Autechre - SIGN 16.10.20

Excuse me while I try and elucidate some thoughts. This is going to be long and rambling and possibly bollocks.

I feel like SIGN, especially compared to the last 2 "albums" and last album-album, has a very distinctive character all on its own, it's its own world in that respect; it purposefully sticks to a certain corner of the Autechre sound world. Whereas NTS was (I recall being said in interviews) supposed to be like a radio show where you got lots of different aspects of the Autechre sound. In many respects I felt this also to be the case with Exai (one of the reasons I love it so much) and also, but to a lesser extent, with Elseq (which, for me at least, has a slightly more uniform character - I'm sure other people feel differently).

But we know Autechre make loads of music, and I would think that SIGN was curated from a load of other work that didn't fit the (quite restrained IMO - not a criticism btw) vibe that they wanted to create here. (As an aside - maybe this is one of the reasons some people are likening it to Oversteps, as that was the last time they created a specific sound world for an album?)

Obviously Sean said himself there were 2 albums in the works and given that there's likely a lot of great material that didn't make this cut, it would make sense to release the other as a companion to this - but rather than releasing a double album like Exai (which was all over the place stylistically, so worked as a single big(ish) thing) it also makes sense to have these as 2 separate releases that people can digest as such. Like, I suppose, Oversteps and Move Of Ten.

If someone can work out what the point I'm circling round is and encapsulate it I'd really appreciate it lol.

Anyway I'm hoping they announce the next one Friday.

  On 10/13/2020 at 6:00 PM, EXTRASUPER81 said:

I feel like SIGN, especially compared to the last 2 "albums" and last album-album, has a very distinctive character all on its own, it's its own world in that respect; it purposefully sticks to a certain corner of the Autechre sound world. Whereas NTS was (I recall being said in interviews) supposed to be like a radio show where you got lots of different aspects of the Autechre sound. In many respects I felt this also to be the case with Exai (one of the reasons I love it so much) and also, but to a lesser extent, with Elseq (which, for me at least, has a slightly more uniform character - I'm sure other people feel differently).

Exai + L-event was originally planned to be released as a series of five EPs but ended up as an album (Exai = 4 vinyl discs) and an EP (L-event = 1 vinyl). Fun fact: L-event vinyl package fits into the Exai box along with the four discs.

  On 10/13/2020 at 6:07 PM, eclipsis said:

Exai + L-event was originally planned to be released as a series of five EPs but ended up as an album (Exai = 4 vinyl discs) and an EP (L-event = 1 vinyl). Fun fact: L-event vinyl package fits into the Exai box along with the four discs.

Funnily enough, I feel like L-Event is more in its own little sound world than the rest of Exai.

I also hope that the next one also marks out it's own little world in contrast to SIGN, rather than just being a bunch of odds n sods that didn't fit. That said I won't be in the least bit disappointed if it is an assortment.

If they say they've got two albums lined up, I'm pretty sure they got two albums lined up.

                                                                                       SIGN was my first complete ae experience

                                                                                 i see GREEN in my future......... soon.

this album, along with Oversteps and Exai, forms a perfect trilogy of AE winter albums for me. Can't wait to listen to this one once the snow starts falling :---)

I think its rather beautiful
Really enjoy having a compact and focussed work again for a change.
Also think its a smart move to counter the 'logic' of the ever expanding format, freeing them from expectations which might otherwise work against them, if that makes sense. Unpredictability as a virtue autechre always cultivated and for a reason I think.

I'm suprised to see so many 'dissapointed' reactions - to me r cazt alone made my day.
Floors me each time - don't remember when i last heard a tune so instantly recognisable as a future classic.

Was this already shared here?
https://www.nytimes.com/2020/10/13/arts/music/autechre-sign-interview.html

NY Times interview with Ae abut SIGN. There are some pearls in it...

  On 10/13/2020 at 7:00 PM, EXTRASUPER81 said:

Funnily enough, I feel like L-Event is more in its own little sound world than the rest of Exai.

I agree. Exai has a more expansive, almost utopian feel (even when it goes a bit dark), and L-Event is probably Ae's "scariest" or most menacing sounding record. The website mangling stunt suited it really well as there's definitely a kind of Twilight Zone-esque nightmare/confusion vibe to it for me.

this album is like my wife, i'm very confused and some of these tracks seem to love and caress me but they also hate me and want to destroy my penis

  On 10/13/2020 at 8:07 PM, Chabraendeky said:

Was this already shared here?
https://www.nytimes.com/2020/10/13/arts/music/autechre-sign-interview.html

NY Times interview with Ae abut SIGN. There are some pearls in it...

BROWN One charge that people level at us is where’s the emotion? Where’s the notes? Where’s the tunes? It’s nonsense.

BOOTH The issue for me has always been that I can feel it. So I wonder sometimes whether our emotions are too subtle for people to pick up on. You can’t think that we’re not feeling it. I mean, what would be the point in doing music if you weren’t feeling it?
 

*cry*

im feeling it

The capitalized album title, Brown said, is “an initialization, but we don’t want to tell anybody what it stands for.”

esc desc

  On 10/13/2020 at 8:35 PM, d-a-m-o said:

The capitalized album title, Brown said, is “an initialization, but we don’t want to tell anybody what it stands for.”

 

Sean Is Goin Nuts

Sorry I Got Naked

SIGN Is Getting Named

I'm still waiting on the LP to come in so I can give this a second listen.  For some idiotic reason or another.  

But I'm going back to the elseqs in the meantime, because NTS and the more recent live sets kind of sucked all of the air out of that space for me.  So much good shit, and I still feel like I haven't fully learned to live in it all even though it's mostly all well worth living in  (NTS has a few spotty bits for me, although far fewer than something that massive should be expected to have).  

I guess that's all just to say I'd be ok if SIGN's companion takes a little while to arrive, but I have a feeling it'll be here soon.  

IIRC, the Bros. 'Chre were a little worried about how Oversteps would be received, and maybe that's why MoT hurried along after it.  Seems like Sean feeling a bit similarly re: SIGN in that NYT interview, with it being too on the nose or whatever.  

Edit: either way, they've been in Jewish mom mode since Quaristice: eat, eat, you're skin and bones, have some Versions with that?  And that generosity is so rare and welcome, so who am I to say I'm a bit full at the moment MOM

  On 10/13/2020 at 8:07 PM, Chabraendeky said:

Was this already shared here?
https://www.nytimes.com/2020/10/13/arts/music/autechre-sign-interview.html

NY Times interview with Ae abut SIGN. There are some pearls in it...

thanks for sharing! dang, after reading that i want the full 2 hour conversation... very enlightening in places indeed!

_____

How do you feel about the album when you listen to it now?

"It’s strangely jarring.[...]It’s difficult to listen to because it’s too emotionally resonant.[...]I’m reluctant to play it too much because I feel like that place it puts me in is perhaps a little bit too cathartic."

_____

exactly.

  On 10/13/2020 at 9:06 PM, jaderpansen said:

thanks for sharing! dang, after reading that i want the full 2 hour conversation... very enlightening in places indeed!

_____

How do you feel about the album when you listen to it now?

"It’s strangely jarring.[...]It’s difficult to listen to because it’s too emotionally resonant.[...]I’m reluctant to play it too much because I feel like that place it puts me in is perhaps a little bit too cathartic."

_____

exactly.

 

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"It’s difficult to listen to because it’s too emotionally resonant. "

nail on the head. fuck. this is how i felt on first listen. so heavy. 

I believe what Sean was trying to say was it's emosh

another one: https://www.stereogum.com/2102047/autechre-sign-review/franchises/reviews/premature-evaluation/

  On 10/13/2020 at 9:06 PM, jaderpansen said:

thanks for sharing! dang, after reading that i want the full 2 hour conversation... very enlightening in places indeed!

_____

How do you feel about the album when you listen to it now?

"It’s strangely jarring.[...]It’s difficult to listen to because it’s too emotionally resonant.[...]I’m reluctant to play it too much because I feel like that place it puts me in is perhaps a little bit too cathartic."

_____

exactly.

 

Expand  

Really, really do want the full conversation. It was like "is that it!?"