Autechre ‎– LP5

LP5 is still an approachable album for IDM fans, and while it doesn't sound a thing like Aphex Twin, it still falls in that category of music. There is a lot of creativity, identifiable rhythm and melodies but it also contains segments of very beat/sample laden music. The song structure is more conventional with things like climaxes and introductions.

This is the last good Autechre album. I bought this right when it came out when Autechre was brand new to me. At the time, LP5 was in that perfect spot of being just beyond what I liked, sort of like when you've almost acquired the taste for a new food. You don't precisely "enjoy" it yet, but you know that you eventually will.

Anyway. This album deftly straddles the line separating experimental and enjoyable. Looking back a dozen years later, you might expect to find dated sounds, but no, that is not the case. This was truly groundbreaking for Ae. I believe that the wildness and absurdity they would pursue over the next decade is foreshadowed here, but it is solidly grounded in enough accessibility and melody to make it a worthwhile listen.

Someone once said LP5 is a story concerning the fall, rise, and second fall of an alien empire. "acroyear2" is a busy, panicky track. It represents the first fall of the empire as a result of a violent invasion. "777" sees the empire assessing the damage. Next, witness the cold, stark beauty of "rae" when it switches from a driving, forceful track to the slower, grinding tempo at about 3:10. Absolutely magnificent. The alien empire has fallen into its deepest rut yet. Confusion takes hold under the brief, infant-like "melve." The reality of destruction and a long recovery are realized with the downtrodden but propulsive "vose in," a track which self-destructs.

But "fold4,wrap5" represents the fascinating signs of an off-kilter recovery. The mood lightens, but only in fits and starts. Hardware acquisition and construction continue in the oddly-named "under BOAC." Finally the empire sees a light at the end of the tunnel. (Admittedly a very long tunnel as this track is rather uninspired.)

At last we come to "corc," my favourite track here. The recovery is complete and the empire basking in the warm glow of their home star. Now, a well-deserved rest. "corc" boasts a unique, loping rhythm and bright, sunny melody. I dare say that this is possibly amongst my top ten favourite IDM tracks. I love the stereo separation in the drums around 3:30. The track beautifully winds down. The empire does a bit of mining and base fortification on "caliper remote," but something is happening. The sky is changing; I'm worried. Danger lurks on the horizon -- is all glory truly fleeting?

Oh shit, here they come again! It's all-out war as the "arch carrier" units storm the empire's base. This track is yet another gem. Similar in atmosphere to the opening track, it's a bit more laid-back in rhythm but the mood is just as foreboding and desperate. Dig the neat little turn of melody at 4:03. Superb. The assault continues for a while and ultimately we're left with the bleak "drane2," which documents in epic form the smoldering ruins of a once-great society. This time I think it's for good. The melody plays an alien version of "taps" while the skittering, twitching rhythm tells of the empire's sad end.

All in all, it's a very good album. (I don't know if it's great, because there are some lower-interest sections.) EP7 came next, which to me sort of sounded like outtakes for LP5. It also has some very good moments, although it doesn't seem to tell as much of a story. Again, this album really stands as the dividing line between inspired Autechre and the geek-off academic drivel that followed. It is a very important IDM album in that regard.

LP5 is basically, to me, an Autechre Pop Album. Autechre display commercial sensibility on this release by their choice of song structures. I think that LP5 is home to some of the best production these guys have done, and also some finer melody work. Although i prefer Autechre in some other modes (Envane, Untilted, Amber), LP5 is definitely the one that converted me. Great starting place for beginners

I believe at this point in Autechre's career they were having trouble deciding where they wanted to go with their music. Would they continue to go on with the noisey, machine beats.. or would they go back to their roots and make more ambient driven music. Well obviously they chose the macchine beats later one, but this album strikes me as confusion with them. They seemed to work with what they did on Chiastic Slide, but at the same time, there was no advancement in the madness (which becomes more and more complex with each album after this).

This album should be known as their fork in the road with one sign saying "ambient" and the other one saying "noise"

That's my favorite album of Autechre,it has interesting melodies and the percussion sounds are amazing.It's a reference for a lot of the IDM that we can hear actually and shurely it is on the genre classics. It is the culmination of his previous works that has good melodies, but percussions wasn't sofisticated enough, however, and personally, i lost interest in them after LP5, since i feel that they give more importance to experimentation than music feeling or sensibility.
Anyways i can understand that people like his latest works (even i have some of them), is just that i'm a melody lover.

A pretty damn good CD. At this point in Autechre's career they were becoming more and more experimental and less ambient. As hard as it was to follow up an album like Chiastic Slide, Autechre did it well. Most of these songs are pretty easy to listen and get into. Not nearly as difficult as later albums. This album also contains the masterpiece track called Rae. Awesome stuff. If you dig this release, then you should check out its sister-autechre album, EP7

With "LP5" Autechre started to experiment, but they weren't very good at it back then. I've got the same problem with their "ep7". Ok, there are some nice and interesting songs, but the rest is powerless. Most of the songs on these two albums fail to create the intensively mind-altering atmosphere of their later works(exceptions e.g.: "caliper remote" on "LP5" or the hidden track on "ep7").

Fazit: Their two weakest records. But they were both very neccessary, because Ae was still practicing and training for "confield", "draft 7.30" and "untilted" at that time, hehe.

For me this album has the more straightforward melodic elements of Tri Repetae and the mangled beats and shards of sound they went on to produce on Confield and Draft 7.30. Definitely my favourite Ae record and possibly the only one I enjoy listening to all the way through. Can't recommend it highly enough!

Don't know where people get comments like "The best electronic album ever made" for this album, it’s far from it. The synth-lines are elementary at best and the beats are overly erratic. If I wanted a Squarepusher album guess what I’d go out and buy. So mixing two bad elements do not make the best album ever. I will admit there are some good points to this album. Rae, Vose In, Fold4,Wrap5, and Drane2 all have good structure. But where did Autechre go? Listen to Gescom’s This and That 12”s on the SKAM record label (Which includes excellent remixes by Autechre around the same time they recorded LP5) and see the evolution from great artists to what they are now, terrible wannabes.

Fair enough, I can see that for many this is not an easy listen. At the time it came out it was such a leap forward in style that it did leave some people behind, especially fans of the earlier work who enjoyed the more ambient textures. One thing is for sure, something definately came together on this album, gone are the open soundscapes of Amber, gone are the mechanical rhythms of Tri Repetae. Enter a new more organic sound, living rhythms that evolve and each sound is tangible, can almost be seen and felt. In places it's wickedly complex but never confused, the elements fuse to form beautiful sonic structures. Highlight for me is "Rae" - A masterpiece of rhythm, with a haunting melody full of emotion. Sheer Genius.0(--)0