Autechre – Chiastic Slide

For me, the moment AE became their own thing - truly developing their own sound. A big leap from Tri. Their earlier work was great - but nothing to distinguish it from many other artists at the time. Chiastic still sounds very interesting and timeless whereas everything prior sounds of it's time.

Just discovered the strange world of Autechre, so much to discover! Bought and listened to 12 albums and EPs so far and can already tell that Chiastic Slide is a highlight and will be amongst my all time favourites in electronic music.

After hearing Cipater on the Warp: Routine CD I bought a few years back, that's when I first got into Autechre. And it also got me into this album, which is one of the best IDM albums I have ever heard! Mechanisms and clippers delight, as track after track enriches with strong vibes, like Cichli, Tewe, and Nuane. Truly an infatuating piece of art.

Pretty cool that this got reissued with LP5 (which I have yet to hear) last year. Definitely cichli suite! ;)

Warp records just announced reissues both of Chiastic Slide and LP5. Available for pre-order right now. Release date 19th november.
Finally, it's happening!!!!

Chiastic Slide é um disco sensacional e não deixa a desejar em nada aos três primeiros lançamentos clássicos do grupo, mas segue em uma nova direção a partir do Tri Repetae de uma forma muito inteligente e desprovida de amarras. Em 1997 as pessoas queriam ouvir a maçaroca pop de Come To Daddy ou os malabarismo do senhor Jenkinson, sim, este último muito impressionante mas acredito que os paralelos não deveriam ter desmerecido este trabalho em seu ano de lançamento. 'Cipater' delimita um novo território a ser explorado e abre espaço para a sequência de sons pouco usuais até então. 'Rettic Ac' e 'Cichli' apresentam direções absurdas em termos de processamento, enquanto 'Nuane' resume e encerra de uma vez por todas a era iniciada com o Tri Repetae. É difícil? É sim, mas se você quiser facilidades basta deixar uma playlist genérica de um DJ qualquer rolando que não vai fazer muita diferença no fim das contas, o lance aqui é outro e a audição exigem máxima atenção para ser contemplada de todo.

From my perspective, "Amber" took a radical shift from their prior work towards the ambient and organic, like the grains of sand tumbling down the Turkish dunes on the cover. "Amber" featured a different kind of intensity, with stripped down arrangements and less focus on percussion. "Tri Repetae," on the other hand, took a radical shift back towards the mechanical, sterile. I like "Tri Repetae," but I'm in the minority that does not view it as the watershed moment in their 90's catalog; it's an album of one step forward, two steps back.

For me, "Chiastic Slide" initiates the exponential growth that characterized the rest of their career, fusing the organic with the mechanical. Even better, the mechanical elements sometimes feel as if they're being slowly torn apart, sound spilling through space. Time signatures shift, the machines rasp and protest. Images of decaying radioactive elements, shattered crystals, amorphous lights in ambiguous spaces flash by. Which isn't to say the whole album is characterized by extremity or violence; there are genuine moments of tenderness. The spirit in the machine is at times deeply moving.

"Chiastic Slide" is filled with novel detail, nuance and suggestion. It no longer sounds like music made by humans with synths; it sounds like a series of natural processes becoming conscious and exploring a world of sound. While "LP5" somehow managed to transcend all of this, "Chiastic Slide" is the crucible that made "LP5" possible. And "Chiastic Slide" is the first album in the Ae catalog that defined Autechre as something unique, almost apart from all other popular music.

Shouldn't the track duration of Nuane 11:55 and not 13:15?

I feel the style should also include industrial

This is arguably the record that changed the way I listened to music forever. I won’t stop playing this one until I die.

Overall a satisfying Album with a touching and a dark side, and they are all played side by side like dark/light dark/light...and so forth. My favourite musics are "Cichli", "Hub" and "Pule".