Customer Reviews

Oversteps

5 star:		(9)
4 star:		(6)
3 star:		(2)
2 star:		(0)
1 star:		(0)

 

 

The pre-release buzz from both fans and critics of Autechre's music on their 10th album, Oversteps, had some comparisons to their earliest work, more specifically their sophomore album Amber. While not totally off-base that comparison is merely a reference point for the direction the band has now embarked upon. Like the aforementioned classic, Oversteps could be heard as a return to form, but that would diminish the great records that the duo has released leading up to this point.

For once the focus is not on Autechre's trademark mind-bending warped beats and percussion, but the melodic notes that have been more often than not pushed back into the mix throughout the band's past discography. Perhaps taking a cue from the positive responses from the minority of ambient tracks that graced 2008's Quaristice, the new album now has these in greater abundance. It's an exciting change of pace. The beats, when they do appear, have greater punch to it. All the tracks (whether with beats or not) are dense, restless and convey a variety of emotion.

I find it difficult to explain Autechre's songs into words, partly because the elements that are referenced ("techno", "hip-hop", etc) are filtered into highly fractured compositions. I can only say that "r ess", "see on see", "treale", "qplay", "d-sho qub", "redfall" and "yuop" made strong favorable impressions on first listen and I'm sure will be joined by many others with repeated spins.

My only criticism of this recording is that some of the percussive elements sound a bit overly compressed (in "ilanders" and "st epreo" particularly, but elsewhere as well). Autechre have always left some of the rougher edges of their sound remain unpolished, but I think the music all around could benefit from more clarity in this regard. A minor complaint that does not detract form the overall quality of this release.

Oversteps is an unexpected surprise, showing a side of Autechre not heard in years, yet seamlessly integrated in the language of the band's music as it has progressed to this point.

Final Rating: 4.5 stars (I'm loving it more and more since my initial rating!)

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A word about other editions of Oversteps currently available:

VINYL EDITION:

The LP version is a double album set. For those wondering about the high price tag than most double-album sets should know that there is a greater standard quality to the packaging. The outer jacket is a sturdy, heavy-set slipcase that holds the three inner sleeves inside. Two of these houses each record and a third that holds a double-sided poster (with the large black dot on the front and the track list on the back). The music itself is pressed on 180 gram vinyl, which is a bit heavier than standard albums and provides a cleaner, warmer sound. I experienced few problems with any excessive pops or clicks of my copy that sometimes accompany LP playback.

JAPAN EDITION:

The Japan imported edition includes a bonus track called "Xektses sql". A little bit of subdued noise thrown in at the end that makes for a nice comedown from the intensity of "Yuop". It reminds me of the second half of "Sublimit" (from Untilted) in that it has a submerged quality to it. It has these bursts of muffled feedback which makes it really interesting, but at only 3 minutes its over fairly quickly. There's no real melody in it to speak of, which makes for one of the weaker tracks overall. This CD edition is not sold through the US Amazon store, but is available at Amazon's Japan store and other import sellers as well.

Like many others, I had given Ae's last couple of releases a miss. I shelved Untilted after only a listen or two, and never even bothered picking up Quaristice. But then I saw the buzz around Oversteps and started listening to previews...and that's when the majestic, sweeping, rolling pads of "ilanders" hit me. And suddenly I was listening to "Rettic AC" from Chiastic Slide all over again, which is nothing short of amazing. I'm still trying to decide whether or not I like "known(1)" yet, but otherwise this album is definitely the best thing they've made since ep7, and certainly one of their strongest albums overall. If you're a fan of their mid-career work then you owe it to yourself to pick up Oversteps post-haste.

I had been getting pretty sick of autechre over the years, more and more thinking that they might have run their course, and then this album comes along which was a completely unexpected and most welcome surprise. It's still autechre, for sure, and some of the patterns and loops are familiar, but for some reason it rings fresh and really hits the spot.

If I had to describe this album in a nutshell I might say "a more groovy update of the Terminator soundtrack". There are some great, melodic and dare-I-say borderline "emotional" musical sequences on here that help everything to resonate more than their other recent efforts. But it also still has that beautifully cold and calculated menace to it, like only these guys can do. It's a fine line, but they walk it better here than at any time in recent memory.

Honestly, I never liked Autechre before. I know I'm uncultured, but I always thought they were: cold, without the emotional delicacy of early Aphex Twin; mechanical, with simplistic rhythms stretching out interminably with little variation; and pretentious, passing off their melodic deficiencies as brilliant avant-gardism. But before you get angry, think of how humbled I was when I heard Oversteps, which is their best album, if not ever, then certainly since Amber.

I realized from the first song that this wasn't business as usual. "R Ess" begins the album with a glacially calm keyboard sound, best described by the adjective "regal." This melody fades in excruciatingly slowly, but the slow pace is amazingly effective -- the sound is so clean and soothing, I got really into each repetition and wanted it to keep going. Eventually it stops; the rest of the track consists of very quiet background noise, with fragments of the original lead occasionally breaking through, like isolated recollections of some fantastic experience.

But after all, Oversteps isn't a radical departure. The very next song, "Ilanders," is full of loud, burbling acid-bass, almost drowning out the gentler melodic elements laid on top. It's pretty much the quintessential Artificial Intelligence sound, typical of early Autechre. Tracks like "Qplay" and "St Epreo" incorporate some of Autechre's infamous randomly generated beats. Even fairly melodic pieces like "Known(1)" and "O=0," which use a keyboard lead, have a slightly flat, sullen off-key tone. The melodies sound just a bit too loud to be comfortable. But the dissonance in Oversteps is very restrained, the chaotic percussion in "Qplay" is considerably toned down and muted compared to Confield. In these songs, Autechre are pushing the listener's patience, but never quite stepping over the line, which eventually starts to become interesting, even if these aren't my favourite parts of the album.

In other songs, though, they're making beautiful, classicist electronica. The last fifteen minutes of the album are a great pleasure -- "Redfall," "Krylon" and "Yuop" are all played on lovely, shimmering, echoing chimes. "Pt2Ph8" is a wonderfully soothing drone, languidly shifting around in waves for four minutes. "Treale" starts with more of those muted, swampy keyboards, but quickly brings in a sturdy dance beat to anchor a variety of ambient noises and synths. The careful pace of the song, the upbeat but very low-key rhythm and the interplay between the diverse keyboard sounds makes for an unexpected highlight, a track that sounds spookier and more mysterious than any trip-hop.

Basically, Oversteps is a classic IDM album, fulfilling the promise of electronic production techniques in making original melodies. But the production is much fuller and more detailed than in most actual nineties IDM, the beats are more varied than those standard 808 snares and hand-claps, and the music uses more diverse instruments. You can still hear that nineties synth-bass on Oversteps, as well as those acid squelches and bleeps. The staccato synth line in "D-Sho Qub" sounds exactly like an ambient interlude from Black Dog's Spanners. However, you wouldn't have heard the sweet chimes of "See On See" on most nineties albums. Even the more typical nineties sounds like the bleeps in "Os Veix3" sound better and softer here than they ever have before.

Although Oversteps is much gentler than the Autechre stereotype, it's not complacent. "Treale" has real forward movement, the opening sounds different from the midsection, and the background ambience changes as the song progresses. There is enough detail here to satisfy the patient listener, but the music is generally harmonious enough to make the effort rewarding. The dissonant moments are easier to get past, or even to appreciate, and the peaks are so good (for instance, much better than Aphex Twin's recent return-to-roots) that I'm really reconsidering my view of Autechre.

Autechre are one of few "true artists" in the electronica field.

Their work has always been innovative, non-compromising and non-repetitive. Most Autechre albums are full of experimentation with sound and form, each new album being usually vastly different from the previous in its musical approach.

That is the case with Oversteps. Most fans (myself included) expected to hear something in the vein of the last two Autechre albums, which were mostly put together using recorded and edited jams the band had recorded live and in the studio.

Oversteps finds Autechre exploring the realms of quasi-ambient beatless music, and retro idm, focusing on melody over rhythm in a way they haven't done since their early releases.

The musical change featured in Oversteps is so unexpected, that most people wouldn't be able to inmediately identify this album as an Autechre album.

Gone is the rhythmic complexity of recent previous albums, being replaced my a new found love of strange atonal melodies.

The album starts with the surprising "r ess," a slow building piece with minimal beats, before is goes into "Ilanders," a more "modern-sounding" song (by Autechre standards), featuring the usual Autechrian warped Elektron Machinedrum SPS-1 beats. "known(1)" is a beatless piece, almost like a simple piano tune played through atonal additive synths and some really warped melodic synth patches. The next piece, "pt2ph8" is another beatless tune, very similar to its predecessor, Both songs sound like generic computer generated music without much form or structure.

Things get a little more interesting with "qplay," which starts with some slow ambience before it goes into some retro-idm minimal, changing beats and counter melodies. "see on see" is another beatless piece, with reverb-laden FM synths that do not seem to go anywhere.

The half point of the album is reached with "Treale", a more conventional retro-idm song with minimal 4/4 beats and some simple melodies.The next song, "os veix3" sounds like a continuation of "Treale" with minimal beats and not much else. "O=0" is a more structured and interesting tune featuring some nice strange melodies.

"d-sho qub" is an strange piece that goes in and out of ambient mode with some occasional beats and tons of reverb.

"st epreo" sounds like something right out of Quaristice, while "redfall" sounds like a retro Autechre piece from the 90s without the beats!

"krYlon" is a reminder of how awesome Autechre are: 6 minute plus exploration in nu-ambient, digital beatless, FM Synth sound manipulation. "yuop" brings the album to a grand closing with its epic sweeps of glitchy synths.

Some fans of the most recent Autechre work are probably going to hate this album, while some fans of their older work will welcome it.

This album sometimes sounds like a compendium of all Autechre albums, and at other times sounds nothing like them at all!

Rob & Sean are true musical geniuses, still not afraid to take chances and to explore new musical avenues, even if it means changing radically the sound of their music.

Autechre is an English electronic music duo formed in 1987 in Rochdale, Greater Manchester, UK by Rob Brown and Sean Booth. The duo are one of the most prominent acts signed with Warp Records, a label known for its pioneering electronic music. Their album, Oversteps, is their most recent record, released in March of 2010. For their album, Oversteps, Autechre mainly uses analog synthesizers, though they also incorporate a variety of other synths, samplers, and drum machines.

For me this album encapsulates the typical technosonic music, which is defined as digital music and sound art composition that creates "computer music." Oversteps is most definitely experimental through their use of tools and creates a unique sound that is memorable for the listener. Most of the tracks are more ambient with deep base sounds, for the more transient and tranquil listener. Something I picked up on was the layers of sound that the composers create throughout each piece. It made me feel as if I was drowning in sound and after listening to a song more than once I started to pick up on the layers of sounds that were intricately weaved through each piece. There is not doubt that this CD is very creative and uses experimentation to capture the listener and feed my imagination. They also use melodic elements to create a complexity that is very enjoyable. I felt like I was put in a trace when listening to the CD, which made me feel very engaged in the music. The sound is also very fresh, in that it is not so complex that I feel lost when listening, but it gives me a feeling of newness and simplicity, but fulfills my listening cravings at the same time.

Two songs that I particularly liked where llanders and D-Sho Qub. Llanders has a more ambient sound to it throughout the song, starting out with deep bass sounds that are very trance-like and slow moving. The piece then gets hit with one large base boom and speeds up with more deep drumming with a layer of humming in the background. It is upbeat, but with more of a dark tone throughout. The melody stays the same throughout the piece only getting slower and faster in particular places. The deep booming base made me feel like I was in the matrix, giving me a futuristic experience. In contrast to llanders, D-Sho Qub is more "club like." Creating a sound that is transports me into a European techno club. It starts off making me question what is to come, playing with my mind with short bursts of sound that build up to a crashing of beats that are lively, light hearted and make me want to bob my head to the beat. As the song evolves, more layers are built in, once again, giving me an experience that is new and refreshing. It keeps me guessing as to what is going to come next in the song. There are places of pause that are followed by new sounds that emerge as the song progresses. At the end there is monk like singing that turns the song into to a darker piece.

This type of music is inspirational and opens my mind to new ideas. It takes me to places I would not normally go to through experimentation and sounds that one does not typically hear in everyday music. I like how with each track there is something new and different to look forward to hearing. From ambient to lively Oversteps keeps me guessing and makes me want to hear more.

I own all the Autechre cds and eps and absolutely love their music. After listening to this...it is their best work since Amber. As much as their material in between has been totally amazing and innovating, this is the disk that will raise their influence to a broader audience. Love it...can't stop listening!

I'd say this album is a mix between cichlisuite and quaristice but is in general more laid back than either of those. I think it is still an evolutionary advancement on their sound and incorporates other influences of the genre to my ear like mu-ziq and certainly AFX. I found it actually relaxing to listen to and so if in the pattern of albums this is the "release" for the built-up suspension of draft 7.03 and "untitled" then it suits me fine.

Autechre have lead me many places as a listener and musician. They have lead me into exploring algorithmic and generative technique, they have shown me that you can be ambient without sounding lazy, and they have shown me that you can be subtle with electronics without sounding pretentious.

This album displays all of these traits, without giving too much focus on any one aspect. Those familiar with the group will be taken back in time, all the way back in fact on the album's opener - which could very well be an out-take from Inculabula or Amber. Many of the tones throughout the album feel physically generated or FM in source. My favorite track 'Known(1)' has a very compositional feel to it as opposed to some of the more "written by a set of rules" material they've produced and has koto-type and swelling pulsed FM themes that almost sound like Plaid's more oriental themes with greater focus on non-looping aspects.

Overall, this is not a harsh or hard to listen to album. Much less jarring overall than what they've produced in the past few years. Much more ambient in fact, you'll hear alot of lush reverb and wide panned synthwork that is the focus of many of the tracks. Of the more percussive tracks, 'Treale' is a highlight, showing nearly distinguishable cinematic flair without going too far into the recognisable or generic sounds that they could have added to it. You can bob your head to it, you could even dance to it. Imagine that. The other beat-based highlight is 'D-Sho Qub', which is a higher energy piece and again has hints of Plaid in its lead synth. It wanders slowly towards a theme from an opening synth that almost loses itself before picking up and introducing snappy and gated percussive elements at over a minute in. It stutters then to choirs, drones and wappy modulated bits before fading into the next track.

At over 100 listens according to Winamp, i'm confident in saying this album has great replayability. Like all of Auteche's work, it grows on you. Unlike many of their albums though, i hear shades of their past in this one in greater amounts than any previous. That isn't a bad thing at all - every group has their modes, and Autechre's established some very unique ones to operate in. This is experimental electronic music with soul, something rarely found.

This album struck me like a bolt of iron when I was informed by a friend that Autechre had just released another album. I was, quite honestly still listening to and enjoying Quadrange (the remix LP's that came out after Quaristice). As another reviewer said this album is not quite like anything Autechre has released recently and I agree. It does in my opinion recall some earlier works, particularly Chiastic Slide (well, in some instances). However, this album is not quite like anything autechre has released thus far.

Oversteps..... Is a strange piece of work. Definitely direful, ominous, bizarre, woesome, gloomy, horrific, arousing, distinct, trigonometric, suspending, miraculous...... Ancient... Beautiful... Somehow Autechre has managed to craft something that is entirely un-understandable & completely fresh, even after 10+ years of music. This album, which is mostly a melodic offering, promises to conjure up images of Princes who never saw fame, Kings that did not conquer, planets stripped bare of thier resources, forbidden states of consciousness, hyper-advanced killing droids actively hunting remnants of humanity, caskets sprouting great garlands, darkness with lime green prisms in perfect mathematical harmony. And the song 'see on see' is perhaps, a perfect representation of what thousands of crystals would sound like if they could somehow sing. The unprepared may flinch from this album because of its full-commitment to uncanny sound production, and to his or her own despair, but anyone who has sat down with Autechre over the course of thier body of work.... will not be disappointed with this release. It is lock step with the best of thier work and in my opinion has a uniqueness even within thier own catalogue. Every song, every note, everything on this album is genius.

And with the release of this album, I really think that Autechre can be put in the same sentence as artists like The Beetles, Michael Jackson, Jimi Hendrix, Bjork. They are truly masters of thier craft, in a way that few artists in thier respective genres ever get to. And I do not mean to flatter, or say that carelessly.

Well done Autechre.