is comparing it to jazz, though it's (as I understand it) generative factors (controlled, to varying extents, beforehand or in real time, by them) that are producing the variations, rather than the decisions (also dependent on parameters) that go into a jazz solo. 

Also think of Cage and others expanding the parameters of the piano with prepared piano techniques, e.g. using objects to damp the strings or change the timbre - there's a direct lineage from that to the way our bois mess with the envelope

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of course the analogy isn't one-to-one with AE+Max vs pianist+piano, but the original quote also is a touch of a reduction as well. but it gets the idea across and that's all that matters. ...so yeah, most of their stuff couldn't be transcribed simply to a piano, obviously. don't think that's the idea. the author of that interview/review writeup was making very clear, it's that all their music is based in electronica and specifically hip hop. so based on evocative textural recreations and creations and sampling of sounds. 

but the point i was trying to make, i guess i wasn't clear, was they're still separated from the sounds being created in a very similar way to the 'dumb piano' metaphor. unless they're fingerpicking a guitar or handdrumming on some tablas or dragging a bow across a cello string, they're also very separate from the sound. no matter how much work they've done in software/hardware to craft a sound or arrangement or sequence, they're very 'separate' from the sounds. this isn't bad, obv, just goes against their own point imo.

I mostly just get a blue aquatic upper atmosphere beluga vibe from SIGN, and the sense it would make a cool gameboy soundtrack.

I think we’ll look back on this as the beginning of the late phase of their career.

  On 10/10/2020 at 3:19 PM, Roo said:

I think we’ll look back on this as the beginning of the late phase of their career.

just a new phase.

Confield: 2001

...

Oversteps: 2010

...

SIGN: 2020

@djimbe and @rhmilo, you've both summed up current feelings/struggles I have with it so far, or some of its tracks. If I share too much now it'll potentially be very embarrassing, but whatever...this is all part of the early banter. I will no doubt change my mind, but since Exai some (not all) views have formed and stuck earlier than they used to in earlier Autechre fandom days. One thing I hope to get used to here is indeed the smaller emphasis on wild development; even Oversteps would have many tracks that shifted key multiple times within a piece or ended up somewhere quite different by the end, even if the tonal pallet didn't mutate as much as the next phase. But I guess I totally love Confield, and most of its tracks start as they mean to go on. 

  On 10/10/2020 at 2:36 PM, jaderpansen said:

 

 

Your browser does not support the HTML5 audio tag.

 

 

 

 

 

 

psin_mode.mp3 503.17 kB · 57 downloads

 

 

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On several occasions I have found Ae albums that, in a more or less veiled way, refer to a genre aesthetic, upsetting it and transforming it into that ineffable thing that autechre is. I found this in the most cohesive albums: untilted seems to take its cue from african polyrhythms (Ipacial Section is the most declared example: it's a spaceship that lands in the middle of an animist rite on the banks of the Congo, but the whole lp gravitates around this sensation), with Oversteps we have a Terminator that moves to Leipzig in the 1500s to hunt down Bach. Here, perhaps redundantly confirming what I have already written a few pages behind, I have the feeling that they wanted to make a similar game, this time targeting retro psychedelia, and all the synth drifts between the 70s and 80s. I'm more and more convinced that the inverted logo of the t-shirt wants to wink at the genre that this time they wanted to autechrized (therefore not a return to the origins, but a reinterpretation of something that happened before). This does not mean making a retro album, but taking the generic idea of retro (with a wide range of suggestions, from depeche fashions to tangerine dreams, so to speak), and processing it through the Autechre filter.
I'm already compulsively impatient for the next sign, the a of eA.

  On 10/10/2020 at 3:45 PM, Draft78 said:

On several occasions I have found Ae albums that, in a more or less veiled way, refer to a genre aesthetic, upsetting it and transforming it into that ineffable thing that autechre is. I found this in the most cohesive albums: untilted seems to take its cue from african polyrhythms (Ipacial Section is the most declared example: it's a spaceship that lands in the middle of an animist rite on the banks of the Congo, but the whole lp gravitates around this sensation), with Oversteps we have a Terminator that moves to Leipzig in the 1500s to hunt down Bach. Here, perhaps redundantly confirming what I have already written a few pages behind, I have the feeling that they wanted to make a similar game, this time targeting retro psychedelia, and all the synth drifts between the 70s and 80s. I'm more and more convinced that the inverted logo of the t-shirt wants to wink at the genre that this time they wanted to autechrized (therefore not a return to the origins, but a reinterpretation of something that happened before). This does not mean making a retro album, but taking the generic idea of retro (with a wide range of suggestions, from depeche fashions to tangerine dreams, so to speak), and processing it through the Autechre filter.
I'm already compulsively impatient for the next sign, the a of eA.

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ps:

if things were to stay in the terms I described above, once again I must recognize how much they have disregarded me: a few months ago I replied to a post that hypothesized a return to the past, writing "Autechre that go back: this is a paradox". Well, now I have a t-shirt with autechre that literally go back, and an album with retro suggestions, transformed into a vision that comes from the future.

  On 10/10/2020 at 3:45 PM, Draft78 said:

 (with a wide range of suggestions, from depeche fashions to tangerine dreams, so to speak)

thank you google translator!

  On 10/10/2020 at 3:42 PM, Lianne said:

@djimbe and @rhmilo, you've both summed up current feelings/struggles I have with it so far, or some of its tracks. If I share too much now it'll potentially be very embarrassing, but whatever...this is all part of the early banter. I will no doubt change my mind, but since Exai some (not all) views have formed and stuck earlier than they used to in earlier Autechre fandom days. One thing I hope to get used to here is indeed the smaller emphasis on wild development; even Oversteps would have many tracks that shifted key multiple times within a piece or ended up somewhere quite different by the end, even if the tonal pallet didn't mutate as much as the next phase. But I guess I totally love Confield, and most of its tracks start as they mean to go on. 

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having already taken the path of "narrative" composition, which changes and transforms continuously, probably what they want to do now is supposed to be a thing that takes place within a defined structure. It could be the necessary way to put out this kind of tracks.

  On 10/10/2020 at 4:16 PM, Draft78 said:

having already taken the path of "narrative" composition, which changes and transforms continuously, probably what they want to do now is supposed to be a thing that takes place within a defined structure. It could be the necessary way to put out this kind of tracks.

It's a bit of return to the roots I think. The tracks on the Lego Feet album don't really have a narrative strcture but are more like static patterns in the way that classic techno tracks work also. The '90s IDM then was more structure oriented.

  On 10/10/2020 at 3:45 PM, Draft78 said:

with Oversteps we have a Terminator that moves to Leipzig in the 1500s to hunt down Bach. 

amazing description of Oversteps! Love it

And despite earlier saying i preferred 1/2 of SIGN the 2nd half has really clicked with me today, sounded beautiful earlier driving in the rain.

Now got that feeling where I don't want to listen to anything else but worried about overplaying it, which is always a good SIGN that I'm falling in love hard for an album! ❤  

  On 10/10/2020 at 4:49 PM, kirm said:

driving in the rain.

was listening to si00 driving in the rain late last night and it was so lush at one point I forgot I was driving and hit a huge embankment, I was airborne for a good solid sec and while I was, I said to myself, PLS.

So yea, great in the rain album, would repeat!

Sign has grown on me in leaps and bounds, not that anyone cares, but yeah...

its only been two days mate

Have done two full listens through the FLAC files, it's definitely different, more mellow, more positive, and warmer than their other recent releases.  I'm into it.

I was pleasantly surprised by how much I enjoyed it. Much better on the big stereo than headphones imo. 
 

From Bleep:

"Instant download of the following tracks with all pre-orders:

'M4 Lema'

'F7'

'si00'

'esc desc'

'au14'

'Metaz form8'

'sch.mefd 2'

'gr4'

'th red a'

'psin AM'

'r cazt'

Full release delivered on release date: 10.16.20"

Instant download of the whole album now and "full release" delivered on release date? It could either be a mistake or additional material is coming on the 16th...

Wait, so my FLAC files I'm listening to isn't the full album?  That's gotta be a mistake..

Imagine if the second LP digital is unlocked in one week and you can order the physical. Would be pretty insane.

It has that exact same text and format on all pre-orders so it's just the script of the website, as they released them all after stream. Not sure why they don't just "release" it as usual though.

And we know there's 2xlp and 1xcd

(I would like to be wrong about this)

  On 10/10/2020 at 6:12 PM, coax said:

It has that exact same text and format on all pre-orders so it's just the script of the website, as they released them all after stream. Not sure why they don't just "release" it as usual though.

And we know there's 2xlp and 1xcd

(I would like to be wrong about this)

I suspect that too: Sean said "an album is ready for 2020 ... well, actually 2", which could refer to the two LPs (Sean's humor often plays on taking things literally, pointing them right to what they are), but the fact that only one sign by now appears ( e  ) encourages me a lot in predicting the missing sign.

Then, if Nostradamus predicted a second sign, and considering that the prophecy of colors has come true for now, I don't see why I shouldn't believe that the rest will also happen.

I have a feeling that the next chapter will be called NGIS

  On 10/10/2020 at 6:30 PM, Draft78 said:

I have a feeling that the next chapter will be called NGIS

RIB

  On 10/10/2020 at 7:13 PM, EXTRASUPER81 said:

RIB

I doubt it tho, would be way too obvs

  On 10/10/2020 at 5:30 PM, MarcinKoczot said:

From Bleep:

 

"Instant download of the following tracks with all pre-orders:

'M4 Lema'

'F7'

'si00'

'esc desc'

'au14'

'Metaz form8'

'sch.mefd 2'

'gr4'

'th red a'

'psin AM'

'r cazt'

Full release delivered on release date: 10.16.20"

 

Instant download of the whole album now and "full release" delivered on release date? It could either be a mistake or additional material is coming on the 16th...

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I did notice that my download was tagged as "Pre-Order" which kinda indicates that there may be some other version?