Re: ess sup ( æ ), part 2

In this part, with tracks from late 1990’s, we witness Autechre’s use of MAX software come into bloom as they head deeper into experimental. You can find the Spotify playlist below.

1. Drane from the Peel Session (1995, released on cd/lp in 1999) uses a delay line to a great effect. To me, it sounds like a Leslie cabin on acid. By the way, if you are not into Max that much, you can now easily recreate the sound using Logic’s Ring Shifter plug. Drane was selected by Warp Records co-founder Steve Beckett as one of his 14 absolute favourite tracks from the Warp catalogue for the Warp20 (Chosen) compilation, and I concur.

2. The concept album, and perhaps ae’s most popular work, ‘Tri Repetae’ (1995), was never among my favourites, mainly because I always found it too monotonous. Monotonicity is of course the whole point of the album. It was without doubt very innovative at the time and it certainly has its moments like ‘Clipper’ with its short snare like loops and a very nice mono synth sounding through the whole track. The album was released the same year as some of the EP’s already discussed in my previous post, and the US version included those as bonus disc. To me, Garbage EP and Tri Rep are almost like night and day, whereas the ANTI EP is much more related to Tri Rep. It was, in fact, originally released with liner notes referring to the UK 1994 ban on music “characterised by the emission of a succession of repetitive beats”.

3-4. If Tri Rep wasn’t really my cup of tea, I was awestruck by their next album LP5 (1998). The hectic starter, AcroyearII, is like drum and bass for computer scientists (this is a compliment), and the rhythmic freedom present throughout the album is exemplified by Fold4, Wrap5. The main figure of this post shows a Tempogram (sub-audio range Fourier transform) from the beginning of the track. The descending lines show the slowing down of the tempo within each phrase. The overall fuzziness of the picture just reflects the difficulty of tracking the tempo of the song.

5-6. I must admit I never listened to EP 7 (1999) at the time of its release but I’ve come to appreciate it later. The album got mixed reviews, yet I find, for example, Maphive 6.1 both beautiful and interesting with its bells and crackles. The same meditative mood is clearly present in Dropp. Both are essential ae.

7. LP5 ends with the majestic Drane2 (there is a short hidden track after it). The track is probably made largely with Karplus-Strong synthesis, usually applied in modelling plucked stringed instruments, and its almost Appalachian mood always makes me smile. Is there a banjo sample in it?

#autechre #tempogram #experimentalmusic #electronicmusic