elseq 5 is the weakest one.
>>65675874
3 is best
>>65675898
it's either 1 or 4 for me.
>>65675874
they're all complete shit
>>65676308
Aphex Twin has never made anything good.
>>65676308
Richie is a weakling child.
>>65676383
none of these tracks have any sort of tension, coherent structure or even interesting sounding synth work
it sounds like an unfinished sample library people use to make actual music
no one asked about aphex twin fucking kill yourself
>electronic musics only saviour
>>65676410
>>65676383
They're just spinning their wheels on this release. Not on the same level as Syro.
>Clipper
>>65676308
blagger
>>65676722
>tfw when you lose the beat in Clipper so it sounds like a completely different track
how does the new aphex twin record sound?
5 is by far my favorite. It's like they made a dub techno album (or an Ae album circa 1994) and threw it in a fuckin paper shredder before trying to piece it back together with the max/MSP equivalent of elmers glue.
>>65677165
actually it's not "by far" my favorite cause I think they're all strong, 5 just the one I'm feeling the most. been caning 3 a lot too.
>>65675874
wrong
>>65677165
This so much, it's an absolutely mesmerizing take on dub sans the obvious dub which makes no sense but still works
>>65675874
The entire album sounds like they're finished making music, and so they just decided to dump the remainder of their Back Catalogue.
I couldn't be bothered to do anything more than skim through the tracks.
>oh yeah? Well then you can't properly assess the quality of the album
Yes I can. I just did. It's absolute shit.
>>65678611
I couldn't be bothered to do anything more than skim through this post.
>oh yeah? Well then you can't properly assess the quality of the post
Yes I can. I just did. It's absolute shit.
>>65678626
That doesn't make any sense, anon -- you obviously read the whole thing lol
>>65678661
no, I only read half of it. I skimmed the rest.
>>65678677
But... it was such a short post.
>>65678699
and?
>>65678707
It was a pretty quality post; I'd recommend you dedicate a bit more of your time to it.
It'll take 7 seconds... MAX
>>65678745
nah, it looked pretty bad from skimming through it
I could listen to 7 seconds of anything from elseq and it'd be more worthwhile
>>65678757
Well you're missing out.
Anyway, it's an incredibly boring album that will quickly become lost in their expansive catalogue. But I realize that fanboys like to fool themselves whenever new material is released.
>>65678816
it's genuinely good, but okay
>>65678821
But why do you think that? The entire thing just sounded like a hodge podge of miscellaneous electronic gurgles to me.
>>65678883
it was some pretty good miscellaneous electronic gurgles to me desu
>>65678895
If you want to hear some truly interesting electronic gurgles, give this a shot -- it's certainly a hell of a lot more interesting than anything on elseq...
https://m.youtube.com/watch?v=4dfgkbey6F0
>>65678932
somewhat interesting, but not as interesting desu
>>65678932
i very strongly disagree, almost everything on elseq is more interesting and developed than that
autechre are mad overrated tbfh
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=fNvH2fzKNMQ
>>65678953
Well...then you have terrible taste. Lol
>>65678954
You ALSO have terrible taste. And it only sounds more developed because it's a clusterfuck of sound, and not nearly as economical in its tension, nor in it's use of distinctive sounds.
>>65678983
that sounds like my dishwasher lol
actually the last few minutes of that are pretty nice
not as good as ae tho
>>65678993
>it's use
>>65679026
>Sounds like my dishwasher
Lol. This is one of those comments that hinders my ability to listen to something without making the connection to the comment -- like when someone told me the singer of link-related sounds like a Black Metal Cartman. I can't even listen to it without laughing anymore.
https://m.youtube.com/watch?v=6niPi3QoPdQ
>>65679047
Pretty weak, anon
>>65679128
what do you want me to say
i don't think farting around with Pulsar Generator is distinctive, especially after Florian Hecker
>>65679111
desu I thought it sounded more like a ceiling fan than anything, I just figured that the dishwasher comment would be relevant because of pic related
also you're right, that totally does sound like cartman
>>65675874
never heard of her
>>65679165
Farthing around with a pulsar generator
Yup... that's aaaall it is. I don't think you know what you're talking about, pal
And I wouldn't mistake Becker's album for a Florian Hecker album... at all
>>65679207
>pal
that's what it sounds like to me
>>65679219
And that's why you come off as ignorant, buddy ol' pal.
>>65679266
i bet you don't even know what PG is
>>65679282
It's funny, during the Britfag hours, whenever I criticize someone's taste or knowledge of something on 4chan, they'll say "yeah, well I'll bet you don't even know what it is" or "you've probably never even seen the film" or "you probably just looked that up". This happens a good 90% of the time. Do you not see how feeble that is, anon?
We're on the internet, you absolute dipshit. If I wasn't familiar with it, I could simply look it up.
Stay dumb
>>65679386
look it up then
>>65679394
See, it doesn't matter whether or not I'm familiar with a fucking pulsar generator. You're just name-dropping a machine to appear as if you DO know what you're talking about; however, this doesn't give you any more clout, nor does it bolster your argument, due to the fact that I AM familiar with both Hecker and Becker, and I don't think there's much of a similarity in their styles/sounds.
Tell me, have you actually used a Pulsar Generator? Do you actually create anything? Of course you dont (at least nothing worth listening to), you're just a typical, posturing do-nothing who browses /mu/... just like me.
>>65679500
i see, you still don't know
>>65679513
>still missing the point
Not too bright, are ya?
>>65679548
if you knew what PG was you'd understand what i was saying
>>65679588
Oh yeah? Well if you knew what a Quantum Phlangerstromicon was, you'd know what I mean, See how that works? Doesn't mean shit. And it still doesn't change the fact that both artists produce sounds that are relatively distinctive, whether or not you know what a Pulsar Gnerator is.
You must be young, because you argue like a child
>>65679662
i'm not even 'arguing', i just heard the track, recognised PG and thought "oh, PG. again."
no need to get all sweaty about it
>>65679683
So you recognized one machine that you believe the artist is using, and that means the sounds aren't distinctive? So anyone using the same instrument or synth is just making hackneyed sounds?
>>65676308
this
>>65678563
I like to call it "implied" dub techno (just like 13x0 step is "implied" rave) - in fact I think a lot of Ae's music is implied; being just tangible enough that listeners can get an idea of it but so vaporous that each person is sort of allowed to fill in the blanks, if you like. This is especially true of their use of melody (or lack thereof)
It's like the ghosts of songs or genres.
>>65679738
it's more or less a cliched goto instrument for a lot of pseudo-computer musicians
it's a good program but it has a really particular sound (yes i am almost agreeing with you), unfortunately it's not distinctive because of the composer, more in spite of the composer
but anyway, sorry if i offended you there
>>65679810
You didn't offend me, it's just irritating when some pretentious faggot attempts to name-drop something in a desperate attempt to bolster an argument. It's cheap, and for future reference, you shouldn't resort to such feeble tactics.
And I really don't think I'd reduce Becker's album to "faring around with a PG" -- that sounds like a typical broad, oversimplification that I've come to expect from someone who's more concerned with posturing than actually engaging in a dialogue.
He may have used the machine, but if that fact, alone, qualifies as being generic, then that's just a moronic way to assess originality.
Hey lads, got my issue of this months issue of The Wire (yes I'm a subscriber...lol soz) and they did a really great review of elseq. Thought I'd post it here since you literally cannot read it unless you have a subscription.
>>65679930
i think everyone has a different idea of what constitutes a distinctive sound, some people are more informed than others, no big deal
"Breaking from the traditional album format has liberated the UK’s most rigorous electronic duo"
What is an album, and who needs it anyway? Autechre have spent years probing the question. When they got to Quaristice in 2008, they dropped an accompanying EP (Quaristice.Quadrange.ep.ae) of alternative versions that ran to over two hours, as if placing their ninth album in a parallel dimension moving at a different tempo. The following album Oversteps was likewise twinned with a lengthy companion EP, Move Of Ten. When they came to release live sets from their 2014–15 tour, they barely edited them, just dropping nine hours of recordings on listeners. Now, with elseq, which presents over four hours of new music in five separate downloads, they’ve broken free from physical discs, and you wonder if they’ll ever be able to return to them again.
As you move through elseq, sonic parameters widen, structures become more openended, and the constraints imposed by albums are left behind. “elyc6 onset” is a half hour spell of alchemy in which chunky beats transform into plumes of interference and static. “eastre” explores a hypnotic melodic figure, which shudders into shape as if from the twang and groan of lift cables, for 22 minutes, at the end of which you’re uncertain whether the music has changed or you have. elseq is a space for the Rochdale duo’s wildest ideas and most complex constructions, and the use of downloads rather than discs means they now have a near infinite expanse of graph paper to work on.
But what does the album format offer anyway? A self-contained listening experience of an hour or perhaps two, absorbed in one setting, gives the listener an overarching structure within which they can parse individual tracks, and an intuition for what might fit where and why. The dimensions of an album can lend a sense of place, balance, narrative, even closure to music.
[1/4]
>>65680020
What Autechre do, however, rarely offers listeners this kind of shared experience with the artist. Their music is not expressive, representative or story-telling in any of those early 20th century definitions of aesthetics. There’s rarely linear development of well-behaved ideas, or melodies guided by a human hand.
Instead, Autechre’s music is more like a wide open field of possibilities. The ideas they deal with – process, textures rather than notes, mathematics rather than time signatures, control versus chance – are the big ideas of 20th century music, as well as the central ideas of club music from the 2000s onwards. So the beauty of elseq is that of Iannis Xenakis and Alvin Lucier; or, for that matter, of Ricardo Villalobos, Objekt and Errorsmith. If it doesn’t seem beautiful, perhaps you are living in the past.
Given the multidimensional rinse of their music, attempting to provide a single account of what an Autechre album is ‘like’ is a critic’s folly. elseq is not the sound of Autechre in any kind of particular mood, mellow, moody or otherwise; it has moments that make my heart sing and others that crush my head like a vice, and both carry their own thrill. It’s not a return to their hiphop or electro roots, though both filter through in ever more imaginative ways (boombap conducted on a cosmic scale and infra/ultrasonic shock workouts respectively). elseq can be as dense as 2013’s Exai, as gently reflective as 2010’s Oversteps, and as obsessively detailed as 2001’s Confield.
[2/4]
>>65680045
Perhaps the most effective way to gauge the calibre of the record is by the moments that stand out most dramatically, like scenes from a film: the way “latentcall” lapses into chaos and random drift, but ten minutes in, a perfect beat emerges to miraculously revive and redirect that lost energy; “mesh cinereaL”, where a tortuous metallic workout stops after 24 minutes, and small balls of sound roll away into the distance, as if the tension that held them in place has been broken; “chimer 1-5-1”, where busy clusters of ravey melody are reverbed as if in a cathedral, melody and memory playing against each other at the same time.
A key part of Autechre’s longevity – and the reason that people still lose their shit to this kind of stuff in clubs and raves – is their decision around the time of 2005’s Untilted to economise and rationalise the sounds they use. Their music got tighter, more precise, drier, leaner, perhaps a little less colourful, with less use of samples or effects. It’s a unified palette, carrying no obvious time-stamp of particular effects or audio processing techniques, with more concern for balance than the shock value of any sound. It could be seen as an artist’s classic late period move – finely honing down a restricted vocabulary, which enables them to work as efficiently as possible. But it also means Autechre’s music is unencumbered by history, and goes straight to your senses and limbs without tripping up on memories of music that preceded it. Buried deep in elseq is the short, sharp shock of “artov chain”, a high velocity, low profile percussive scuttler that’s as punchy as any old school Autechre track, and carries the same kind of kick that “Basscadet” had way back in 1993.
[3/4]
>>65680061
elseq is as radical as Autechre have ever been, but this time it’s their choice of format that is particularly bold. The extended duration opens up further horizons for new experiments, forms and structures, with dancefloor impact and innovative composition working hand in hand.
[4/4]
>>65679998
>some people are more informed than others
>STILL missing the point
I have ears... and I've probably listened to every Hecker album... and Becker's album does not sound much like any of them.
Anyway, there's obviously no reasoning with you. You're much more informed about gear -- congratulations.
>>65680020
>>65680045
>>65680061
Well if there's one thing that The Wire has always been good at, its making a mountain out of a fucking molehill.
>>65680129
What issue do you have with it?
>>65680097
Not that anon, but what makes a sound and music "distinctive" (your word and argument) is entirely subjective and relative only to one's individual knowledge, experience, and exposure. Neither of you are "wrong" - it's just he apparently has exposure and insight into that particular piece of gear, leading the sounds that come out of it to seem familiar, and yes, less distinctive. Perhaps he has no clue how Autechre constructed elseq with Max/MSP or was able to get the sounds they did and therefore it sounds more distinctive to his ears. It's entirely subjective, so I dunno why you're getting upset when he gave his viewpoint.
>>65680154
This is a magazine that praises artists like James Ferraro. They write verbose reviews about the conceptual nature of things, and I get it, that's what the magazine is all about; nevertheless, I always feel like if I had the right credentials, I could literally make an album that's comprised of farts that I tweaked with a computer program, and if I wrote a clever enough manifesto to justify it, they'd take the b8.... no question.
This review of Elseq is obviously predicated on their reputation.
>>65680353
>I could literally make an album that's comprised of farts that I tweaked with a computer program
it's called Grime
>>65680353
I don't care for The Wire either m8 but Ferraro is good
>>65680276
>so I dunno why you're getting upset when he gave his viewpoint
Well Mr samefag, it was "his" comment about how Becker was "just farting around with a PG" that caused the assblast. Becker has more knowledge about gear in a single brain cell, and I thought it was just a pretentious comment to make.
I understand that it's subjective -- it's not a lofty concept. But don't act like naming a piece of equipment is a mic-dropping argument lol
>>65680129
Yeah, making a mountain out of a molehill is almost like an anon who come into a thread ripping apart an album that he has only skimmed. Especially egregious when you consider that one of this poster's main criticisms against said album is it's lack of tension. Well no fucking shit you don't get any release if you don't listen to it in full - the tension and release literally works on a more minute scale. There are subtle coalescences and intensifications, progressions and melodies and beat patterns that materialize long into a track only to dissipate moments later. I don't understand how you get off on talking about pretentious posturing when you didn't even do the bare minimum yet you feel like you have some sort of authority here.
>>65680515
>there are subtle coalescences and intensifications, progressions and melodies and beat patterns that materialize long into a track only to dissipate moments later
There were a few tracks that I listened to in their entirety, thinking that perhaps they'd result in something a bit more interesting... nope.
>I don't understand how you get off on talking about pretentious posturing when you didn't even do the bare minimum yet you feel like you have some sort of authority here.
>authority
Just voicing my opinion, anon. Take it or leave it.
>>65680705
Oh, you heard a few of them in full, what an adept fucking listener you are lol.
Your opinion is fine, but you seem to take issue with other people voicing their own. It's just funny that your main grievances seem to deal with the lack of inspiration or thoughtfulness behind the sounds curated here, yet when someone makes a similar argument against an artist you like, it's suddenly not valid - only because it's filtered through a "pretentious" knowledge of a piece of gear.
>>65680885
When someone asks why I think something sounds flat, or perfunctory, or uninteresting, I respond with a concise assessment -- im not going to write a superfluous review of the album, such as the bullshit from The Wire that anon was kind enough to let me laugh at. And I'm certainly not going to argue something along the lines of "well Autechre merely used Program A, and therefore, the entire album sounds like every other album that uses Program A"
Anyway, why are you still posting? Stay mad, Mr Pulsar Generator.
>>65681160
I'm really not mad, mate. I like the album and Autechre loads but echo chambers don't interest me and exclusively reading opinion-affirming viewpoints is pointless. And although you won't believe me, I'm also not that anon cause I have not fucking clue what a pulse generator is in all honesty lol - I'm not a programmer or musician myself. Maybe that's a positive cause I actually liked the Becker tune.
>Anyway, why are you still posting?
Yeah, I dunno. I reckon I'm just a little bored tbqh. Seeya later.
>>65678932
yikes
>>65679683
Bur Rashad Becker said he mostly used a Nord Modular G1, an Oberheim Xpander and a Waldorf Microwave.
>>65681351
>echo chambers don't interest me and exclusively reading opinion-affirming viewpoints is pointless
I feel the same. And I would have been happy to continue a discussion about the aesthetics of the album (point for point), but the other faggot was obviously more concerned with flaunting his knowledge of gear (which is more than likely superficial, at best). And I reeeaally fuckin hate gear-heads who think that invoking their technical knowledge renders an aesthetic assessment insignificant.
But whatever, I'm just a fuckin drummer lol
>>65681513
HAH! Well there you fuckin go! Goddamnit, where were you 40 minutes ago, anon? lol
>>65681528
Yeah, yeah. I get you. A lot of the gear (or software) stuff goes right over my head and I hate when I'm made to feel like my say is less relevant cause I don't exactly know the ends and outs of what went into the process of making a piece of music y'know.
>>65681513
lmao
>>65681513
>mostly
uh-huh
>>65681599
Exactly
Well, at least this discussion was a welcome departure from the pathological bickering over how to classify an artist, album-rankings, and whether or not women should be allowed to make music lol.
On that note, I'm out.
>>65681750
Haha true. Cheers, mate.
>>65675874
1 and 5 are the best. It's 4 that I don't get the extreme love for.
The long form tracks are some of their best work.
>>65675874
5 is the best one
>>65682616
elseq 4 is probably my favourite but the love for latentcall is baffling to me. i hate, hate when they do that style of percussion.
>>65682821
why
>>65675874
I don'tt heard the 5, just the 1, 2, 3 and 4
its it a fart-control? (the last el seek)
>>65684556
5 is lush af. Like, it's genuinely pretty.
>>65684092
it has the best tunes
that's not to say that 1 through 4 aren't great too
