Hard choice. On one hand, Confield is like a shitty soundtrack to an IBM computer factory, completely soulless and devoid of emotion. Also music made with computers isn't real music. On the other hand, Shields is generic indie folk, and all modern music sucks because it's all commercial and made by sell outs.
Also I hate both users, so that doesn't help either. I'll have to suffer through relistening to both albums to choose the least bad.
I apologize for the length of this, but all attempts to edit it end up making it longer...here is my rant on Confield:
Autechre are generally known as being the most clinical and experimental of the so-called idm musicians from the 90’s. Confield is perhaps the height of all of this, where they took the robotic, fragmented sound they had been hinting at in previous albums to its full-blown conclusion. It is one of my favourite albums ever and certainly one of the most unique and creative albums of the last decade. If you haven’t heard it before a number of things will immediately stand out:
- The percussion/drums play bizarre non-linear rhythms that seem to eschew conventional time signatures whenever possible. They almost play a textural role more than rhythmic in the music, filling out space underneath the melody/harmony rather than providing a base rhythm for the song.
- There is little melody in the music, it is either minimalistic and fragmented or totally non-existent—instead focusing on crisp ambient drones and disorienting robotic sounds
-Despite the focus on sound and texture in the music, Confield is not “atmospheric” in the way an ambient album would be. The production is startlingly, inhumanely clean and precise sounding, almost completely detached of any emotional content. When the songs seem to express anything, it is something creepy and claustrophobic, kind of like some scary “ibm computer factory” as Defago so nicely put it.
Listening to Confield is like trying to navigate this incredible labyrinth of morphing, shifting sounds. What makes the music so entertaining is the joy of analyzing, pulling apart, and decoding every cool, interesting, bizarre sound Autechre come up with. The songs are fascinating in how they are constructed to play tricks on you; hiding a very beautiful synth sound underneath a particularly jarring beat, or distracting you with one set of sounds while another changes or shifts in some witty way. Furthermore, the fractured, beats may not be very normal, but they just sound really fucking cool. The sterile atmosphere is weirdly refreshing; sometimes it pays to hear music that lets you totally detach from the world, non-expression becoming in a way its own form of expression. Confield is an album in love with sound exploration and manipulation for its own sake, and that is where its joy lies. If there ever was an album that suits repeated, extremely close listens; this is it, you are almost certain to find all sorts of things you wouldn’t even know were there. Within the rhythmic chaos, this album is genuinely beautiful.
As another note Autechre are often cited for having an incredibly meticulous, intensive, complex studio process. Part of what makes Confield so amazing is its super-slick production—notice how clean and perfect even album’s most chaotic moments sound. You can read a little about it here:
http://www.soundonsound.com/sos/apr04/a...techre.htm
Some quotes from the article that stand out, particularly if you think the beats on Confield are just “random”:
"A lot of the time we have the studio set up a certain way for one track, and then we have to completely rewire it for the next track.”
"On Confield we also used analogue sequencers and drum machines, because you can do a lot with restarting patterns. You can hack things and maybe use a control volume to determine what step the drum machine is playing from. Perhaps you send that control volume from an analogue sequencer, so the drum machine is skipping around. And then you get another analogue sequencer to drive that analogue sequencer with a different timing. Immediately you have something that some people would call random, but I would say is quantifiable.”
“We may have one fader that determines how often a snare does a little roll or skip, and another thing that listens and says 'If that snare plays that roll three times, then I'll do this.' We don't use random operators because they're irritating to work with — every time you run the process it sounds different. How we play the system dictates how the system responds."
Last edited by yourself on 05/10/2013 13:26; edited 1 time in total
I'm not done, here are 2 of my favourite tracks: Vi Scose Poise is a stunningly pretty track that takes this fascinating, buzzing, rolling beat and combines it with quiet machine noises and simple descending reverby synth phrases that echo away into perfect oblivion. Pen Expers has some violent drum patterns with odd echo/reverb sounds that somehow form an extra rhythmic layer, making it sound like the drums are at war with each other, or perhaps are exploding. If you listen closely however, a rather gorgeous chord progression slowly emerges on a number of buzzing synthesizers, only to disappear again to make way for even more violent rhythmic deconstructions.
Even though it is not from Confield I recommend everyone who wants to “get” autechre to watch the Gantz Graf video, because it is a perfect visual representation what Autechre are doing with their music:
Hard choice. On one hand, Confield is like a shitty soundtrack to an IBM computer factory, completely soulless and devoid of emotion. Also music made with computers isn't real music. On the other hand, Shields is generic indie folk, and all modern music sucks because it's all commercial and made by sell outs.
Also I hate both users, so that doesn't help either. I'll have to suffer through relistening to both albums to choose the least bad.
At first I thought you were JMan I still haven't got used to JMan's new avatar (or yours obviously)
I'm going with Confield here. Shields has some decent moments but it's nothing special.
Hard choice. On one hand, Confield is like a shitty soundtrack to an IBM computer factory, completely soulless and devoid of emotion. Also music made with computers isn't real music. On the other hand, Shields is generic indie folk, and all modern music sucks because it's all commercial and made by sell outs.
Also I hate both users, so that doesn't help either. I'll have to suffer through relistening to both albums to choose the least bad.
the satire to content ratio of this post is mind-blowing
the satire to content ratio of this post is mind-blowing
Confield is an amazing IDM album. It uses little melody, confusing (to the point of nonexistance) rhythms and textures which create little atmosphere. It is cold, clinical and calculated; out of this world would be an accurate literal description. An extraordinary album playing in its own league. The IBM factory simile I used previously still stands, but in a positive manner.
Shields is the best album by Grizzly Bear, one of the best bands (and one of the few decent) to emerge from the recent indie folk movement. Using unconventional chord progressions and melodies, this album combines the textures and atmospheres of Yellow House with the energy of Veckatimest almost perfectly. It's sounds very vintage, yet very modern; eerie and strange, yet you want to sing along; energic, yet relaxed and thoughtful.
Both albums are amazing within their genres, and a recommended listen. In the end, however, Confield wins, for me. It is truly a one of a kind sound the one Autechre makes.
Also I love both users
God Bless You, Mr. Frogger, Yourself, Autechre, and Grizzly Bear!!!
Shields was a horrid listening experience for me. One of the most boring albums I've ever listened to. I'm listening to the Autechre album right now though, I like what I've heard by Autechre so I might like this one (and it sounds promising so far).
EDIT: Went with Confield
Last edited by Happymeal on 05/11/2013 22:12; edited 1 time in total
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I still haven't got used to JMan's new avatar (or yours obviously)
