I'd like to add a few brief thoughts about the recent Autechre EP. I
think it's quite good, and am surprised at the some of the 'ho-hum,
another typical Ae release' opinions that a few on the list seem to
share. While the EP shares in part the general timbral quality of
'Envane' and 'Chiastic Slide', the programming is getting more and more
complex, less repetitive. Not all artists need to make major stylistic
shifts between releases (e.g. Speedy J, RDJ) to have something
worthwhile.
What I like in particular about some of the tracks on this EP is that
the rhythms seem to be able to straddle both slow and fast breakbeat
sensibilities - some drum n bass releases switch off and on between slow
breaks and fast ones but Autechre seems to be able to blend the two
seamlessly. Nice to hear the hip-hop influences come through like they
did on 'Envane' and 'Chiastic'. Also a fair amount of the programming
is fairly musical, even melodic - although some of it comes close to the
general style of 'RDJ album', the patterns aren't quite as random and
unstructured. And the surging synth patterns played by drum loops on
"Pencha" really do it for me.
So in the end if it's evolutionary rather than revolutionary that's fine
with me - Brown and Booth just keep pushing grooves in new directions.
GD