Home > Indianapolis Music > CD Review > Autechre, 'Quaristice'

Backstory: Sean Booth and Rob Brown were raised in Manchester, England on a diet of electro and hip-hop imports, an important but loose thread through a 15-year career as one of electronic music’s leaders in micro-genre bending. These two studio wizards offer both the randomized and the deliberate in a far-ranging palette of tempos and moods.

Why you should care: Autechre (fans still argue over the pronunciation; we favor something like aww teck kur) continues to push the envelope after nine albums in the game.

Verdict: Since both song titles—indecipherable tags like “Fol 3” and “fwzE”—and structures are pretty meaningless, “Quaristice” is best taken as a multi-faceted whole. For a group noted for glorious outbursts of abrasive, rhythmically challenged noise, Autechre offers a bunch of gorgeous ambient moments here (“Altibzz,” “Palalel Suns”). The closest the album gets to dancefloor readiness is with the acid thump of “90101-51-1” and the even tweakier “chenc9,” but the latter would throw off orderly DJs after it dissolves midway into some sort of chopped and screwed slow jam.

X-Factor: Autechre appreciates the beauty of the physical format in this digital age; limited edition copies of “Quaristice” come with a photo-etched steel case.

Add a comment