| A two-man techno outfit from the UK, Autechre established itself as a state-of-the-art electronic unit, the high-profile band to watch for cutting-edge dance music. This continues the refinement of their previous Warp release, CHIASTIC SLIDE from the rather harsh sounds of their earlier work (best represented by the breakthrough double CD TRI-REPEATAE). Rhythmically, much of this falls into the '90s drum-and-bass camp, but there are a lot of older analog synth sounds found here, a departure from the unrelenting digitalism of Autechre's previous work. In fact, tracks like "rae" are reminiscent of analog synth groups like Mother Mallard's Portable Masterpiece Company. On "fold 4 wrap 5" time signatures shift and twist in complicated layers. There are mellifluous chords in "under BOAC," while in "caliper remote" the gentle synth tones are pitted against a kind of scraping rhythm track. The brilliant closer "drone2" starts off sparse and atmospheric, building in density until it becomes a full-fledged dance track, complete with strange quasi-banjo sounds propelling the beat. ...rooted in the computer programming school of ambient techno, but the noises it produces are much too sharp, dense and unpredictable to be classified as such...
CMJ (11/23/1998) |