EP7

by

Autechre

Edit

the cover art for this album is probably the most strikingly appropriate I've encountered for any album since ok computer. It depicts an alien, mechanical, vaguely threatening but overall unclear form that seems to be wriggling into existence spontaneously (i.e., constructing itself rather than being birthed). The mixed feelings of awe, curiosity, and uneasiness that I feel when looking at this picture are a good summary for the feelings that EP7 evokes in the listener.

Ultimately, what autechre seems to be doing with this album is somehow reinventing the utterly stale and banal "techno-dystopian-future" schtick that's been done for the last decade or so by scores of mediocre electronic artists. The trick here I think is that they do it by completely omitting the human element. In short, this is an album that gets you inside the head of the machine.

This makes for a rough first couple listens, especially if you're not familiar with autechre's other stuff. Some tracks, such as "left blank," appear to have nothing going on in them whatsoever beyond scrapes, clicks, and occasional rushes of air. But as one reviewer wrote of a different autechre work, there's an epiphany to be had, lurking in this album-- and I think the listener's changing feelings towards "left blank" are a microcosm of this epiphany. At some point, after two, three, or several listens, the track just *pops out* at you, like a 3D magic-eye drawing -- and suddenly right before you, there's a mad cyclone of jagged, clipped bits of beats.. like being in a sandstorm, only with tiny fragments of glass and silicon, and no less punishing.

If such descriptions strike you as insane, don't worry... they are. But give this album enough listens to get under your skin, and I guarantee you one day you'll find yourself grasping about for your own metaphors to enclose, capture, and name the experiences this album evokes.

I'd be curious to hear what you come up with.