Autechre - SIGN 16.10.20

I'm enjoying the sound design much more than elseq and NTS, tbh. It's a lot warmer. 

  On 10/19/2020 at 7:16 AM, Wurstwasser said:

Cannot put it in words, DAWs like Cubase, S1, Ableton force you into some 4/4 and repetetive mindset, a trap - whereas, let's say just as an example you just had a timeline and samples and set your stuff manually there... To me SIGN sounds like they went from a free to a more trapped approach. Or I may just be confused It's not important. 

it probably takes a lil more thought to achieve odd time signatures in yr own environment than ableton, which lets you just punch it in and have the piano roll show where everything you're doing is relative to the measure??? i do wish AE would do it more often though, and electronic music in general! this album would have been a great opportunity to - tho to be fair tracks like metaz form8 feel like they're basically playing in legato-mode throughout, which is the apotheosis

i do see what's meant by calling this a step toward the "traditional," but clearly not a total surrender to it. i think something that's surprising in these tracks when viewed in that light is that they generally continue to lack clear out-in-the-lead melodies, tho many of them certainly imply some. it gives the mic to synthetic possibility spaces rather than particular sequences of notes, dunnit?

Most Ae songs are 4/4 and repetitive though?!

A DAW is only as limited as you are. And I'd say Ae are pretty good at getting whatever the fuck they want out of pretty much anything these days; I don't think anything forces them to be more "traditional". Maphive6.1 is a good example of that—they used a very pattern-based sequencer (PMA5) to make one of their most proggy tracks.

  On 10/19/2020 at 7:44 AM, baph said:

You are referring to the (mostly) blank orange paper sleeves, right? 

As long as the vinyl itself is fine I would just put the record in a better quality inner sleeve and keep the originals for A E S T H E T I C.

Which is what I'm doing right now because I'm finally giving the analog vinyls a first spin.  

Edit: M4 Lema is perfect. 

 Nah not the inner sleeves, the actual Uhm... box? Exterior box dealy the sleeves and vinyl are in. Like it’s not the spine that’s split but the top of it is trashed it looks like someone shook it really hard and the vinyl cut through it. 
 

Sorry I have no idea why I don’t have the words to explain this properly.

encore

n cur

I see what they did there.

  On 10/19/2020 at 12:01 PM, Hugh Mughnus said:

 Nah not the inner sleeves, the actual Uhm... box? Exterior box dealy the sleeves and vinyl are in. Like it’s not the spine that’s split but the top of it is trashed it looks like someone shook it really hard and the vinyl cut through it. 
 

Sorry I have no idea why I don’t have the words to explain this properly.

I don't think it would be too bitchy to send a pic to the label asking politely if a replacement for just the broken cover is possible

I had this nagging feeling that I had heard n Cur before, then suddenly the realization it hit me. It's quite similar to this Earth track.

yay, vinyl arrived, all safe n sound. the orange insides of the cover are a nice accent. nicely vibrant colors, too.

would it mean undercutting their sales if i share the dl code?

  On 10/19/2020 at 7:16 AM, Wurstwasser said:

DAWs like Cubase, S1, Ableton force you into some 4/4 and repetetive mindset, a trap 

They only do that if you let that happen. You can mess around with the tempo track and time signatures, it's not hard to do

ae sequencing be liek

  On 10/19/2020 at 11:19 AM, modey said:

I'm enjoying the sound design much more than elseq and NTS, tbh. It's a lot warmer. 

And I think more detailed, too. It's less in the face and super satisfying.

  On 10/19/2020 at 5:32 AM, Hugh Mughnus said:

Hey all, what level of damage would you guys consider uhm... petty? Considering these vinyl aren’t typically repressed etc.... the top of my sleeve is damaged/split all across the top, other sides are fine. Should I be requesting a new sleeve?

Maybe see how it sits with you for a couple of days? Things like that can really get under the skin sometimes.

  On 10/19/2020 at 3:08 PM, dingformung said:

And I think more detailed, too. It's less in the face and super satisfying.

delicate=the word.

  On 10/19/2020 at 3:25 PM, jaderpansen said:

delicate=the word that I would not personally use to describe these big blankets of sound

but theres not enough cOmPlEx BeAtS!!!! 

  On 10/19/2020 at 4:11 PM, rhmilo said:

yeah but what's shrouded by those and the mixing / dynamics in general... dunno.

  On 10/19/2020 at 4:19 PM, modey said:

but theres not enough cOmPlEx BeAtS!!!! 

Definitely an acceptable position, imo, lol. Maybe I would have liked another atonal beat heavy beast slightly better than ambient lushness. But an album like this was missing in their discography, so I'm not disappointed.

  On 10/19/2020 at 5:32 AM, Hugh Mughnus said:

Hey all, what level of damage would you guys consider uhm... petty? Considering these vinyl aren’t typically repressed etc.... the top of my sleeve is damaged/split all across the top, other sides are fine. Should I be requesting a new sleeve?

Heck, mine arrived today and the sleeve's top edge was scratched and bent. Still in its nylon wrap. Messaged support about it

  On 10/19/2020 at 4:53 PM, IOS said:

Heck, mine arrived today and the sleeve's top edge was scratched and bent. Still in its nylon wrap. Messaged support about it

Not just me then! That sucks. Lmk what they respond? I’ll probably ask for a replacement

  On 10/19/2020 at 7:00 AM, Wurstwasser said:

I like how they can create an at best mediocre album. WATMM will use trillions of brain cycles and words to declare its greatness. 

A confirmation bias thing. I find myself thinking "why could it be awesome?". "They are Ae. It must be awesome". Quite unfair, if they were unknown artists, many of us would have moved on.

Ok, I'm telling nothing new here.

For me SIGN brought me back to some less explored territories in elseq and NTS.

SIGN for me has a lazy vibe. Traditional tracks set in traditional DAWs. idk idk idk

Expand  

I look at it from a different perspective: this is not a mediocre album, it is rather an album with elements that can be read immediately, and others that reveal themselves later, and this is the difference with past releases: a time most things revealed themselves over time. So if this had been someone else's album (which in any case it couldn't be because this is definitely an Ae album) I probably would have stopped at the more obvious elements and wouldn't have given them time to bring out the rest. So, I'm more than happy to know that an Ae album takes time, but I wonder how much more music could give me great things, but having no prior knowledge, I won't give it enough time to reveal itself fully.

i can't believe how beautiful this album is!!!!!!!!!

“Arising in the heart, may it return to the heart!” - Ludwig van Beethoven

  On 10/19/2020 at 7:00 AM, Wurstwasser said:

...

SIGN for me has a lazy vibe. Traditional tracks set in traditional DAWs. idk idk idk

weeeell, faqq ae! soon i'll release an album played and recorded in real time... i hope you'll give me a nice feedback

one of the things i like about this community is that it's like the musicians appreciated here are those who kind of make music that is meant to be played on monitors and if you listen on gear that cannot express the composition then oh well. i mean, not necessarily monitors but good speakers, good headphones or whatever. the music generally is not compromised in order to deliver a punch on any average of consumer speakers. often the actual composition is not apparent on lesser systems. 

not that i am necessarily describing SIGN that way. but, autechre is a prime example of watmm techno that rewards quality systems and high quality signal source. SIGN certainly is good on a best buy bluetooth speaker or whatever but i think it's a pretty cool accomplishment in terms of ae further refining their system and process, utilizing its immense power to create a more delicate work. 

  On 10/19/2020 at 7:00 AM, Wurstwasser said:

For me SIGN brought me back to some less explored territories in elseq and NTS.

Apart from the opener (which is very fresh sounding), I’m finding this too. I can’t relate to the reviews that are finding this a new direction. Elseq and especially the NTS Sessions had quite a few tracks were already exploring this melodic/harmonic synth direction, although to be honest I sometimes find those richer and more interesting when I return to them. The big change here is the lack of reverb...but again, stuff like g1e1 from NTS3 was also real dry.

  On 10/19/2020 at 6:07 PM, Lianne said:

Apart from the opener (which is very fresh sounding), I’m finding this too. I can’t relate to the reviews that are finding this a new direction. Elseq and especially the NTS Sessions had quite a few tracks were already exploring this melodic/harmonic synth direction, although to be honest I sometimes find those richer and more interesting when I return to them. The big change here is the lack of reverb...but again, stuff like g1e1 from NTS3 was also real dry.

the opener is a stunner. but then, we got a lot of "g1e1"s, when i hoped for a "continuation" of M4 Lema, or Icari, or l3 ctrl etc etc.
but the fact that even if i don't like sign, i adore M4 Lema, shows me that the boys still rule, but they are in another phase than me, unfortunately (for me).

like quaristice and oversteps weren't my thing at all, but then, exai blew my fucking mind...