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For nearly two decades, across 10 albums, the acid house/original electro/hip hop-schooled Warp stalwarts have deconstructed techno and beyond into fascinating, ever-evolving abstract shapes. Oversteps is certainly no exception to their outwardly difficult aesthetic and could, on initial listens, get thrown in with unforgivingly tricksy 2003 set Draft 7.30.
Disregard the fact that the song titles largely resemble a Scrabble game with a corrupted Eastern European supercomputer, however. Beneath the icy exterior, deceptively warm hearts beat, rushing synthetic blood at thresholds with almost maniacal glee as they smash apart linear constraints.
Those already familiar are swiftly on reassuring ground. Second track ilanders is classic Autechre, lunar synth lines partially harking back to feted 1995 release Tri Repetae’s affectingly eerie atmospherics, fractured beats built and demolished with sentient android accuracy. It’s engrossing, an alien landscape you simply can’t extricate your ears from, every barbed glitch progressively snagging further wisps of your hearing.
There isn’t, it’s accurate to report, much immediacy here. But that was never Autechre’s forte. True to form, the immersing osmosis of repeated plays is the only method of absorbing Oversteps’ depths. A few moments do land instantly, though: known(1) re-imagines then mechanises ancient oriental zither strains with the unfolding beauty of an origami swan; O=0 chimes and tingles with Philip Glass-worthy dexterity; st epreo’s dense thicketed beat undergrowth grabs your cochleas.
And once Yuop evaporates into the ether it’s more than apparent why many people don’t exactly get Autechre, even plentiful converts who assume that they do. Perhaps Oversteps’ mantle even nods to the extra unnecessary layers of deep rumination their wares often attract. But by maintaining a ferocious appetite for streaming across territory few electronic musicians possess even a perception of, Autechre continue to test themselves and listeners alike with stunningly intricate results. --Adam Kennedy
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Customer Reviews
Don't get me wrong, there are still the scattershot beats, trickling half-melodies, and distant explosions of eerie ambient sound. But there are also very few juxtapositions that'll make feel you've been struck with a blackjack from behind; and never are Brown and Booth tempted to let a track play out in a morass of conflicting sounds. 14 tracks, none over seven minutes, and all cut from the same cosmic cloth.
Standout pieces include the vast 'ilanders'; 'qplay', which sounds like a grumpy robot waking up and remembering how to use his limbs; 'Treale' (so good it deserves the capitalisation); and the amusingly argumentative 'redfall'.
When a band has innovated to the extent that Ae have, it's hard to conclude whether they're still doing so, or whether they're simply refining the sound they defined. But perhaps we should simply be glad that with each new Ae release, we're still hearing something we never thought our ears would hear - and so another hidden corner of our mind is mapped.
reminded me of boards of canada's third album. Not because they
sound anything like each other, but because there is a much... Read more
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