The new Autechre record has been released a month ahead of time for download. This is a strange tactic for Warp. After all, Autechre doesn’t need the buzz. They’ve got a built-in fanbase who will likely buy the record no matter what.
Precedent shows that Booth and Brown are somewhat averse to having their material leaked beforehand, and this may be a way of cutting that off before it starts. Before Draft 7.30 was released, someone was distributing “bootleg” advance copies which were, in fact, completely fake.
If it’s not early promotion, and it’s not a means to circumvent leaks, why release the record early? It could be that Warp (or the artists) lack confidence in it.
It’s a harsh judgment, but Autechre have not only released some truly great music, they’ve rewritten a great many of the rules along the way. It’s rare for an artist to become an influence within their own career, and rarer still for them to avoid treading the same ground twice. They’ve done both, so it’s only natural to look forward to each new release with certain expectations.
There are twenty songs here, most averaging four to five minutes in length. The record moves along at a fair clip, but it feels like a blurred series of set-pieces rather than a sequence of longer, well-developed works. “Altibzz” is a short ambient piece that borrows its palette from Tri Repetae’s “Eutow,” while the second track sounds a bit like Gescom and feels like Envane’s “Draun Quarter.”
“IO” wouldn’t have sounded out of place on EP7, though it takes a turn into the percussive abstraction of “Surripere” in the second half. “plyPhon” rides a busy kick drum line reminiscent of Untilted, but overlaid with chords from “Garbagemx36.”
See a pattern forming? It’s almost as if they’ve taken an overview of their entire post-Amber catalog and reinterpreted it. That’s a fine body of work to revisit, but it can’t help but feel just a bit redundant.
“Perlence” is an off-kilter, uptempo track that harkens back to the last record. Though only clocking in at 3:25, it shows quite a bit of development, but like most of the work here, it suffers from its brevity. Just as it’s taking hold, it sputters out and segues into the torpid “SonDEremawe,” a droning track that recalls their work with the Hafler Trio more than anything.
“Simmm” opens with a gamelan sequence that’s striking for its rather straightforward approach to melody. The bells are ring-modulated and become barely tuned percussion. As they start to echo back into the mix in a lower register, a subtle chord sequence floats over the top. It’s one of the more arresting pieces on the record (and at five minutes, one of the longest), and more than anything else here, it shows a graceful melding of their more modern techniques with the warm melodic character of their earlier work.
“paralel Suns” sounds like an updated version of “Kalpol,” but a little grainier and less sure of itself. “Steels” rides a quiet but unpredictable patter of low drums before a disconnected acid bass line lopes through. It’s hard to grasp but oddly affecting. “Tankakern” comes through drenched in reverb, reminding me of early Richie Hawtin, something that “rale” simply reaffirms. It’s pleasant enough, but as with much of the material here, if this was my first exposure to their work, it wouldn’t stand out much.
“Fol3” knocks things off balance, taking the drums from EP7’s “Pir” and backmasking them. The decay is stretched and looped, and a slight melody is implied at the two-minute mark. “fwzE” picks the pattern up and turns it into a neat perpetual-motion percussion piece, buoyed by a single chord and smatterings of distorted bass.
Just as things seem to be getting interesting, the album retreats back into the acid nostalgia of the preceding pieces. “90101-5l-l” is enjoyable enough, and it’s got a few of their signature touches, but unfortunately, it’s not very interesting. “bnc Castl” rides a more interesting drum loop, but again the textures used are primitive and for the first time since I can remember, it’s blatantly obvious that they’re using a drum machine and sequencer.
“Theswere” winds through a loop that sounds like radio chatter tuned down a few octaves, and it’s overtly melodic, which is nice, but it’s also numbingly repetitive, which isn’t. The same problem plagues “WNSN,” which takes an edgier turn, but unfortunately ends up exactly where it started.
“chenc9” is a bit spunkier, hearkening back to the busy kinetics of Cichlisuite. It’s one of the more interesting tracks on the record, and like “Simmm,” it has a good deal of development for its short length. “Notwo” is another pretty ambient piece, but it feels too noncommittal. The record ends with a whimper in “Outh9X,” which sounds a bit like “Drane2” adorned with a disconsolate synth tone. A slight bass line enters for a bit, then fades, leaving the album to coast out on a quiet drone.
There’s some material on this record that lesser producers would love to call their own, but for Autechre, it’s quite a letdown. I’ve been challenged and sometimes exasperated by their material in the past, and I’ve appreciated that. Their music has often required close and patient listening to reveal the mechanical heart beneath the layers of complexity, but in the end, it’s always been rewarded.
The problem with Quaristice is that there’s no such challenge. You either like a track or you don’t. There’s not much beneath the surface. In either case, it’s over as quickly as you can grasp it, only to be replaced by something completely different. Such an approach would have worked brilliantly if only the material was good enough. Unfortunately, there are very few solid ideas here, and the ones that do stand out suffer from constriction.
In the end, Quaristice is so transitory and scattershot that I can’t help but notice a certain twinge of apathy. If this were my first exposure to their work, I wouldn’t understand their reputation. This leads me to wonder what their intentions were with this record. Are they thumbing their noses at us, or is the metastructure meant to be some sort of statement?
Perhaps I’m reading too much into it. That’s an easy thing to do with them. Even if this does mark a dramatic downturn in the quality of their output, they’ve still left us with a decade of truly astounding music.