Quaristice [PA]

Performer: Autechre
Producer: Brown; Booth
Distributor: Redeye Music Distribution

Notes: Among detractors, electronic music is often criticized for wanting some undefined quality, most often related to some perception of a lack of "warmth" or "soul." The music of U.K. electronic pioneers Autechre makes no such easy concessions to what might be considered pedestrian concerns. Since the early 90s, Sean Booth and Rob Brown have been generating a parallel universe of sound--a sound that has pushed at the boundaries of musical abstraction by exploring the multiplicities and infinite variations offered by technology. On their ninth album, QUARISTICE, Autechre's technology-driven imperative is as uncompromising as ever. But rather than construct a maze of refracted, endlessly variegated sound, they choose to break up the set into shorter sonic vignettes, each delving into a specific, focused area of exploration with more subtle gradients and variation. The spectral, pulsing drones of "Altibzz," the album's opener, represents a return to the pastoral ambient electronica of the duo's second album AMBER. But the becalming textures are short-lived as the methodical clanking of snares on "The Plc" reference the more brutal corners of minimal techno, even as the swirling, elliptical synths create a drunken counterpoint. Despite all the gloriously rumpled beat programming and intricate DSP-processing, QUARISTICE is, in many ways, Autechre's most earth-bound effort, as revealed in the brightly colored, nearly baroque melodies of "Simm," perhaps the closest the duo have arrived to a pure pop moment.

Spin (p.96) - 3 stars out of 5 -- "Simultaneously melancholy and lascivious, it's pure aural pleasure. Uncut (p.83) - 4 stars out of 5 -- "[The LP] boasts a well-honed ambient edge: take the lush 'Simmm', a mugful of nanobots cogitating noisily over warm synth drones. It's their best since 1998's LP5." CMJ - "A small smattering of wild beats and spastic production add a certain surprising charm to QUARISTICE..." Mojo (Publisher) (p.104) - 4 stars out of 5 -- "[Y]ou get trademark synth lines rising once more from the still-life ambience of 'Outh9X', dazzling multiple planes of activity on 'Perlence', and some new combinations....It's a fantastic collection..." The Word (magazine) (p.100) - "[T]heir technology sounds like a natural process too; the tracks unfold with an inhuman but inexorable logic that's as satisfying as it is inexplicable." Record Collector (magazine) (p.86) - 3 stars out of 5 -- "[With] alternately transcendent and tense distorted samples, synth washes and beats..."

British electronica duo Autechre (Sean Booth and Rob Brown) grew up with the sounds of hip-hop and electro in the 1980s. Further inspired by the sounds coming out of Detroit in the early '90s, they turned out a unique UK variant on techno, more abstract and arty than their US counterparts. Over time, Autechre's sound moved further and further from their techno roots, embracing ambient music, dub, and the avant garde, always remaining squarely at the forefront of IDM ("intelligent dance music").

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