Records that made the world a better place in 2003

December 31, 2003

Fourtet: Rounds

(Reviewed here) In which Hebden refines and outstrips Pause to make an electronic record that actually breathes. I catch something new every time I listen to it. His best work yet.

Xela: For Frosty Mornings…

A modest …

Ashleigh and the Decline of Western Civilization

December 30, 2003

Stu dropped me an email that really got me thinking. Interestingly enough, it's about my resent-and-bile filled review of the last Sasha album. I get alot of mail about that, sometimes more than all the other content on …

Autechre Faq, V 1.99

December 27, 2003

I've put the finishing touches on the initial revision of the Autechre Faq. Since the original has been gathering dust for about four years now, it's quite out of date. I've been concentrating on markup and …

Revised Faq

Put the finishing touches on the initial revision of the Faq. Check it out here. I've been concentrating on markup and structure so far, and I haven't had the chance to do much with the content. …

Creative 1.40.06 firmware released.

December 24, 2003

Creative has finally released a firmware update for the Nomad series.

Figuring I had nothing to lose, I pulled out my recently deceased NJB3, loaded the firmware, and surprise–it now boots! It would appear that something in the 1.40.06 …

Always buy the extended warranty…

December 22, 2003

Last year, I got my baby, a Creative Nomad Jukebox 3. I loved this thing. It held 20GB of mp3s, pumped out near-reference quality sound, and had a great suite of recording features to boot. I …

6IE.CR/Tapr

December 20, 2003

The clouds break abruptly in the third track. A surprisingly conventional and aggressive backbeat is outlined with a skeletal bassline, harkening back to "Laughing Quarter" in tone, although the tempo is slower and more deliberate. At the …

Latent Quarter

I've decided to run the Autechre info on a separate page parallel to this one. That's where I've moved the ongoing Draft 7.30 review.

Eventually, I'd like to run it as a sort of central hub for collected Autechre …

IV VV IV VV VII

December 18, 2003

While "Xylin Room" is a tightly-wound forward hurtle, the second track is an exercise in stasis. It opens with a modulated wind noise and an almost half-hearted snare-bass-drum pattern that never seems to find a beat. Nothing holds …

Xylin Room

December 17, 2003

Silence. Then a scrawl of static enters and forms the barest outline of a melody. The drums play two separate patterns against each other, sounding like blocks of wood pounding at various pitches and oddly resounding. The …

Draft 7.30

December 16, 2003

Confield stands in retrospect as one Autechre's best records. It's certainly not their most widely beloved or even accepted album, but it represents an important step in that it clears the slate for their entire catalog.

I suppose it …

More on subjectivity…

December 15, 2003

It's been awhile since I wrote the Autechre Guide, and I've gotten alot of reactions. Most have been surprisingly flattering, though the critical ones have been even more pointed. Good or not, I must be doing something …

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