Customer Reviews

Ep 7

5 star:		(37)
4 star:		(14)
3 star:		(3)
2 star:		(5)
1 star:		(4)

 

 

the cover art for this album is probably the most strikingly appropriate I've encountered for any album since ok computer. It depicts an alien, mechanical, vaguely threatening but overall unclear form that seems to be wriggling into existence spontaneously (i.e., constructing itself rather than being birthed). The mixed feelings of awe, curiosity, and uneasiness that I feel when looking at this picture are a good summary for the feelings that EP7 evokes in the listener.

Ultimately, what autechre seems to be doing with this album is somehow reinventing the utterly stale and banal "techno-dystopian-future" schtick that's been done for the last decade or so by scores of mediocre electronic artists. The trick here I think is that they do it by completely omitting the human element. In short, this is an album that gets you inside the head of the machine.

This makes for a rough first couple listens, especially if you're not familiar with autechre's other stuff. Some tracks, such as "left blank," appear to have nothing going on in them whatsoever beyond scrapes, clicks, and occasional rushes of air. But as one reviewer wrote of a different autechre work, there's an epiphany to be had, lurking in this album-- and I think the listener's changing feelings towards "left blank" are a microcosm of this epiphany. At some point, after two, three, or several listens, the track just *pops out* at you, like a 3D magic-eye drawing -- and suddenly right before you, there's a mad cyclone of jagged, clipped bits of beats.. like being in a sandstorm, only with tiny fragments of glass and silicon, and no less punishing.

If such descriptions strike you as insane, don't worry... they are. But give this album enough listens to get under your skin, and I guarantee you one day you'll find yourself grasping about for your own metaphors to enclose, capture, and name the experiences this album evokes.

I'd be curious to hear what you come up with.

Yes, this is considerably more "noisey" and chaotic than Incunabula or Tri Repetae ever were, but _EP7_ really is no more amelodic than some of the stuff on Aphex Twin's _Richard D. James Album_. The rhythms and melodies that have always been a gift of Autechre's are still there, rest assured, albeit a tad "buried" in layers of staticy and metallic samples that, in themselves, do nothing but bolster the music's strength by providing atmosphere. They themselves possess recognizable patterns as well, and this makes for some extremely hard to follow, complex songs(a notable change for a band that based its first three LPs on a standard of stark minimalism).

If nothing else is to be said, it is that EP7 resembles _none_ of the previous Autechre releases(save perhaps it's parent LP); it has neither the rhythmic, jazzy IDM of _Tri Repetae_ nor the synthesized beauty of _Incunabula_ or _Amber_. I've always harbored the notion that these two had a hearty love of noisier, more off-putting music. Their re-mix of "The Killing Game" on a recent Skinny Puppy tribute album was anything if not incongruous with thier signature style(an impenetrable wall of flowing noise that I still fail to enjoy), coupled with the very fact that they even participated on Scumtron(the Merzbow tribute LP) first roused these suspicions in me, and now I see them confirmed, and confirmed in only the most glorious of ways.

There's precious little I can think of that resembles the music contained here. Perhaps early, noisier Kraftwerk(think Ralf und Florian) or Download when they still had Mark Spybey as part of their roster. Comparisons aside, this is incredibly original stuff, truly a masterpiece of electronic music. I can't say I've ever really heard song structures like this, and how they work I'm still trying to discern, but for now I'm happy to simply sit back and enjoy them.

There's a great deal of humanity displayed here, particularly toward the end, to answer a reviewer who stated that the group's new direction was soulless and mechanical. They do soulless and mechanical too, of course, but it works for the album, and not once sounds as if there weren't a pair of extremely talented, thoughtful musicians designing every blip and crunch.

I would easily call this Autechre's most original and probably most important release, but I will admit that I enjoy their others equally as well. _Incunabula_ and _Tri Repetae_ will always be regulars on my CD player, but I sincerely believe that this one was what it was all leading up to. With all the shifts in sound they've made already, each better than the last, I'm anxious to see how they plan to top _EP7_. I wish them luck. They'll need it.

After the very electronic LP 5, Autechre here swerves back to and beyond the live, improvised, and somehow folky place they went on the wonderful Chiastic Slide. This takes it farther, to the point of often not seeming danceable at all. Not that anyone gets Autechre records for that anyway. Not easy listening, but rewarding and deep and catchy in the manner of good hard bop.

This CD is one of the most unique albumns that I have ever listened to. It's definetly one that must be listened to carefully. The listener must not focus on the little things but take into account the undertone and listen to each song as a whole. It took me a couple of times of listening to appreciate this albumn to what it has become and it has become an incrediable albumn filled with intense emotions and serenity. Autechre is one of the greatest artist in their form, of what I like to call, abstract techno. I recommend this albumn is you are a fan of Aphex Twin, especially his music he made when Richard James was under the name AFX.

following EP5, this one is less of a coherent album as the tracks are more different from each other. each track seems to have been composed by a different machine or artificial intelligence born out of a different kind of machine, different mechanical sentient species, without any human intervention...and some of these machines are more creative than others, or seem so because they have more complex minds. a lot of this analogy has to do with the tracks sounding as though created by alien minds, whether machine or otherwise; although these minds don't share ideas of what music is, the tracks all have an internal logic of their own.

this is autechre's most challenging and subtle album. they have been getting more abstract since chiastic slide, which is another must-have; EP5 is musically their most brilliant. (just look at the creativity it inspires in amazon reviewers.) this album's stylistic diversity is an advantage over that album, though, considering that they couldn't produce another album like EP5.

autechre is great for any kind of creative activity, and this album is also great to listen to while working out, as a particular state of heightened awareness which involves focus; this allows for immersion into subtle music that would otherwise just interest you.... this album does lack much of the emotionality of previous albums, but, as an autechre album, it is remarkably flexible in effect; one track can be darkly disturbing or euphoric, depending on one's frame of mind.

EP7 is my fave Autechre album, along with Incunabula. "rpeg" is a fitting intro into a more terse and machine-driven style that was hinted at in the previous self-titled (`LP5') album and its predecessor 'Tri Repetae++', but, for this sonic `punter', leaves them for dead.

"ccec"s distorted rap-style vox-samples twist skilfully through a `drum and bass' accompaniment that is as engaging as it is intelligent. Once again Ae treats us to an tonally/thematically/rhythmically integrated, elemental and organic sound-world that is insinuatingly engaging. Brilliant track! Victory of man-melded-with-machine-aural-intrigue.

"squeller"s jaunty, metallic beats are enthralling and the thematic synth-development underneath is a perfect accompaniment. Rivetting! The `radiophonic' surges that end the track are perverse and a great lead-in to "left blank". This latter track is led by beat-driven attacks on tonality similar to the better tracks on `LP5', which however are less melodically satisfying here than they were there, as this time the beats and bass thumps win out! Not a track for woosies who want melody to emerge out of chaos. A hint of what was to come on `Confield', their next and least approachable album.

"outpt" - just white noise? Oops, here's fuzzy-synth-wash melody and jaunty `down on the farm' thumpy beats instead. What can these guys come up with next? "outpt" becomes unrelenting in its pulse and drive to seemingly find a tonal plateau. It fails - thank heavens for that! - and dissolves into squelchy white noise again. Woo hoo, what a ride!

"dropp" is one of my favourite Ae tracks. The intro is hauntingly beautiful, before massive sloshy beats force its synth-melody to the background, still radiantly beautiful in its minimalist, yet emotional pulse. Disintegration kills it off at the end so we don't get too enthralled! The thematic development here is mind-bogglingly brilliant, as is so much of the Ae sound.

"liccflii" throbs and bounces in its irritatingly catchy way, never threatening to toy with melody. Unsettling and another forward look towards the `Confield' style of `why let them rest in thematic or rhythmic development - let's screw with their minds some!' It screws with mine.

"maphive 6.1" begins as another seemingly relentless throbbing machine-driven track, but quickly morphs into a stunningly playful synth theme, which for a while takes all the oomph out of the forward thrust. It then grows its own melodically created pulse - a common Ae motif - before briefly pausing to bathe in its own beauty, then pulsing on through another metamorphosis - beats deconstructing and trying to reconstruct themselves - finally giving in to the beauty of the now glockenspiel like theme, itself having become rhythm-melody yet again. The track ends with a throbbing descent into earthy surges of synth - like once vibrant flesh becoming dust.

The retrograde beats and pulses that follow the intro of "zeiss contarex" are nothing if not perverse. It develops a less interesting `industrial' pulse which has no real direction and fails to convince me, even though it does morph into a couple of mildly interesting sub-themes for a while. Challenging music, but not up to the best of the album - a bit of a disappointment compared to that which surrounds it.

"netlon sentinel" is just plain anarchic - metallic squelches and bass throbs that somehow transform into a stunningly radiant synth theme, accompanied by decadent bass-beats and metal swishes until it develops its own yearning pulse and becomes:

"pir" - a great way to end a monumental album. Its theme is challenged by squelchy metallic `thracky, throcky' beats, but - a tribute to Ae's genius - remains achingly beautiful despite them.

If you have not listened to Ae before, or have only heard one, or all of their first three albums - `Incunabula', `Amber' and `Tri Repetae++' - this album may be a tad disconcerting and sonically confronting. But don't give up on them - some reviewers say they are overrated, but Ae never fail to innovate and thereby engage!

This album NEEDS to be heard through nothing less than a high end stereo or through great headphones (think Grado or Sennheiser). Anything less and you won't be getting the details that make this album worthwhile. I don't know what it is about this music, why it has such presence and "rightness," because I'm sure most people would be baffled by it. The sounds and rhythms just seem to caress the brain, almost in the same way that esoteric jazz improvisation does. These guys are amazing in what they can do with sound. If you take the time to listen, you will realize that Autechre is creating some truly beautiful music. It's not for everybody, and I doubt that someone who wasn't raised on the squelches and bloops of old-school videogame systems would even have a frame of reference... but for those that "get it" (and it took me awhile) the payoff is fantastic. But, as I said before, this album really needs to be played through high-end speakers or (even better) good headphones to truly make it come alive.

I believe this recording to be the best Autechre album yet. Most listeners claim that Autechre's later works are weak because they don't sound like the "Autechre" that first debuted. I find these comments to be ignorant of the fact that any art must grow and change with time. In fact, the duo that makes up Autechre, Sean Booth & Rob Brown, mentioned in a 1999 article that their music was more about sound than emotion. Emotion is how the majority of average music listeners both consciously and subconsciously internalize music. Now don't get me wrong, emotional classification can be fun, and can lead to new ideas. Unfortunately, this is only the upper crust of interpreting music that has an organized structure. Yes, I do believe that the music Autechre produces is structured. What may seem on the outside to be chaos is a simple structure that binds the universe together. Open your mind further and listen to this CD many, many times.

Another commentary on EP7 mentioned the concept of removing the human element entirely from electronic music. Nowhere in all of Autechre's work is this more directly manifest than in this album, which is actually listed in most places (including its own front cover) as an EP. I tend to think, however, that rather than remove the humanity here, the artists have simply left to listeners the task of deciding what their music means.

Perhaps the extreme abstractness and structure of the music is what I enjoy most about it. It could be that I'm just drawn to blips and bleeps of strange shapes, the audible equivalent of shiny objects. (Understand that you're reading comments written by someone who thinks it's fun to look at fractals. Govern yourselves accordingly.) Whatever the case, it's safe to say that the listener will see himself (or herself) in the music. There is no message being put forward here; only a sound, a series of events that trigger chain reactions in the mind of the listener. You may find yourself drawing mental pictures resembling the ones on the cover. (And those are extremely appropriate visual descriptions of what you'll hear on this CD.) You may imagine obscure shapes floating past you as if carried on some wind. You may imagine a white room with high walls, with sourceless sounds echoing all around. Whatever the case may be, it will likely be more like looking in a mirror than at someone else. This is more than just 'listening music' to be played in the background. The tracks on EP7 are individual soundscapes, each telling a story that is colored, and even partly written, by the listener.

Perhaps that is a grandiose statement, but no other album makes me feel like I'm seeing a glimpse into the future as much as ep7. And no other Autechre album personifies the statement 'music about architecture' than this one. Also, this album gets better and better with each listen. In my opinion, this album makes Confield sound like a sound effects cd. Present are both the eery yet familiar melodies and oddly timed beats of their more recognized work. But for me this 'ep' (oddly titled since it is a full length) is the overlooked gem of electronic music.