autechre - quaristice (2008)

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sing_minimal

Well-known member
im surprised there's no mention of this fine album yet. i must say it's probably my favourite autechre album..it's one of those albums that suits my taste in every way.

what did you guys think of it?
 
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lamp post

Wild Horses
i think the opening ambient piece is amazing, feel there's potential when they go dubbier towards the middle then get a little bored when they go back to their old approach
 
nochexxx

nochexxx

harco pronting
it's funny that they created two different versions, i like this idea.
a close associate of mine cleverly joked that this was perhaps the end of autechre, both unwilling to compromise on their own finished version after having worked with each other for so long. quaristice = quarrel + armistice? hehe
 
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sing_minimal

Well-known member
i don't think that was the case really (i talked to them, and apperantly they understand each other better than ever)...and we don't know what the second cd will carry either, do we? : )
 
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michael

Bring out the vacuum
sing_minimal said:
im surprised there's no mention of this fine album yet. i must say it's probably my favourite autechre album..it's one of those albums that suits my taste in every way.

what did you guys think of it?
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The last Autechre album I genuinely liked was released 13 years ago, but for whatever reason I dutifully check out each new release as it comes along.

The latest one confirmed for me that I really don't understand the appeal of their music at all anymore. It seems difficult with absolutely no pay off. Probably it's fairer to say it suits my taste in no way at all. I'm not asking anyone to justify their tastes, but I am curious what you like about the album. Is it something that you like to pay full attention to, honing in on different details as you go? Is it something you chuck on while doing whatever else? Does it make you laugh? Is it joyous or depressing or quietly affecting or something more cerebral?

Cos I think what I liked about them up until 'Tri Repetae' was they were pretty damn pop, insofar as they had accessible, repeating harmonies and melodies that they didn't mess with too much. There were still plenty of surprises in their music, but for the most part I liked it because it wasn't too hard-going. I'm not against music that requires some work, but, as I already wrote, I don't get what the pay off is with contemporary Ae.
 
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sing_minimal

Well-known member
it's enjoyable listen from start to finish..on repeat. it reminds me of all the music i like, it's emotional, witty, clever, it doesn't get boring as most pop music does today. it's very dynamic, and i can imagine me dancing to it on the dancefloor or listening to it before i fall asleep and everything inbetween. people often say it's complicated or something, but it makes nothing but sense to me..i just completly enter its aesthetics once i put it on.
 
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mms

sometimes
yeah i think its their best work and i'm not massively into them, the earlier stuff is ok but a bit idm bit derivative of aphex early on, it got better and more interesting as it went along but it was still a bit greyscale, then they just seemed to go too far into a hermetically sealed world of production, this one seems different, more open and generous, more dramatic more spacious and experimental even if some of the kind of rhythmic folds where they clip out the time signature so that the rhythm changes a bit do get on my nerves a wee bit, but it does seem to me to be a genuine attempt to go back over their work and reassess what really works and what they really like etc.. it's very listenable too as sing minimal states.
 
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ether

Well-known member
ep7 was the last thing i enjoyed of theres, everything i've heard since has been bit too sound design led too percussive and harsh, i'd really like to hear that ambient track though sounds intriguing...
 
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smn

Well-known member
I'm really in to this right now. I've probably listened to it more over the last couple of weeks than I have the last few albums over the last few years combined.

My favourite is paralel Suns which is just stunning. There's a contemplative, distant beauty in it which is incredibly affecting. The mood reminds me very much of the untitled second track on Vladislav Delay's Entain, which is very high praise in my books.

Anyone tired with the intensity of the last few albums should really check this out.
 
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noel emits

a wonderful wooden reason
smn said:
My favourite is paralel Suns which is just stunning. There's a contemplative, distant beauty in it which is incredibly affecting. The mood reminds me very much of the untitled second track on Vladislav Delay's Entain, which is very high praise in my books.
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Not heard this yet but that kind of puts me in mind of the beatless strings track on the Garbage EP which at times could be just devastating in it's cosmic wistfulness. Having said that there's very little Autechre I can listen to now - they have lots of clever ideas but forget to make music too often. Still I appreciate that they do try and avoid what other people do and stick to their guns. I'm into gear and programming and all that so I can sort of get into it on a technical level.
 
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noel emits

a wonderful wooden reason
Yeah from the clips on bleep it does sound more rounded and generous than the previous couple of albums. I always imagine that they make loads of really joyous poppy stuff with R&B singers and what have you but just refuse to release it or let anyone hear it. OUT OF SPITE!
 
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droid

Guest
This reminds me a bit of Chiastic slide. Still have to absorb it though. Takes months, sometimes years to really get your head around some of their stuff.
 
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DJ PIMP

Well-known member
Really like the beatless and sparsely percussive tracks... could have happily gone an entire album in that mode.

I dunno... Autechre have kind of become the anti-Kraftwerk? As such that leaves me in the same boat as Michael, though there have been aspects of their past few albums that are very beautiful.
 
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noel emits

a wonderful wooden reason
Before Kraftwerk actually went and came out with a decent 'comeback' album I always felt where they had gone wrong was in not opening up and working with other people. Michael Jackson wanted to make an album with them! Can you imagine! That would have been amazing.
 
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Ach!

Turd on the Run
On first listen it sounds far more accessible than 2005's Unitilted, which I still haven't really got to grips with. I'm still marvelling at 'Surripere' from Draft 7.30.
 
Slothrop

Slothrop

Tight but Polite
michael said:
Cos I think what I liked about them up until 'Tri Repetae' was they were pretty damn pop, insofar as they had accessible, repeating harmonies and melodies that they didn't mess with too much. There were still plenty of surprises in their music, but for the most part I liked it because it wasn't too hard-going. I'm not against music that requires some work, but, as I already wrote, I don't get what the pay off is with contemporary Ae.
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I've only got Draft 7.30 out of their recent stuff, but I find it very beautiful in a really abstract kind of way - the way the rhythms and micro-rhythms trip off each other, the buildup and release, the spatial element of it combined with the anti-naturalism of the sounds, the ebb and flow of the tracks. It sort reminds me of a Bertrand Russel quote: "Mathematics, rightly viewed, possesses not only truth, but supreme beauty - a beauty cold and austere like that of sculpture, without appeal to any part of our weaker nature, without the gorgeous trappings of painting or music, yet sublimely pure, and capable of a stern perfection such as only the greatest art can show."

A lot of the glitchwank crowd do seem to go in for Max/MSP manipulation for its own sake, but with Ae it always seems to me to be directed and musical - not neccessarily emotional in a straightforward way, but definitely musical.
 
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polystyle

Well-known member
Like that Bertrand Russel quote , has some rings to it ...

Was listening to the clips on Bleep last night and as previously ,
I found plenty to like on the new album (lots of tracks !).
Obv , not for everyone, but I have to respect Autechre's rigor and practice trying to get to a new place in 'musik' .
Instead of trendroid they do what they want.
Digging that drum pattern on Tankakem,
paralel Suns sonic, rale , Notwo's sound like cold polar light,
Outh gx

Live long Autechre !
 
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