Autechre - LP5 (1998)

Autechre - LP5
Genre: Electronica/IDM/Techno
Release Year: 1998

- Are my colleagues sick of this band yet? They will be.

I just yesterday finally got around to hearing the electronic duo's lessee uh...fifth long player and within the twenty four hours I've had since then, I've played the length of it about five, going on six times. It's rare for an album to take me over for even just a day, and here with no end to the addiction in sight. So I might as well blog about it.

The first thing I noted is that like most Autechre outings, LP5 is a monolithic yet foggy affair. By this I mean that Sean Booth and Rob Brown's mantra behind the music is "more is more", which allows for a sense of "bigness" but also forces, for better or for worse, a near irreducible complexity on it. In one light, the songs all develop and mature (or corrode), but trying to actively listen for the changes is like trying to detect the minute hand on a clock move around - it'll eventually come full circle but your mind can't consciously observe that kind of thing. Just doesn't have the capacity. But don't fret puny human, this is exactly where the might and magic of Autechre comes from.

LP5 in particular is probably their best work in making that magic happen without completely alienating the listener from the experience altogether. Later works like Confield and Quaristice ended up being so cerebral that anyone with two sober feet on the ground would be turned away at the gates of dissonance, and earlier stuff such as Tri Repetae and Amber, while great pieces of work by themselves, simply don't have the balls that LP5 has. And so in my mind it currently sits as the summit of two methodical sides of a mountain. After a day.

Next to the rest of music, it's some of the most psychotic, intelligent stuff there is.

And when compared head to head to another certain IDM flagship, Boards of Canada aren't even that good.

- Seginustemple

Top tracks - Arch Carrier, Rae, Drane2



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