Autechre – Plus

What the hell is the idea with the continual practice of including exclusive content for the Japanese market????

Nothing new for Ae (nor the music world in general - It's been going on since the 80's!), but seriously.... What gives?

Just seems like an unnecessary slap in the face for the fan-base across the rest of the world....

don't know yet what i think about the quality of this release

If you're considering buying this grab it from the official Autechre store, you get both lps at a reduced bundle price plus the free downloads too. (My order of both vinyl lps cost £43 inc tracked delivery.) Much cheaper than buying from other stores.

Great 2 lps - Sign being more abstract and minimal than the more beat orientated Plus. I rate Autechre as the top IDM musicians around now. I feel rather than calling them IDM however to refer to it as future jazz, it has for me that freeform feel that some jazz has but composed on machine technology rather than traditional instruments.

PLUS is Autechre's second LP of 2020, coming as a surprise release just weeks after SIGN. The sound palette is quite familiar from the previous record, making it clear that these two are companion pieces (in case the nearly-identical artwork wasn't enough of a clue).

Yet PLUS is different: it has all the beats that were scarce on SIGN. It also contains a surprising number of identifiable influences.

"Marhide" owes a lot to the UK bass scene from a few years back, particularly Livity Sound, although it's just a bit too intense and weird to fit in with that crowd. "X4" sounds positively Aphexian, with its plaintive melodic line driven through a pond of bubbly acid and finally dissolving into pretty chords that the ruddy Cornwallian would approve of. "ecol4" is a riverboat cruise through a dark jungle, and the weird place it ends up – rubbery bass shadowed by cavernous hiphop beats – once again calls RDJ to mind as much as Autechre's own work.

Other tracks show Booth and Brown operating in their parallel universe as usual: opener "DekDre Scap B" is a good example. The storm of broken clocks, the barely-contained chaos, the tune that propels itself forward even as it falls apart. Hard to imagine this coming from anyone else.

The tracks I mentioned above are very good, and they make up about half the record. I'm less enthusiastic about the rest. "lux 106 mod" and "esle 0" are nice enough, but they're sketches that don't develop beyond a single idea. The obligatory wonky tune, "7FM ic", quickly wears out its welcome. Closer "TM1 open" is also disappointing, as it noodles away for 11 minutes with little progression before finally shrugging and giving up.

It'd be tempting to take the best parts of SIGN and PLUS and combine them into one great record with a diversity of styles. Instead, Autechre chose instead to partition this work into a "pure" ambient record and a follow-up with some relative bangers. At this point in time, that concept seems appealing, but the execution poor. With Autechre, though, who can say? Maybe in a few years I'll be lauding it as a brilliant move rather than the middling effort that it feels like now.

Back to the grind. So it was so short-lived it lasted all of, oh, a week before announcing this album. PLUS is back to mostly glich and bang and bounce and plop and endless plodding digital feckery, with the occasional slow hip hop-ish rhythm e.g. 7FM ic. TM1 open and ecol4 do NOT need to be so long. It's the same old conceit of a semi-complex rhythm punctuated by occasional bursts and changes, but with absolutely nothing to latch on to. Remember, these are the musicians that brought us Fold4Wrap5!!

There are a couple of moments of relative musical accomplishment in ii pre sec, lux 106 mod, and the rather epic 12 minuter of X4 which skitters around fast electro breakage, trippy blippy melodic motifs, and constantly changing throughout its length actually providing some sense of progression and development for a change! But this is a overall much, much less approachable and coherent listen compared to SIGN. Head there first.

Omg, looks like my wish of having more Autechre has been fulfilled. Nice being there for this journey.

they are crazy!!! word word word word word word word

Nearly 30 years and still at the top of their game. Surprising, enlightening and essential envelope pushing artistic operations in fringe 'music'.

Just buy it you mad cat.

Already downloadable at the autechre store. Plus 10% off for SIGN buyers. That´s the way to release LPs this year...no marketing nonsense at all.

album can already be heard at the AE_STORE, check it out https://autechre.warp.net//release/208935-autechre-plus-