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29 of 33 people found the following review helpful:
4.0 out of 5 stars
Quaristice, March 4, 2008
Fifteen years is a long time for any musician to stay in the game, but it's especially difficult in electronica. The reason is obvious: Computer programs and modulation technologies advance so rapidly that yesterday's fresh sounds become today's moldy oldies. Ironically, the 15-year-old Autechre (Sean Booth and Rob Brown from Sheffield, England) has remained a fixture not by reinventing itself with changing times, but by adhering rigidly to a single aesthetic as though time didn't exist. With their metalloid beats intersecting the synthetic (and sometimes surprisingly emotive) whines of a computer mainframe, Autechre always reminds me of a word that starts with the same letter: "artificial." This is certainly not a bad thing, and Booth and Brown's revelatory brand of artificiality has turned them into leaders of the Intelligent Dance Music (IDM) subgenre.
After the millennium, Autechre came to be unfortunately and universally associated with another word: "inaccessible." Confield (2001), Draft 7.30 (2003) and Untilted (2005) weren't necessarily the most difficult albums of their time (ever heard Yasunao Tone's Solo for Wounded CD?), but for mainstream electronica they were as stark and unexpressive as it got. They may have worked as endorsements for technology and Booth and Brown's considerable programming skills, but as music? Quaristice is different. Their Untilted tour in 2005 lasted longer than they had anticipated, so the songs on Quaristice were written whenever Booth and Brown felt like opening up their laptops during commutes. Instead of 10 stuffy, extremely labored-over tracks à la Draft 7.30, we get 20 moderately labored-over vignettes that cumulatively feel like an Autechre live set. And because these tracks were created contiguously, Booth and Brown were likely aware of repeating themselves, which explains why Quaristice leaps from idea to idea without ever really looking back.
As diverse as Quaristice is, the most attractive thing about it is that it's tuneful. It's not dominated by melody the way Incunabula (1993) and Amber (1994) were, but after Autechre's previous atonal records, Quaristice can only be described as a relief. In fact, opener "Altibzz" is nothing but melody: A sighing synthesizer reverberates in empty space, soon joined by a second one an octave higher, and the effect can be powerfully nostalgic. It's a time warp to 10 years ago, when IDM was a household term and techno was written for headphone listening, and I love that Autechre sat down to make this retro track as though they were writing the intro to Artificial Intelligence 3. Nothing else approaches "Altibzz" in terms of emotionality, but the rest of Quaristice retains this "classic IDM" sound; "IO" layers a skittering beat, a lopsided melody from a dated electric piano and a distorted, extraterrestrial radio transmission. Oh sure, we've heard this all before, but it's a kick to revisit it on Autechre's perfectionist terms.
"Altibzz" is also a red herring because it's an introduction, and the two beatless closers, "Notwo" and "Outh9X," sound like "Altibzz" turning around and walking away. So if Quaristice has a beginning, a middle and an end, does it tell a story? I've been searching for a while and I haven't found one; it may just be that 20 vignettes need some kind of structure to keep them from becoming an amoeba. Listeners could theoretically approach Quaristice by diving into the middle and choosing a song at random (the track titles, as is Autechre's wont, signify nothing), and if they don't like it, the next one is bound to be better. Besides "Altibzz" and "IO," undergoing this process yielded "Simmm," "bnc Castl" and "chenc9" as my favorites, though all for different reasons. "Simmm" is driven by a percussive ditty seemingly played with silverware; "bnc Castl" is a quirky robot boogie that wouldn't be out of place on an IDM-inspired children's album; and the beats on "chenc9" mirror the coolest ones on Untilted, paired with an ominous melody chiming at the upper register like something you'd hear on Tri Repetae (1995).
Ah, Tri Repetae. Strange that I haven't mentioned this album until now, since it was, and remains, Autechre's one and only masterpiece. Falling somewhere in between the tune-driven Amber and the utterly tuneless Confield, Tri Repetae was both catchy and challenging, setting its crunchy beats and synthetic melodies in equilibrium. On the one hand, Quaristice can seem like Autechre's move to achieving that balance again. On the other hand, it's unlikely that we'll ever get another "Dael" or "Eutow," and Quaristice's sketch-like nature and rapid-fire sequencing keep it free of classic tracks. The very fact that Quaristice references the Autechre of old, however, may mean that this is where fans who jumped off the boat post-millennium will realize why they fell in love with the duo in the first place. Autechre has always been a universe unto itself, unaffected by fame and trends, but it's especially apparent here, on the group's most backward-looking record. Heard in the context of 2008 electronica, Quaristice sounds stodgy and dated and is all the better for it.
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10 of 10 people found the following review helpful:
5.0 out of 5 stars
The change in Autechre that i've been waiting for, March 5, 2008
I'll keep this review short. Autechre is my favorite artist in the so called "IDM" genre. I own every album, EP and peel session and I love them all. I love how they progressed their sound through the years and became more and more chaotic. However, I did feel that they reached their limit on pushing the boundary with Untilted. I assumed with the 3 year gap (usually only 1 or 2 years) between albums that they were done.. Getting ready to announce their retirement. I was very happy that I was proved wrong but at the same time I cringed because I didn't want more chaotic madness. Well I got my wish. Quaristice is much more accessible and even ambient compared to anything they've released in years. Anyone who enjoyed their mid nineties sound will appreciate what they've done with their new album. Autechre... Still godly
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3 of 3 people found the following review helpful:
4.0 out of 5 stars
instinctual electronics, April 11, 2008
This latest offering from Booth & Brown is a breath of fresh air to me, personally. Their recent interview in The Wire reveals how the duo got tired of programming the hell out of tracks and decided it was time for a different, more spontaneous, live approach. I've been listening to Ae from the beginning and yes, I'd probably fit into the group of fans who prefer the Ae days of old, to their latest work. Honestly though, great labels like Merck have plenty of excellent releases for folks like me, who dig that kind of stuff (though grab it up quick, being Merck closed it's doors about a year ago now). I respect most of their latest work and just recently really, finally started to get into Confield, after nearly a decade of indecision.
Their latest has a more linear quality to many of the tracks , where they build from a beat and rhythm and evolve from there, not going too far off the path. There is also a respect for space, and the use of space in these tracks, rather than piling on the sounds, which is brilliant at times. Opener Altibzz is a gorgeous slice of ambient tonality and tracks such as Simmm, with its almost Eastern sounding percussion and arrangements is a new classic, up there with some of their best, most memorable moments. Like one reviewer said, this album is more of a patchwork of tracks, working as a whole. Despite the differences from one track to the next, there is an overall mood and feel that holds it all together. I'm hoping that this is the start of a new direction for Autechre and the lads start to delve more into sparcer arrangements and the exploration of space and tone. Honestly, how many more albums can a group, or a genre have that involves layers of clanging beats and effects? Granted, I love the stuff, but if Ae were to release any more albums of that sort, they would go from being the trailblazers they once were to a very predictable and even boring project. This reminds me once again of the parallels between music and art, and I think of how some of the Cubists went on to explore a more looser, even "spiritual" form of abstraction. So, here's to space, a more organic sound, and a more spontaneous, instinctual approach to things.
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