I originally wrote this album review of the new Autechre record - Quaristice - for my “day job” at MOG.com. This is a slightly different version here because you are a different audience!

Longtime fans of Autechre will probably be ecstatic about Quaristice. It hearkens to early Autechre music - more experimental, more chaotic, and less dance friendly than the last 4 albums or so. I’ve been a fan for ages and bought nearly every album they ever released. But I started to pine for their earlier sounds, when they were trailblazing the experimental electronic scene that later became known as IDM. This is the Autechre album I was longing for! If this sounds like you, you need to listen to Quaristice!

Autechre will gain many new fans with this album at the same time they renew most of their existing fan base.

Overall, the album sounds less clinical than many of Autechre’s more recent releases. The sounds evolve more organically and the sequences have more random elements to them. I LOVE it! The synths on Quaristice sound like an Evolver (Dave Smith Instruments) with its quirky sounds and step sequencers. If it isn’t an Evolver, I would still hazard a guess that this music was inspired by some new piece of hardware. It’s just a guess, but this album sounds so much like a return to hardware for the band. Either that or some serious cut-ups and processing like the Matmos albums based on surgery instruments.

Autechre explore new ground with the use of human vocal elements on “IO” (something they rarely incorporate). The human vocal is nicely balanced by one of the most recognizable machine voices ever: a Speak-n-Spell (or Speak-n-Math). The main vocal in “IO” isn’t very comprehensible since it’s filtered through what sounds a bit like a megaphone and a distortion petal. It’s graininess is perfectly complemented by the digital voice of the T.I. toy.

([ Click To Add "IO" To Player ])

A few songs into the album, it begins to remind me of certain songs by Coil: experimental synth stuff like Elph vs. Glitch or Music To Play In The Dark or similar… My impression keeps changing with each song, because they all sound so different. The tempo varies widely from one song to the next, from ambient washes to triplets at 120 bpm. However, the closest thing to a dance track in the collection is the schizophrenic hip hop beats of “90101″ that sound like a Timbaland production on 45 rpm.

It wasn’t until Track 17 “WNSN” that I started to hear the Autechre that we have come to know in more recent years. A few tracks later, “Notwo” (track 19) gets so minimal it’s downright zen. “Notwo” and “Outh9X” (the last two tracks of the album) are pure atmospheric bliss, very similar to the planetary music of murcof, and a beautiful way to fade out the album. This is an unexpected pleasure of Quaristice - the music varies so much. No two songs are alike and they convey a range of influences and skills.

Autechre will gain many new fans with this album at the same time they renew most of their existing fan base.

As soon as I saw the lineup for the Bang Face Weekender, I started researching flights to England. It’s that exciting! Alas, the dollar is weak and gas ain’t cheap, so it’s only wishful thinking for now. This happens every year with some music festival or another and the lineups just get more siiiiiick every year. Bang Face hails itself as “A Neo-Rave Explosion of Acid, Jungle, Rave Hardcore, Drum & Bass, Breakcore, Techno, Electronica and Abstract Dance” which only hints at the range of amazing talent presented each year. The 3 day festival takes place at the end of April at Camber Sands and features three different staging areas - the Rave/Jungle/Breakcore Room, The Electro/Bass/Techno Room and a round-the-clock chill-out room. ([More →])

I just received this epic flyer from WARP with loads of news about the new Autechre album Quaristice and a bunch of live shows. I’ll post a full article when I get a chance, I just wanted to share this with you right away. It’s a big image, so it might take a minute to download, but it’s worth it. If you just want to cop the new album, jump over to BLEEP.com now. Check it out: ([More →])

Autechre have a new album called Quaristice that will be released on March 3rd 2008. The experimental electronica duo haven’t updated their own website since the release of Untitled in 2005, but Warp Records revealed that Autechre will release their 9th album in ‘08. Autechre has scheduled one live show for March 10th in Poland and it seems likely that many more dates will be announced in support of the new album.
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A few of ragga and dancehall’s most prolific powerhouses have teamed up with the urban dub/hip hop/electronic music label Metatronix to create a bumpin album of hybrid remixes. Dominated by the vocal talents of Anthony B, Sizzla and Capleton over furious music production by The Bug, High Priest, DMX Krew, Eliot Lip and more, this album is going to be bumpin trunks in urban neighborhoods worldwide. ([More →])

When I saw this new Battles video for their song “Tonto” I thought it seemed really familiar. It took me a minute to think about, but then I realized that those lights are just like the UVA installation that I reported on earlier this month in relation to the multimedia extravaganza in London (with Chem Bros). ([More →])

In my double-life as a jet-setting music enthusiast, I would definitely be in London (again, London… sigh.) on 6 and 7 and 9 September to enjoy two different audio-visual sensory-immersive events at the ICA. The three events feature music by Mathew Herbert, The Chemical Brothers, Battles, Plaid and many more electricians, while the visual includes works by Joji Koyama, Max Hattler, United Visual Artists, Flat Nose George plus many others. ([More →])

Prefuse 73 (aka Guillermo Scott Herren) is releasing a new album with a twist. The CD/Vinyl will be a double album, while the digital download will only include disc 1. The first disc is beat-based while the second disc is “a collection of modern classical compositions composed and played by Herren using mostly cello, flute, piano, bass, and clarinet.” ([More →])

there is a super cool show happening in NYC tonight. drop the lime will be debuting as alter ego “curses” for nicky digital’s 1 year celebration…
grime, bmore, dubstep, crunk, electro, french hip hop and electronica, and more!

featuring…
BOYS NOIZE/ PARA ONE / CURSES! (a.k.a. DROP THE LIME)
plus Lauren Flax, SMC & Alex English
Celebrating Nicky Digital’s One Year Anniversary
Hosted by Warp Records and Bleep.com

FREE w/ RSVP: boysnoize

GBHtv has a great page with descriptions of tonight’s featured artists, such as :

Apart from being a great producer, Boys Noize has remixed Tiga, Depeche Mode, Bloc Party, Kaiser Chiefs, Teenage Badgirl, The Living Things, Lutzenkirchen and others. He is one of the best known artists on the European electro scene, releasing music on Kitsune, Turbo and his own Boys Noize Records,

Intstitubes producer Para One produces French hip-hop act TTC, and is one of the most visible new French electro-house producers emerging today. He was a highlight of the most recent Ed Banger tour and has pioneered the new French electronic sound. He has remixed Daft Punk, MSTRKRFT and Bloc Party, and has been remixed by MSTRKRFT, Surkin, Boys Noize and many others. Check out the video for his rather excellent single ‘Dundun-dun’ here.

dang yo! i can’t believe i’m not in NYC this week! can you feel how much i’m hurtin? i’m passing on to you the life i would have lived this week…. party hard in NYC for me.

for more info on Drop the Lime look at one of his artist pages

oh, and that GBHtv also has free music from all kinds of bands, even arcade fire, on their HOME page, so be sure to check that out too!