Autechre "Confield" Warp Wap128CD
Autechre has always followed it's own path through the Electronic Music
wilderness. Unfortunately they have to cope with a huge chorus of imitators
on the one hand, and a fickle fan base on the other. If they started
worrying about what people thought of their music, they'd be faced with
reconciling irreconcilable demands put on them. They're asked to continually
innovate by some listeners, and to not diverge too much from their previous
work by others.
Luckily for them they still don't give a fuck about anything beyond following
their own noses and making the music they want to hear. That can make these
pieces seem a little standoffish and icey, but it can also produce stunning
results: 'CFern' for example requires multiple listens to even follow the
beat. It's about as polyrhthmic and swing crazy as a piece of music
can be and still avoid sounding random. The CFern beat manages
to be completely original, and still retain a sort of abstract, recursive
funk. If anyone can make Timbaland look like a chump, Sean & Rob can.
Penn Expers rides a steadier beat, but has a lurching, woozy feel due
to creative ducking of the synth lines with the beat. After about 4 minutes
a counter-beat comes in, created by an abuse of reverse-reverb effects.
This breaks down in the end as a sort of Buddy Rich percussion freakout.
'sim gishel' goes with a straighter beat to complement a chaoticically
granularized melody. At over 7 minutes it was beginning to try my patience,
but perhaps with repeated listening I can begin to make more sense of the
layers of muttering electronics.
All in all this a disc that in some sense is insulated and infolded away
from emotional apprehension by casual listeners. It is music created
entirely in the digital domain, and Autechre has gone out of it's way
to make it resist recognition -- the more accessible melodic
elements of their earlier work are here fractured, stretched, echoed,
and tortured until what's left is an impressionistic smear.
In short, a difficult, but ultimately rewarding piece of work, that
I like very much. It's not music that seeks your approval -- it is what
it is on its own terms, and is as likely to irritate and unsettle you as
to provide you good old fashioned listening pleasure.
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