Customer Reviews

Draft 7.30

5 star:		(28)
4 star:		(20)
3 star:		(7)
2 star:		(5)
1 star:		(1)

 

 

I have to say that I honestly don't know how they do it. I listen to some relatively "different" stuff-- prefuse, mum, books, etc. -- but all of them, as "out there" as they are, have a certain grounding in familiar melodic and rhythmic patterns.

the last two autechre albums, by contrast, are unique (in my collection anyway) in the sense of utter, stupefied bewilderment they generate with each listen. I simply have no frame of reference for this. Yet, in certain moods, I find it an immensely satisfying listen.

As with confield, I find there to be something peculialy organic about this album, much more so than autechre's previous output. With all of the glitchery and oblique processed beats, it nevertheless feels as though there is something *alive* in this music.

Also like confield, I find this to be particularly good music to listen to when you don't feel like listening to music. There is something decomposed about it, something cannibalistic, something destructive... it's as if you're hearing the elements of music shredded, and smashed, and pureed, and strained, and then finally reconstituted -- into something that, miraculously, ultimately, reaffirms your faith in music.

If that doesn't help you understand the appeal of the new autechre, think of it this way: a lot of the essence of rock'n'roll lies in how *dirty* it is. But if the rolling stones are a pack of young ne'er-do-wells with grime on their faces and unkempt hair, autechre is a mossy, shapeless, moving hulk of mulch and smashed silicon chips, wired incorrectly and coming after you.

now, which is scarier?

What's amazing about this album is that I find it compelling - and yet it barely satisfies anyone's definition of music. It's harsh, has little in the way of melody, nothing ever seems to repeat consistently enough for me to say it has a rhythm, and yet over and over again I'll put it on and listen to it.

I'll try to articulate what I feel about it. For one thing, when you get over a certain hump it's not boring. It simply doesn't repeat. You're trying so hard to latch onto any kind of repetition in an attempt to find some kind of rhythm. But each time it almost repeats it's different and once you think you've seen the new pattern it trips over itself and slips from your grasp. And yet it's not random. It's just so damn interesting.

I have to admit I also like the sounds - the glitches, the clicks and the static. Probably comes from years of tinkering with electronics and computers. There are no organic sounds here - this is pure electronica trying to sound like electronica. Few of your sweeping synth sounds sewn from silky smooth superpositions of sine waves. This stuff is digital with corners, ugly angles and steps.

If you've only time to listen to one track, and you're not sure which one to try, have a go at Surripere. It starts off pretty accessibly with haunting notes (not glitches, not clicks, actual notes) and a heartbeat-like rhythm, though in true Autechre fashion it twists and turns skipping a beat here and there intertwining with other less predictable sounds. Of course this apparent accessibility is just there to lull you into a false sense of security as the music slowly decays into much more convoluted Autechre territory. 6ie.cr also has plenty of more accessible sections.

But don't just listen to the easy bits. It's all good, every bit of it. And I really can't explain way. Just get it.

When Lou Reed dropped 'Metal Machine Music' in 1975, it was rumored to be more a ploy by Reed to get dropped by his label than an effort to turn pop fans into noiseheads. Whatever the case, the album comprised of grating experimental electronic music alienated Reed from fans and label reps alike.

With its density and abrasivness, Autechre's 'Confield' was seen in a similar light by many of the group's fans. While their elite following applauded it as their most forward-thinking album, others found it almost unlistenable. Some thought it the group's attempt to lower their own profile; others felt it was the only logical conclusion for a band tailed by dozens of imitators. Whatever the case, Confield was the duo's most talked-about album since Tri Repetae. Amid an already divided fanbase, any chatter about the group softening up was crushed by the mighty Gantz Graf single of 2002.

Which brings us to Draft 7.30. Tonally, the album is of the same stock as Confield. The sounds are still rusty around the edges; their trajectories wild upon exiting the speakers only to come back together on the way back like some sort of hi-frequency boomerang. The beats still hit as if recorded by the head of a microphone driving a pack of nails through a concrete wall. The melodies -- yes, the melodies -- creep up like the smoke after a well set series of base charges topple a skyscraper.

What makes it so different than Confield? The feel of it. Music purists can dismiss the level of personal expression inherent in electronic music all they want but this album simply feels warmer than its recent relatives. Where Gantz Graf sounded more like a machine teaching itself how to destroy, Draft 7.30 uses the same core ingredients to build a dense yet inviting meshwork. Fans of Confield's calculus will find just as many equations here. Those turned off by all the math and who long for a return to the group's roots will find hope for a return to the group's more melodic past.

As usual (and for better or worse) this isn't anything Autechre has released before. It is no less Confield 2 than it is Peel Sessions 3. It's simply the closest thing the group has released to a complete picture of their entire 10+ year history. Evidence of every phase in the duo's history is present here from the serene Amber to the chu-chu-chu-chunky Chiastic Slide. It is no retrospective though. It is too alive for that.

Rumors persist that this is the duo's swan song. If so, they're doing it perfectly.

My grandmother's last words to me, just moments before her arrest, had to do with stealing coins from the Trevi fountain in Rome. As she was frogmarched towards the police van, Autechre's "Xylin Room" bled thick and black from my high-fidelity unit. A fitting soundtrack.

Gran was overtly hostile to the Sheffield duo's cybernetic spasticity, preferring instead the noxious fumes of Neil Sedaka. She destroyed my copy of "LP5" and made a stiff-jointed lunge for my still shrink-wrapped copy of "Draft 7.30".

Fans of Neil Sedaka are advised not to approach this album.

But for me, "Draft 7:30" is an eerie, metallic whiff of a dimly glinting future, the sound of my great-grandchildren's spring-break prom, or whatever the American for "Easter Holiday" is.

She got nine years. She cannot judge me anymore. "Surripere" is the standout track.

The disc is on repeat. I listen time and time and time again.
Thanks.

in a cryptic way, draft 7.30 seems to merge together the sonic complexities of their last lp confield with the material that characterizes the "autechre sound" (everything before confield). you have ambient excursions ("surripere"), a nod to the funk ("p.:ntil") and even a kind of breakbeat breakdance for robots ("6ie.cr"). there is also an robotic war theme ("iv vv iv vv viii") and robotic freak dance ("v-proc") and so much more.

for the fans of confield, you may be disappointed at the conservative nature (not as abstract and more dependent on loop structures and somewhat steady rhythms). for the fans of classic autechre, you may be disappointed that there is not a return to the "simple" sound (there's still glitches and weird static moments). but for the fans of autechre period, you shan't be disappointed.

p.s. i know it's early in the game to be writing reviews for an album a week into its release but i figured i get something out there for people. although i really like autechre, please don't take this as a fan seeking to shout out something to get people to buy it. this is just first impression talking here. thank you.

That's how it sounds in my headphones right now. If you're looking at this, you're probably aware that Autechre is a very challenging listen. Their explorations seldom resemble music these days; it's an amalgam of breakbeat arrhythmias merged with granular dysfunction over a swath of downsampled melodies that skip and blurp in a seemingly random fashion. Most of the reviewers here concede that Autechre doesn't care if they alienate their fans. Maybe so, or maybe they're just so far ahead that it will take us years to catch up and fully appreciate it. Whatever the case may be, I continue to buy their records. Whether you love 'em or hate 'em, one thing is clear: nobody else sounds like Autechre. My 3 year old son says it sounds like broken robot music. Yeah, that's about right.

Imagine my excitement when I first heard this album. I have been a long, long time Autechre fan and I consider them my favorite band. I couldn't possibly imagine how they could go more "out there" after hearing Confield but they've gone and done it. They start things off with a conventional (for AE) track that has a melody reminiscent of VI Scose Poise. The next song sounds like a flood of melodic sound beaten down by some incredibly gimpy drums. The whole track is surreal. Next is 6IE.CR which is a favorite of mine. It has heavily flanged, crazy drums that proceed a beautiful orchestral melody. Next is TAPR which keeps things very abstract but is very good. Surripere starts off with an ambient Boards of Canada esque melody and morphs into a hardcore song that sounds completely alien. Theme of Sudden Roundabout is hard to grasp but is satisfying nonetheless. VL AL 5 has an industrial mood to it and a really off beat, unique melody. P.:NTIL is one of my favorites on the album. The beat becomes so processed that it gives the feeling of falling down stairs. V-PROC sounds like hyperactive hip-hop gone wrong and is the weak point of the album for me. Reniform Puls is the high point though. It has that signature Autechre melody that makes you feel like you're dying. Ahh I love this stuff. This album is recommended to everyone who enjoys music!

Look people. This cd is not that 'out there'. In fact, I'd say it's the most accessible thing they've done in a while. 'Xylin Room' kicks. 'V-Proc' is a big stomping hip-hop monster let loose on the world.

But seriously, is there anything more pointless then trying to describe Autechre? If you liked Tri REpetae, or Chiastic Slide I don't think it's much of a stretch to say you will like this too. Quite different from 'Confield', which I found nauseating and addictive at the same time. Less frantic and manic then the 'gantz graf' single. Not very similar to Incunabula or Amber, but those were made 10 years ago, when Autechre could actually be called 'dance music' or 'chill-out'.

All I can really say is this is not as 'ethereal, alien wasteland' as Confield and more solid, chunky and funky. You won't be rocking a party with this or anything. It's still music that needs to be listened to with undivided attention, or its sometimes-scary noises will just annoy you. Music to surrender and escape to.

Autechre have achieved another brilliant release. Those with an affection for the skam mode of mutant hip hop will have much to be thankful for on this release. Unlike Confield which saw Autechre leave the safe confines of the airlock to wander away into a godless cold radioactive wasteland, they are decidedly more content to stay inside spaces and craft the purest distillation to date of Ae beat deconstructions. Draft 7.30 is somewhat of a teratogen as one can imagine the inevitability that IDM offspring for generations to come will be contaminated by this latest effort. If you liked Team doyobi's 'Cryptoburners' or anything Venetian Snares has put out since 'Winter in the Belly of a Snake', this album will fit comfortably into your collection. As with all of Autechre's music, expect to be utterly confounded on the first listens. Continue to listen and the massive agglomeration of ideas, rythyms and atmospherics will resolve itself into that which keeps us returning to the timeless quality and direction that is evident in their work.

As in the baseball variety. Confield and then Gantz Graft had gotten me totally psyched about the band's future--I figured that Confield's emphasis on longue duree structures and local rhythmic disorder would be enough to last Autechre for a couple of albums. There's a precedent for it, 'slow simple melody against cold crisp precussion' arranged Incunabula, Amber, and tri repetae ++, 'multiple synth rhythm lines homogenized carefully in various mood pieces' got Orbital from the brown album to In Sides.

What bugs me here is that I don't think Booth and Brown have hit a musicologically necessary [if the phrase needs to be invented for any band, it's this one] stylistic dead end so much as their muse cut out from under them a bit. Draft 7.30 isn't about pushing the envelope any further but reintegrating their latest tricks with their earlier ones; a lot of material hangs back somewhere a ways beyond LP5, notably some of the best tracks: "XYLIN ROOM"'s massive, cavernous xlinphone (?) hits and skitters provide a great claustrophobic opener before finally releasing the listener out into a windowless hallway lit by flourescent lights, smooth chimes, and some plucked instrument which I can't identify. "6IE.CR" is a wonderful little dancer, a demented bit of cartoon violence which insists on relentlessly beating down on the listener every second bar, before evening out and sputtering into into some bright woodwind synths. And, yeah, "SURRIPERE's alright in each of its individual segments: Amberish tides of synth, followed by some LP5ish chunkiness and wailing whines before veering off into Confield Lite semiordered treble whacks.

So that's the outstanding stuff. Some of the major problems: I always praise Autechre for taking their tracks somewhere rather than just letting them sit around. The progressions, however, have always seemed to come from within the song, or at least weren't contradicted by it; the overall pattern made sense and wasn't arbitrary. For the first time, I can really feel them *forcing* their tracks to go places the tracks wouldn't dream of going in a million years. This infects even the best tracks (notice the total break at 3:30 in "XYLIN" that Autechre tries to slide over without the slightest pause (perhaps a minute long wait might have helped). The shifts in "SURRIPERE" are also somewhat grotesque, you can really feel the track sputter and start up again as new gas is poured in the tank. "P:NITL" is kept on life support for a good forty percent of its track length with a IV injection of some synth guitar pluck noodling. I'd rather here these ideas put into 15 shorter songs than into 10 normal sized ones.

I'd always liked Chiastic Slide and even Amber more than others, and had a hard time believing Autechre could seriously miss a beat, so to speak. But still, this isn't a *bad* album. Great tracks, including some I have yet to mention: "THEME OF SUDDEN ROUNDABOUT," a quick comical and/or creepy little number which doesn't go very far, I think because Autechre for once on this album had the confidence to realize it didn't need to, and "RENIFORM PULS," which before tiredly collapsing and letting its own percussion tear itself to pieces manages the most haunting synth harmonies I've heard in a long time.

If you're one of those people with money to throw around, you might want to get it. And you can keep your complete Autechre collection going. If you can trot out Chichlisuite on demand, you might as well have this one.