quoted 109 lines From: "Lee Billings" <bill0089@tc.umn.edu>
>From: "Lee Billings" <bill0089@tc.umn.edu>
>To: "Mr. Erigeomag" <auxopoly@hotmail.com>, <idm@hyperreal.org>
>Subject: Re: [idm] ae's confield
>Date: Sun, 22 Apr 2001 23:15:50 -0500
>
>
>----- Original Message -----
>From: "Mr. Erigeomag" <auxopoly@hotmail.com>
>To: "Lee Billings" <bill0089@tc.umn.edu>; <idm@hyperreal.org>
>Sent: Sunday, April 22, 2001 9:29 PM
>Subject: Re: [idm] ae's confield
>
>
> >
> >
> >
> > >From: "Lee Billings" <bill0089@tc.umn.edu>
> > >To: <idm@hyperreal.org>
> > >Subject: [idm] ae's confield
> > >Date: Sun, 22 Apr 2001 19:10:05 -0500
> > >
> > > I feel I may have missed the boat with the majority of the
>discussion
> > >over Booth and Brown's newest release, but due to the exceedingly harsh
> > >criticism Autechre has been receiving over their latest effort
>something
> > >must be said. I find it inconceivable that individuals who purport to
> > >enjoy so much of Autechre's backcatalog are failing to find something
> > >wondrous and touching within Confield.
> >
> >
> > Inconceivable?? really? it's not that hard to imagine. every musician
>lays
>a
> > stinker, some just more frequently than others. have you heard the lp
>yet?
>
> I've listened to the mp3 versions off Napster, yes. You think I'd
>write
>all this in defense of an album I had yet to hear? I've always considered
>myself an Autechre fanatic but that would be pushing my envelope!
>
> > > The complexity of the music defies easy acquisition of a definite
> > >initial impression. Even now after years of listening I can pop in
>almost
> > >any Autechre release and still occasionally find new sounds and
> > >relationships between layers that I have never noticed before. The
> > >subliminal subtleties contained in Autechre's music are where its true
> > >power lies, and are what most of the recent naysayers are totally
> > > >overlooking.
> >
> >
> > A piece of turd is extremely complex too, made from compressed
> > micro-compounds of waste and dregs expelled from the body's convolution
>of
> > intestines ...but at first glace it looks...shitty. you can find beauty
>in
> > anything if you look deep enough and have a willing mind. i'm of the
>belief
> > that music should return more (positive) energy than is put into the
> > listening part (if the musician is to be considered artistically
>competant).
> > there might be some subtlities i'm overlooking now, but where's the
>intial
> > draw?? give me SOMEthing to keep me coming back, and then i'll study it
>more
> > closely and hopefully be rewarded with new dimensions of fullfillment.
> > that's the trick!
>
> You make an excellent point here, and I must give you props on your
>vivid scatological description. :) I think most people on this list would
>agree with me that Autechre's music is by and large becoming progressively
>more "difficult" with each release, in that the hooks that bring one back
>time and again are becoming more and more subtle. The trouble many people
>are having with Confield could be that the hooks aren't immediately
>apparent
>due to their subtlety, and they slip under the radar. A prime example that
>comes to mind is track 5, Parhelic Triangle. The first time I heard it the
>only thing that leapt out at me was the apparent monotony of the whole
>track, a loop of distorted sounds over distant clanging. The second listen
>was much richer: I heard what seemed to be two categories of sounds in the
>dominant loop operating in a kind of counterpoint to each other, and I
>could
>trace the development of the clanging from simple backing tones to the
>full-blown sounds of bells back to tones again at the end, carrying on
>quite
>a nice melody. The third listen lead to further distinctions, and I
>noticed
>the absences of sound (especially static) that actually give this song
>GROOVE! A plodding, slow groove, but a groove none the less. I noticed how
>the bells at times follow the pattern of the dominant loop (which makes me
>wonder if they aren't more intimately connected), and I heard faint
>piano-like notes interwoven with the sounds of cawing crows. And I still
>feel I've only scratched the surface. Maybe some people can pick out all
>those details at first blush, but I'm definitely not one of them. I think
>someone not enjoying Confield should take time off from listening to it
>precisely because the hooks in many of the songs are practically
>subliminal.
>Given time they have a better chance of sinking in and effecting one's
>perception of the music.
>
> Confield, more than any Autechre release before it, is almost like an
>auditory "Magic Eye" picture... At times you need to unfocus to bring out
>the overall structure.
>
>-unit
>
>
>
Let me pose a question to all the people who make music on this list for a
sec: HOw many times have you finished a tune (or are still in the middle of
making), go back and listen to it and find things you hadn't heard before
cus you were too busy creating the music?? I'll be the first to admit i
have. what with all them crazy filters and process-happenings going on!
hidden patterns, echos of echos that arrange themselves to form small
background pockets of patterns between the gaps of the bigger patterns. even
a totally tranformed song when i start the tune somewhere in the middle of
the pattern rather than the beginning! I'm going to go out on a limb here
and say i'm sure AE has had this happened before. But it's to the point now
that sometimes i feel that they let these little processed synth/percussion
do all the talking and nothing from the soul a little too often for my
likings. (sound engineers or musicians?) again, it's just making mountains
out of molehills by over-scrutinizing these swirling masses of clever sounds
and drawing what you will from it (which can be part of the fun i suppose).
ever look in the sky and make out a dragon from the cumulus clouds but your
friend sees a lion? same type thing, but with music. on that front, they've
succeeded admirably! but in the end, i go back to tunes that sound gorgeous
in the big picture as well as down to the nitty-gritty.
.e
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