Autechre ‎– Oversteps

In 2009 I was horified truly by one of the worst news: The Designers Republic, the legendary group of designers whose work for me personally is the best thing that could happen for the contemporary art since Kasmimir Malevich's discovery of Suprematism, are broke. The global economic crisis made it all possible. That was surely the final nail in the coffin of a once great label called WARP, which has literally killed itself more with a more poppy music fixation since about 2004. This decline was crowned by questionable decisions, eg the limited (to 100 pieces) version of Autechres previous album Quaristice. Within 12 hours it was sold out (price around 30 pounds). The rest of the fans stood dumb by having the wonderful option to buy either the stripped-down standard version of the album or the special edition (packaging made of steel) from clever traders who bought up more pieces of the special edition to offer them for horenden prices (300, 400 or even 1,000 pounds). The question is, what has even persuaded Autechre to participate in this regard (easy money??). However, one should forget the past and sometimes forgive. The year 2010 seems to be full of surprises.
The best news right away: The Designers Republic is back. Thank God! Yes! This time with an artwork that looks like a variation of the artwork of AFX´s Hangable Auto Bulb compilation. The second good news: no more LIMITED SPECIAL EDITIONS. Great! Ok, but we will this black hole painted on the cover swallow ourselfs with its music? Yes, definitely. With Oversteps, Sean and Rob released one of their most melodic albums since ... hmmm, Tri-Repetae? Fans of Autechre already struggled to describe the sound of Autechres past albums, because the group always tried to move the boundaries of innovation in modern electronic music.
Let's try to descibe Oversteps:
Oversteps is like (Terminator 2 fans take note) a "mimetic poly-alloy", music like liquid metal. Take the concept of "Eutow" (intricate, catchy melodies, simple beat), mix it with the Autechres latest music detours (Untitled, Quaristice) and the atmosphere of Confield. But don`t be misled the title of the album: Oversteps has nothing to do with the latest UK music style called "Dubstep". As always Autechre create their own sound far away from common music structures. Many beats on Oversteps sound simple melody jumps. They are organic, but on the other hand also artificial. "known (1)" for example sounds like an artificial clarinet session. Then "Ilander" boasts with "evil" melodies and beats. If you take a close listen to "O = 0" you might think to hear a tuba and between "d-sho qub" and "st epreo" a human chorus seems to sneak in. Tracks such as "r ess" or "pt2ph8" then again invite for a simple chill. Unlike Quaristice, the beatless ambient tracks (of which "Oversteps" consists for the most part) are no longer simple sounds and minimal soundscapes (in the vein of Pan (a) Sonic), but of beautiful sloping melodies which take the listener on a journey into future worlds. Influences of some of Autechre's favorite bands, like Coil and Throbbing Gristle are quite noticeable, but Sean and Rob still stay true to their distinctive indescribable trademark sound.
I they could only "step over" to such labels like Rephlex, Skam or Planet Mu which did not sell out....

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I don't like the album at all. After Confield Autechre lost their souls completely..

Soul is back in IDM. I really love Confield, but Oversteps and Move of Ten are so full of life...

On the pre-release for this album almost all of the discussion about Oversteps was positive. Something that is pretty rare for a band that has always divided opinion. The comments suggested that they had produced a more accessible album, more melodic and ambient orientated, with a move from the harsh dymamics of albums in recent years. This is all true but were the results worth the hype?

There is no doubt that Oversteps represents a break from more recent material. The most notable changes are an increasing emphasis on higher frequencies, an more use of fizz and static to create atmosphere and frequent use of almost Gamelan-like chimes to provide the melodic backgound.

The opening track Ress builds from silence with the introduction of ominous synths, buzzing electronics and stuttering percussion. Quite a dark start. Things go downhill on Known(1) where the high pitched strings and plinky keys make for a really unpleasant listen. I would far rather listen to tracks on previous albums which deliver sheer force and intensity where the thrills make up for the often ugly nature of the music. Known(1) is just ugly.

See on See on the other hand is a stunning piece of music. Quite unlike anything they have ever produced. Proof that Autechre can make beautiful music. The sparkling, chiming atmospherics and warm melodic hooks represent a new avenue for future releases. The next track Treale maintains a similar vibe but toughens things up with a punchy baseline and robotic melodies.

Elsewhere through there is too much filler on this release. Tracks come and go without grabbing the attention and there is a suprising lack of ideas on show compared with the previous album Quaristice which delivered mind boggling diversity across 20 tracks.

I saw Autechre live around the time of this release and they blew me away with their densely complex, cranium crushing assult. The follow up album Move of Ten however failed to deliver anywhere near as much of that intensity so I'm really hoping they get around to releasing a live album.

Rob and Sean acheived legendary status years ago and remain serious players but for me at least 2010 was not the best for their recorded output.

it took almost twenty years for autechre to make an attempt to break out of the experimental techno scene. the statement here is clear - we want to be treated as contemporary composers. is that justified? the answer is dripping in irony, for their mid to late 90s output is justification enough. nonetheless, i've enjoyed this record considerably more than i've enjoyed the last few.

it's difficult to know what to make of the third track; it would be preposterous to suggest that booth/brown are unfamiliar with horse rotorvator, and equally preposterous to suggest that their fan base is as well, so the fact that it is more or less a direct rip on "the first five minutes after death" is a little bit hard to parse. is it meant as a cover? a tribute? why not label it as such? as it is, it's a rather brazen statement of something, but i'm not sure what that statement is.

despite the coil rip, the major influence here must be richard d. james and his very early work at that. the record is not void of beats, but long passages of it are. the segments that do have beats treat the percussion in parallel with the melodies in a rather tight manner, playfully interjecting them as a part of the composition and not as a means of structure. the end result is describable as nothing more or less than electronic jazz, complete with digital analogues to rolls, fills and brush work.

the centrepiece of the record, however, is the analog and digital sequencer parts, which are more heavily reverberated than anything i've ever heard them produce. they're also more written than anything i've heard them produce. autechre's general style dominates, but i'm also hearing, for the first time, influences from such sources as ravel, budd and satie - and possibly thirlwell as inspiration.

autechre always stood out as being difficult and unmarketable, impossible for most people to listen to, let alone enjoy. this is their first record geared towards a general audience, and while the changes in sound are significant, they pull the shift off admirably. i'm going to explain this by a heightened level of maturity, which the young may frown upon but the old recognize as inevitable; if you're looking for blistering and bizarre electronic noise to dance to, this is certainly not it but if you're looking for a set of electronic compositions that exist roughly within the contemporary sphere of both production and composition techniques then you may find something of value within this.

i wasn't sure what to make of quaristice; i had downloaded and deleted it, not at all impressed by it's apparent aimlessness. however, oversteps positions quaristice as a transitional record, one where they were simultaneously going over old ground and moving towards this record. sometimes, context improves a record; i'll have to give it another shot. this record appears to be the first one after the transition, and i can't stress enough how profound the transition really is.

i'd like to hear them run with this. it's a good first try at something completely different but, like most first tries, it could perhaps be improved with a little bit more time and experience. i, for one, must admit to being rather excited about their future plans because if they keep walking down this path the end result could very well be something incredibly profound.

once again autechre captivate their audience. confield i understood although can never fully listen and feel i grasp any real fondness to the album. when draft came out i appreciated the direction. untitled release felt like a live album and not a studio album. quartice hinted at potential. well they have pleasently come full circle and i am pleased to have this album. no doubt i will always buy their albums but the last 3 albums this is what i was waiting for. perhaps what long time fans have been waiting for. experimenting in beats might be futuristic. experimenting in melodies might be boring to some. but lets face it. we want to listen to music. beats have and always will loose their attraction with more listens. melodies always gain favor after time. i have no doubt this album will grow on any listener as to the Untitled will stale after time. Oversteps is a fantastic tradition. Now what if they can do both though? beats and melodies? like on amber or tri-repeate?! for now i am liking this downtempo autechre-ness. reminds me of more bola style...
nice to see autechre making it happen once again

Autechre have never been ones to disappoint and with their newest album, Oversteps, they've managed to bring back a lot of the magic from their much cherished 90's albums. I'll start with the fact that Oversteps is very easy on the ears. There are no relentless mayhem of beats interwoven with each other like Autechre has provided us on their last several albums. No, this time around it seems they've finally come full circle with their sound and reverted to a much more ambient electronica that got them to become IDM masters to begin with. Tracks like r ess will jog your brain with memories of Amber while the ending track, Yuop, is very similar in sound and structure to those fantastic ending tracks found of Chiastic Slide and LP5. Its also worth noting that there is a recurring sound throughout the album of a strange organ chime. I can't really describe its true sound but its almost majestic and magical in sound. A very nice touch to the album. Autechre are back and better then ever.

After pandering to the pseudo-intellectual cretins in their fan-base for the last 10 bloody years, Autechre have FINALLY written an album that is listenable. Because, on Oversteps, they are writing melodies again. And they're really fucking good ones at times. Gone, thankfully, also are the endless cockwaving drum/glitch bollocks of Draft and Untilted. And most of the tunes on Oversteps sound like fully fleshed ideas, not experiments in collage a-la Quaristice.

Oversteps sounds like a natural continuation of EP7 only with even more complex drum rhythms (thankfully not the headache-inducing pummeling fanboy-wank that is LCC and the like) and pristine production: the FM sounds cleaner and crisper. The rhythms are more intriguing, and the melodies they employ here are developed to a far greater degree than even the best LP5 or EP7 had to offer. I'm hearing shades of Tangerine Dream, Telex, Vangelis, and Moskwa TV in this album, so that's a pretty good start. Oh, and it's not MINIMAL either, thankfully.

Ilanders is effectively Robot-Jazz. Its "structure" is little more than that of a trad-jazz jam, opening and closing with the main theme and exploring it from every angle in between. I'm no jazz fan, but the idea is sound. The underlying rhythm is some concotion of electro crossed with breaks and hip-hop. The roiling pads underneath the crunchy FM drums and plinking melodies are a welcome return after the last 10 years. Proof that Sean and Rob can write them!

Treale is where they take the whole "reform, redevelop, destroy, then reform again" ethic on their melodies about as far as they ever have. This is 100% composition right here, computer-aided or not. I find it hits my personal "melodic threshold" at times, like a lot of jazz tunes tend to, but I would still have the interlocking FM tones of Treale than ANY of the 7+ minute drum wank exercises of Confield, Draft or Untilted. Nice that they stick to a fairly simple hip-hop/big-beat style rhythm and let the synths "be complex" for a change. Well done, lads!

Known(1) is a mess. Oversteps is - on every other track - a brooding aural dystopia, somewhat meditative and atmospheric with the bare hint of malignancy, but Known(1) is totally at odds with this vibe, coming across more as a twisted EP7 outtake with extra-trashy FM tweaking thrown in. They over-do the out-of-tuned'ness on this one. Thankfully it's the only track that is sub-par.

See On See is just arpeggiated bliss, with a bass-line continuously morphing underneath some lovely higher-octave tones. Call it a requiem, it's beautiful. I haven't said that about an Autechre song since Drane! Os veix3 and O=0 contain some of the most emotionally resonant and melancholic melodic phrases I've heard from Ae, as well as some fascinating key changes in the latter. st epreo has a less distinct hook than other tunes, and is more drum-focused, but it doesn't fall into the Untilted trap of endless clatter. d-sho qub has an infectious, slightly-shuffled "fast hip-hop" rhythm and it's hard not to love those hugely satisfying, crunchy snares blasting away under more very memorable synth lines, coming across "happier" here (love the way it devolves into vocal choruses, too!). The album finishes on the more minimalistically-composed Yuop, which gradually develops into lots of noisy pads and synth "wibbles". It works well as a closer.

As an aside, I find it hilarious that some people complain that there's been some blatant use of plugin patches from Tassman and Reaktor. If this is true, so what? Ae love FM, and if it works, just fucking use it. I can't be the only one that's lived through the naughties' endless sound exploration and gradual detachment from conventional composition techniques (ANYTHING from Mille Plateaux Records, for example), and find that 90% of it is barely interesting for a few listens, then just gets boring. It may be "exploring new sonic frontiers", but ultimately, focusing upon sound creation and texture as opposed to melody, often leaves you with music that is forgettable, for-occasion, aural wallpaper. That is never a problem on Oversteps.

Sean and Rob do a FAR better job of exploring melancholic, detached alienation on Oversteps using MELODIES than they do pissing about with drums and stepping on Venetian Snares' toes (Draft, Untilted, Confield). If you have any interest in challenging electronic music, you want to hear this. If you like Ae but found their previous albums lacking for any reason, believe me: you must hear this. If you spooge copiously over FM synthesis, then I'm surprised you're reading this and not listening to the bloody thing already. If you'd like to hear the "genre" of IDM broken and completely destroyed, well that's probably some personal issues you might need to work out, but don't let that stop you from trying Oversteps. Heck, I'm no "fan" of Autechre OR IDM, and I've fallen completely in love with this album. It's hard to at first, this is Autechre, not Arovane (who, melodically, came across as more of a romantic) but this is Sean and Rob showing their 100% robotic, programmed, circuit-driven souls. And I wouldn't want it any other way. Not perfect - ditch Known(1) - but bloody close. 10/10.

P.S. Oversteps makes for a superb alternative soundtrack to System Shock. :)

If there’s one thing I can say about Autechre fans upon hearing their new album Oversteps, and all prior fakes that made their way around the internet, is that they are the most confused and inconsistent bunch of fans in the entire world. I have yet to find a single artist that polarizes even it’s own fans as much as Autechre. But for awhile, there were at least two major camps; Camp 1 loved everything pre 96, when they were less abstract and more ‘melodic’. Camp 2 loved everything after that, embracing the chaotic abstractness they dove into. Not everyone falls into either of these sides thank god, and I tend to think the most ‘true’ fans can appreciate them as a whole. For awhile, the two sides seemed to make sense. But in true Ae fashion, Oversteps once again confuses an already confused bunch of listeners.

As a fan of Autechre myself, allow me to explain the ‘confusion’ bit: As with most albums released by this duo, there comes a time where fake album leaks are inevitable. For the most part, it’s largely single tracks that are sometimes just small snippets, and they make rounds for a bit until they are proven to be fake. Some are prominent, fairly widespread, but something very bizarre happened when Oversteps supposedly leaked. The leak, which was obviously fake, was listened to by a staggering amount of people. Even more bizarre: some of these people were claiming it was 100% without a doubt, genuine. Fans of this group, who have claimed to be fans for ages, who felt like they deeply understood Autechre and knew everything about them, were sincerely claiming this fake to be completely real, utterly legit. So if that wasn’t already confusing enough, Autechre decide to throw yet another curveball, albeit it not in the way anyone ever imagined; this is the single most melodic Autechre album ever produced. It’s also the most ambient. No longer can Amber fans say they want them to return to melody. Not only that, but it’s incredibly bright, vibrant and at times, playful, similar to Plaid, even Aphex Twin.

So is this album good? I would say yes, very much so. Some will say no. Despite it’s obvious melodic bent, I feel it sacrifices absolutely none of the qualities that make them good in the first place, and this is painfully clear. The misconception of Autechre being futurist masters of all things technological is burned into the heads of far too many people. So much of mid-to-late 90s had this boundary pushing idealism and they were the poster boys for that, and I can guarantee you it was not their intention. Despite the chronological shifts, every album has contained traces of their personal, unique touch, and this album is no different. It’s singular focused yet amazingly clear compared to much of their work, it’s very free and open without a pretense of moodiness that bogs some Autechre down. They’ve written some of the most tuneful, engaging melodies of their entire career, something that would attract ‘many’ instead of ‘few’. Then again it’s personal taste here, not all the melodies here will appeal to everyone, and that is completely fair.

Some people feel that they went off the boil when Untilted was released, but I don’t really think so. Their back catalogue is not bullet proof, nobody ever agrees on anything, and fans endless assumption that they are intent on pushing the envelope is skewed. And if you have hardcore Autechre fans claiming a fake is legit, can you honestly listen to anyone? Time will tell how it holds up, but as I listen to this I can’t help but feel Autechre has made one of their best releases to this date. It is completely unapologetic in it’s vision, abstract or no, just like all the best Autechre albums.