Untilted

Untilted

ASIN: B0007VXZJU

Editorial Reviews
Amazon.com
The eighth album by these OG glitch kingpins is a curious thing. While none of the album's sounds are particularly different (Autechre is working with pretty much the same palette started with), it's not like they've gone laptop folk or added favela beats. The band's relentless experimentation continues unabated. Each of these songs here has more parts than an entire Rush album; every succeeding Autechre album has gotten more complex, as if there were Oulipo-style rules system guides the entire practice. But, while some patterns change rapidly--the complex and jagged try dancing to this rhythms rarely repeat for very long--sine tones and drones underneath it all change very slowly. So, while the music may be composed in a postmodern way, then, it's staunchly modernist in its sharp, subtle honing of minimalist compositional techniques. The contrast between the jagged sounds and the surface and the moaning bass tones will either thrill or bore. There is no middle ground. --Mike McGonigal

Product Description
The latest opus from these polyrhythmic android, drum-machine riding heroes of the avant-funk. Bringing beauty to the posessed beat, jiggling pulses into a-rhythmic oneness, Untilted is another breathtaking stab of electronic music that breathes and oozes the sound of Warp.

Tracks:

LCC
Ipacial Section
Pro Radii
Augmatic Disport
Iera
Fermium
The Trees
Sublimit

Amazon.com

The eighth album by these OG glitch kingpins is a curious thing. While none of the album's sounds are particularly different (Autechre is working with pretty much the same palette started with), it's not like they've gone laptop folk or added favela beats. The band's relentless experimentation continues unabated. Each of these songs here has more parts than an entire Rush album; every succeeding Autechre album has gotten more complex, as if there were Oulipo-style rules system guides the entire practice. But, while some patterns change rapidly--the complex and jagged try dancing to this rhythms rarely repeat for very long--sine tones and drones underneath it all change very slowly. So, while the music may be composed in a postmodern way, then, it's staunchly modernist in its sharp, subtle honing of minimalist compositional techniques. The contrast between the jagged sounds and the surface and the moaning bass tones will either thrill or bore. There is no middle ground. --Mike McGonigal

Album Description

The latest opus from these polyrhythmic android, drum-machine riding heroes of the avant-funk. Bringing beauty to the posessed beat, jiggling pulses into a-rhythmic oneness, Untilted is another breathtaking stab of electronic music that breathes and oozes the sound of Warp.

Customer Reviews:

Different.......2007-06-30

If anyone had heard this in 2003, they would have said, no way that is autechre. Ae have gone in a completely different direction in the way they compose. Whereas the past four albums and ep's or so were almost exclusively with computers, this album is exclusively hardware. And it is bangin. It isnt as good as their live performances from this era, but still great and gets us ready for the next album which is likely to be made with similar techniques but more experience. The opener LCC is the highlight for me. The only miss is Fermium, which starts interesting but never really goes anywhere.

disappointed.......2007-05-20

After gantz graf and the the Magnificent Draft 7:30 this just came across as the Electro Wizards taking advantage of a well earned worldwide fan base.

My favorite, very demanding.......2007-04-18

I admit that I bought this album, listened to it once and chucked it.

I gave it another go recently and found an entire hidden world.

It doesn't work as ambient, it demands your involvement and very close listening. It's quite incredible when you're ready for it.

On further listening, I find parallels with Spring Heel Jack's Busy Curious Thirsty from 1997, esp. in the opening and closing tracks.

the epitome of experimentation.......2007-03-14

What you will find here is absolutely nothing like you've ever heard before. Autechre is probably as far away from mainstream as any form of 'music' (if thats even a proper way to describe this) can be.

There is no melody, and absolutely no structure to this at all. If you thought that Converge's 'Jane Doe' was chaotic, check this out! Autechre have completely destroyed all forms of conventional music. To most people, this is probably the most horrible sounding album ever to be released, but to me, this is very captivating and interesting. With drum rythyms that are far more complex and mathmatical than any on a Meshuggah album, and melody being nonexistant, this album leaves plenty to be discovered even after twenty listens.

This album is far more than any random noise. It is a very atmospheric, and truly frightening piece of work. If you are looking for 'music' in any form or conventional fashion, look elsewere. If you are looking for an immensly challanging and bizzare listen, click the purchase button now.

interesting, but not so much.......2007-01-29

Autechere will always occupy a special place in my heart, and if you are looking for good IDM/ambient I strongly suggest you buy up autechre albums, particularly the first few, they are milestones. However, I feel obliged to warn you that their latest material (especially Untilted [the subject of this review]) only vaguely resembles their characteristic early albums, which isn't essentially a bad thing, and many say they have progressed to even greater heights, but let's not assume that progressing into something completely different or complicated is automatically a progression to greater heights.

This is the type of album that one hear's and thinks to oneself "cool... I guess", but afterwards you can't really decide if you ever want to hear it again; even the critics who love it mention that it's hard to listen to.

Anyhow, Autechre's albums have been headed in this direction for some time now, so it was easy to predict that this album would just follow in the natural flow of their careers. But, I regret to say that this album is nothing new for them and not a big breakthrough; it seems more of a degrade than an upgrade to me. The beats are precise yes, and the production impeccable of course, but as one could guess they are obviously and intentionally avoiding melody in order to create some kind of effect, maybe for snobs of the underground; or maybe it's just a lack of inspiration with regart to melody so they disposed of it. Whatever the case, I find this record a bit pretentious and lacking in substance. If not for the somewhat steady pace and structure of rhythm, Untilted could almost be considered in the "noise" genre; I'm not saying it is, but it feels that pointless. This record is not completely void of musical notes and tones either, but what little there is does not contribute much, so they've heavily subdued one of the major compontents of music and something they used to be very good at; rhythm is capitalized and melody is hardly acknowledged. They are clearly very talented sound engineers, but the emotion and meaning behind the music is gradually fading away, which one should note happens to many musicians as they grow old.

I admit that I may be missing something, but I doubt that these other critics (the ones blowing smoke up AU's bumms) know profoundly more about judging music than anyone else. Which is why I give this album "1" star, not because it deserves a "1", but because it's been blown way out of proportion, so I give it an official "1" star to balance the ridiculous idea that this album is worthy of such ultimate praise; 5 stars!?! Puh Leaze!!!

Autechre are brilliant and have set a definite precedent in the IDM world, but their time of impact is over, for now. They will have to do something truly magnificent to get me to buy their records again.

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