Search - Autechre :: Draft 7.30

My Brain is Short Circuiting!

W. French | Carnation, WA USA | 05/06/2003

(3 out of 5 stars)

"That's how it sounds in my headphones right now. If you're looking at this, you're probably aware that Autechre is a very challenging listen. Their explorations seldom resemble music these days; it's an amalgam of breakbeat arrhythmias merged with granular dysfunction over a swath of downsampled melodies that skip and blurp in a seemingly random fashion. Most of the reviewers here concede that Autechre doesn't care if they alienate their fans. Maybe so, or maybe they're just so far ahead that it will take us years to catch up and fully appreciate it. Whatever the case may be, I continue to buy their records. Whether you love 'em or hate 'em, one thing is clear: nobody else sounds like Autechre. My 3 year old son says it sounds like broken robot music. Yeah, that's about right."

Amazing

sigfpe | Oakland, CA United States | 11/12/2005

(5 out of 5 stars)

"What's amazing about this album is that I find it compelling - and yet it barely satisfies anyone's definition of music. It's harsh, has little in the way of melody, nothing ever seems to repeat consistently enough for me to say it has a rhythm, and yet over and over again I'll put it on and listen to it.



I'll try to articulate what I feel about it. For one thing, when you get over a certain hump it's not boring. It simply doesn't repeat. You're trying so hard to latch onto any kind of repetition in an attempt to find some kind of rhythm. But each time it almost repeats it's different and once you think you've seen the new pattern it trips over itself and slips from your grasp. And yet it's not random. It's just so damn interesting.



I have to admit I also like the sounds - the glitches, the clicks and the static. Probably comes from years of tinkering with electronics and computers. There are no organic sounds here - this is pure electronica trying to sound like electronica. Few of your sweeping synth sounds sewn from silky smooth superpositions of sine waves. This stuff is digital with corners, ugly angles and steps.



If you've only time to listen to one track, and you're not sure which one to try, have a go at Surripere. It starts off pretty accessibly with haunting notes (not glitches, not clicks, actual notes) and a heartbeat-like rhythm, though in true Autechre fashion it twists and turns skipping a beat here and there intertwining with other less predictable sounds. Of course this apparent accessibility is just there to lull you into a false sense of security as the music slowly decays into much more convoluted Autechre territory. 6ie.cr also has plenty of more accessible sections.



But don't just listen to the easy bits. It's all good, every bit of it. And I really can't explain way. Just get it."

Mix of old and new

A. Johnston | San Francisco, CA USA | 04/09/2003

(4 out of 5 stars)

"When Lou Reed dropped 'Metal Machine Music' in 1975, it was rumored to be more a ploy by Reed to get dropped by his label than an effort to turn pop fans into noiseheads. Whatever the case, the album comprised of grating experimental electronic music alienated Reed from fans and label reps alike. With its density and abrasivness, Autechre's 'Confield' was seen in a similar light by many of the group's fans. While their elite following applauded it as their most forward-thinking album, others found it almost unlistenable. Some thought it the group's attempt to lower their own profile; others felt it was the only logical conclusion for a band tailed by dozens of imitators. Whatever the case, Confield was the duo's most talked-about album since Tri Repetae. Amid an already divided fanbase, any chatter about the group softening up was crushed by the mighty Gantz Graf single of 2002. Which brings us to Draft 7.30. Tonally, the album is of the same stock as Confield. The sounds are still rusty around the edges; their trajectories wild upon exiting the speakers only to come back together on the way back like some sort of hi-frequency boomerang. The beats still hit as if recorded by the head of a microphone driving a pack of nails through a concrete wall. The melodies -- yes, the melodies -- creep up like the smoke after a well set series of base charges topple a skyscraper. What makes it so different than Confield? The feel of it. Music purists can dismiss the level of personal expression inherent in electronic music all they want but this album simply feels warmer than its recent relatives. Where Gantz Graf sounded more like a machine teaching itself how to destroy, Draft 7.30 uses the same core ingredients to build a dense yet inviting meshwork. Fans of Confield's calculus will find just as many equations here. Those turned off by all the math and who long for a return to the group's roots will find hope for a return to the group's more melodic past.As usual (and for better or worse) this isn't anything Autechre has released before. It is no less Confield 2 than it is Peel Sessions 3. It's simply the closest thing the group has released to a complete picture of their entire 10+ year history. Evidence of every phase in the duo's history is present here from the serene Amber to the chu-chu-chu-chunky Chiastic Slide. It is no retrospective though. It is too alive for that. Rumors persist that this is the duo's swan song. If so, they're doing it perfectly."