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119 of 141 people found the following review helpful:
3.0 out of 5 stars
Learn Something About Yourself..., September 9, 2000
This review is from: Tri Repetae++ (Audio CD)
This is the only review I plan to write about Autechre, so I'm placing it here where the curious will be most likely to come across it. Tri Repetae is placed midway between Autechre's early ambient sound, and the dissonant, impenetrable "music" on the recent LP5 and EP7. While some might say that Autechre's sound is so diverse from album to album that it defies categorization, I think there is a distinctive Autechre sound. The sound is mechanical and repetitive; many reviewers say it sounds like it was made directly by machines with no human intervetion at all. There are melodies, but the sounds embody a relentless austerity. The question then becomes, is music which sounds like it is made by computers, only suitable for computers? The answer of course is no. There are a ton of Autechre fans out there who find their music not only intellectually stimulating, but emotionally moving as well (I can only bow to these hardy souls). To me, their music is so cold that it is perpetually off-putting, no matter how many times I pick up a disk to "give it another chance" (and I have done this countless times. In fact, I kept buying their CD's to see if I would suddenly "get it"). I think Autechre is a good litmus test of how far from the mainstream one is willing (or able) to travel. Certainly, the journey is not for the emotionally unstable, especially the latest albums (or perhaps it is only the emotionally unstable who appreciate their work. I can't decide if a love of highly mechanical music is a sign of emotional damage, or emotional fortitude). In any case, if you think you might enjoy a journey into an utterly alien aural landscape, with none of the usual "human" touchstones to guide you, you should pick up Tri Repetae, or Incunabula or Amber. At the very least, you will have been introduced to what is considered a seminal work of electronica; at best, you will have entered a sort of sonic bliss which I respect but can't fathom.
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12 of 12 people found the following review helpful:
5.0 out of 5 stars
Tri Repetae++ gets an A++, June 5, 2001
By A Customer
This review is from: Tri Repetae++ (Audio CD)
More than any other elektronik album to date, Tri Repetae++ has completely changed the way that I perceive music. It was my first Autechre album (now I have all LP's) and I still listen to it more frequently than any of their other albums. It achieves virtual perfection through the degradation and reconstruction of machine-like blips and chirps, constucting 10 absolute masterpieces of the ambient genre. This album also reaches a pure medium between the tranquil and melodic past of Autechre and their newer, complex machine-driven rhythms. Dael, Clipper, and Leterel start things off really well, each taking a simple syncopated rhythm and generating a hard-hitting beat that lasts for several minutes. Melodies permeate through these beats, however, and the direction of the tracks never seem lost. Each can hold your attention throughout for the 6+ minutes that they all last for. Rotar is perhaps the weakest point on the album - but that doesn't say much. It is still very unique and interesting, yet its intense complexity is what makes its eight minutes of listening to - a little long. "Stud," which is almost ten minutes in length, is truly fascinating. It begins with a pulsating beat, full of distorted scratches and hums - then, the melody hits. It sounds as if a machine is actually singing to you. At times, it seems a little paranoid, but the overal uneasyness of the track is brilliant. The next several tracks are also exquisite. "Eutow" distorts virtually everything in itself, and is probably the most famous track (if not the strangest) on the album aside from "Clipper." It never loses its punch though - even after frequent listens. "C/pach" is intensely groovy and is great to listen to in the car. Its jupming beats and funky rhythms are something that must be repeated often. "Gnit" is also a great one, generating a melody out of its own beats that builds and decays several times before the end of the song is reached. "Overand" is kind of creepy, repeating the same bell-like hums over and over, while also repeating this sullen bass loop very quietly as drums loom silently in the background. It is very interesting. Then there is "Rsdio," the 10+ minute closer. It, like "Stud," has a pulsating beat that builds and builds throughout the song until it actually becomes danceable. The melody is great too. It is purely mechanical. All in all, Tri Repetae++ is on virtually every level, Autechre's best release and their most monumental at that. It is a double disc, the second of which features two EPs, which are very nice to listen to as well. The album balances two genres of Autechre's work and is the seam that holds their early and later work together. It is a true masterpiece. While it may never be recognized as the masterwork that it is, buy it and learn for yourself just how amazing and comforting this recording is. Listen to it while you read - or while you do homework - or while you sleep. In any instance, you will soon find out that the only problem with the album is how to stop listening to it. It just doesn't get any better than this.
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14 of 15 people found the following review helpful:
5.0 out of 5 stars
Lethal Anatomical Efficiency!, June 19, 2000
This review is from: Tri Repetae++ (Audio CD)
TRI REPETAE was originally released as a single disc in the U.K. in November 1995. Disc 2 contains two previously released EPs: ANVIL VAPRE and GARBAGE. Autechre: Sean Booth, Rob Brown. With TRI REPETAE, Sean Booth and Rob Brown's music undergoes a quantum evolutionary leap from the relatively muted modular mathematics of INCUNABULA and AMBER into a tortuous, insectoid cybernetic funk. Menacing robotic mandibles and steel-plated wings now render the electro tics and hiphop scratches, as though Booth and Brown have decided to work exclusively in the medium of rusty Erector-kit mechanics. For many Ae-heads, this third album and the EPs that preceded it (GARBAGE and ANVIL VAPRE) represent Autechre's pinnacle achievements. TRI REPETAE++ combines all three desirable items in one generous double-disc package. Such album tracks as "Clipper," "Rotar," "Leterel," and "Gnit" are like oversized cricket automatons--hulking scrap-heap assemblages of melody and shearing wrought-iron armature too ungainly to do more than flex a leg joint or twitch an antenna. In comparison, ANVIL VAPRE's "Second Bad Vilbel" and "Second Scout" are models of lethal anatomical efficiency. These are hydraulic super-ants, built for speed, purpose, and determination using the scant workshop remains of nosebleed-techno tracks and dismantled monster trucks. The melodically exquisite GARBAGE dovetails neatly with the album's less flattening moments ("Dael," "Eutow," "C/pach," "Overand," "Rsdio"), the circuit-board tweakings mimicking dub ("Piobmx19") or disclosing the human ghosts in Autechre's machine.
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