deep cuts Thanks so much for turning me on to this music. I’ve been trying to understand experimental electronic music, but needed a transition from the rave scene of the 90’s (last electronic I was really into, though I like bands who’ve “gone electronic”... since then) and glitchy, experimental stuff. In the middle of Chiastic Slide now. I think I found my bridge. Thanks.
The NTS Sessions represents perhaps a more intimate, unedited glimpse into Autechre's work process. If the various scraps of interviews they've conducted over the years are any indication, most of their albums consist of highly edited, short-form versions of longer pieces. Their music has simply evolved to a point where trying to prune their output down into relatively manageable 5-10 minutes chunks was becoming harder to do. Their algorithms are essentially creating music where time is an almost meaningless concept and things like start and end points are artificial obstructions. I'd go as far to say that Autechre's music is four-dimensional, but ultimately has to exist in our more limited three-dimensional universe and thus concessions have to be made to accommodate it. We're essentially being offered a more accurate snapshot of what Autechre IS. A 70-minute album split into a dozen chunks gives us SOME insight into what an artist has been doing for the past few years, but is it enough? Do we trust the curation process? Are those the best 70 minutes, a representative 70 minutes, or some sort of median average of the sounds they explored during that time? The NTS Sessions allow us to do our own curation, as if they're saying "okay, we took the best 20 minutes of work from each week of last year, now it's up to you to find your own meaning within all of that" rather than have us merely experience the 70 minutes that Warp Records decided we needed to hear. It requires a lot more work from the listener, but we end up with a more affecting personal experience from having done so.
Old comment but you made me think of something, how cool would it be if they set up a server of some kind and plugged their algorithms into it. Autchere songs constantly revolving and developing without a time limit sounds like a great idea
@@arms7260 it is not an algorithm per se doing all songs... each song an algorithm acustomed for the song. The lazy untalented wants some kind of magical tool to create interesting music, but robots are tools not composers. For a robot reggaeton, techno, classical is the same emotionless 0-1s.
I'm surprised noone has mentioned this, but the beat switch that comes about 9.5-10 minutes into tt1pd sounds like a straight up modern dancefloor banger. Honestly, I think you could mix 1 or 2 minutes of this section into an EDC or Ultra Music Festival DJ set and people would go nuts. Of course, this is autechre, so they spend the next 10 minutes of the track evolving this beat into chaos, but I still thought it was a really cool addition. It's easy to forget sometimes that Autechre come from the early days of electronic dance music, and that beat switch almost feels like them paying some respect to the modern bass music scene.
Thank you very much for this video. Here in France, it is the intellectual desert. No magazine talks about the work of Autechre ... Everyone masturbates on Courntey Barnett ... So internet is very useful. Essential for not having the unpleasant feeling of living on a desert island! I start listening to NTS, this last monolith, but Autechre is so avant-garde that I'm always late. For example, I listen and rediscover Untilted ... Exaï too, that I took years to integrate. I have not mastered Elseq yet ... I remain amazed by the number 1 but I can not open to all. I agree that "tt1pd" is one of their most powerful compositions. This creates a kind of stylistic link with "pendulu hv moda" (Elseq 1) and "irlite (get 0)" (Exaï) which are for me works that have the scope of the most cosmic improvisations of John Coltrane or Miles Davis in its darkest electrical period ...
Really enjoyed this. Your appreciation of the beauty and dynamic emotions of it was really apparent and was touching to me. Autechre's music I feel hits on a wider variety of emotions that much music doesn't really attempt to examine or touch on, far beyond the ideas of happy or sad or any other emotional or stylistic conventions. Not to criticize other music but to praise Autechre's deep artistic grasp. Their work really speaks to me in raw, emotional ways that are hard to describe, but are present everywhere in life and is wonderful to see reflected so interestingly in music through Autechre. Hope that doesn't sound like a fluffed up statement but rather an appreciation for their willingness and ability to explore and express some of the most beautiful parts of things, things that are too rarely expressed. Things that are just beyond the usual grasp of common emotional description, but among the most powerful feelings.
thank you for this in-depth, track-by-track walkthrough. It's always nice to hear someone elses thoughts on AEs music. I'd agree that tt1pd is one of the best tracks they've ever made
hey there, are you planning on doing a guide on boards of canada? they're relatively easy to get into, but there is a lot of cool trivia and info about them and their music, which i believe is worth sharing on a guide. amazing video as always, cheers!
I particularly enjoyed the drip-drip release of each 2-hour session over a few weeks. Have played it relentlessly ever since, but great to have it put into words. Thanks for this. I would love an hour or so dedicated to Richard H Kirk's immense output btw
wow major props for this video, I don't know if I'd personally have the patience for 8 straight hours of these guys. (I mean, I made it through 4 with elseq and still came away enjoying most of it, but idk, I just saw the length of this project and thought "nope, no thanks". may have to actually give it a shot at some point) I also really like your point comparing their stuff more to ambient music, becoming so much less about the individual elements and more about the grand scale of things. really interesting way of looking at their stuff
I find NTS Sessions 1-4 to be significantly more digestible, accessible & more fully-realized than elseq. Odd to see that you of all people would give this release a pass, I think you should definitely give it a listen and release a video on your thoughts! =)
The Wonky Angle Somehow this album doesn’t sound as long as it is. Please try. However, admittedly it does require trying. Some tracks are challenging and don’t immediately reveal themselves.
Just tune into the livestream whenever you get a moment or want to put something on in the background. It'll plop you down somewhere in the middle of the 8 hours (depending on how you're listening) and you can get little glimpses here and there ... maybe eventually it'll whet your appetite for more. www.nts.live/projects/autechre-nts-residency/
Love the entire release, but here's my (ever-changing) top 10 tracks: 1. glos ceramic 2. violvoic 3. xflood 4. tt1pd 5. gonk steady one 6. all end 7. elyc9 7hres 8. icari 9. gonk tuf hi 10. north spiral Shout-outs: e0, t1a1, clustro casual, nineFLY, dummy casual pt2, six of eight (midst), splesh, fLh, frane casual, four of seven, carefree counter dronal (basically all other tracks :p)
Was in Thailand when these sessions dropped and downloaded each session as they were released. Listening to such groundbreaking stuff in a foreign land was awesome. Having come back home to the UK, having pre-ordered the box set, I still keep on emersing myself in this. Best thing they have done. Best sessions 2 & 3 in my opinion but 1 & 4 have such amazing stuff in as well.
Brilliant! Props for being able to wrap your head around this singularly monolithic beast of a release. Not only that but being able to put it into words. Excellent work. Excellent release. I've listened to it 4 times all the way through (returning to specific songs occasionally) and I still feel like I'm just scratching the surface. How many listens did you give it before this review?
I love NTS 4 so much. It is very much like the rest of the album was some kind of trajectory in space and by All End you are speeding off into an infinite abyss. Cathartic stuff.
I've always liked Autechre but never took the time with whole albums. I listened to the four albums over 2 sessions and I was amazed. I've never heard anything like it, wonderful music. If I want to listen to certain tracks I feel like I need to listen to the preceding tracks. I thought I knew about sub bass but I knew nothing. Thank you for making these videos.
These session are the best thing they have ever done (I have been listening since Incunabula). I can't begin to say what my favourite track is but: North Spiral, Four of Seven, Xflood, Vioviol, e0, Splesh, tt1pd, Icari, mirrage, Column 13....
Really insightful and detailed analysis, man! You just earned a subscriber. My only complaint about NTS Sessions 1-4 is that the length feels a bit forced at times. Most tracks could be half their length or even less and still maintain the same complexity, depth and impact. Still, it's one hell of an insane project.
fantastic breakdown man. this release absolutely deserves this kind of attention and discussion and you were just the guy for the job. a truly special release from some serious pioneers of sound. really does make the last few releases seem like an almost awkward transition towards the sonic achievement that is NTS. appreciate the work you put into this. always nice to have thoughts on such a dense piece of work crystallized by someone else
I pretty much agree 100% nts sessions 1-4 is probably my favorite release by them of the post 2000 autechre music.. And the sound on xflood you described as a person whistling I hear as an old squeaky swingset....
As someone who's also been trying to make sense of this record for a while [deviantart.com/shaunathanbleach/gallery/67646401/The-NTS-Sessions] , you've done a great job of really listing out the highlights. I'd go ahead an agree that Column Thirteen is perhaps the most mind-breaking track on the record, and that either sessions 2 or 3 are the best, but "best" is so subjective here that it's hard to figure out. Keep doing what you do!
YES, please do more breakdowns! I just really wish I knew where I could get ahold of this. It’s not on Spotify, I cannot afford to buy it, all the vids of it on UA-cam that I can find are pitched/altered in some way. So, yeah, it’s cool to hear about this. It sounds amazing, and I love Autechre, but who knows when I’ll be able to hear it... Do breakdowns, though! This is really cool! ✌🏼🙏🏼
Nikola Demitri it's still streaming on a loop at nts.live/projects/autechre-nts-session you wont be able to tell where it's at but if you have it on for 8 hrs you will hear all of it
I've listened to everything a few times now and my opinions are definitely still evolving, so it's a little embarrassing to write about it knowing that I'll probably feel totally different by the time I listen through it again. At this very moment I'd say NTS 1 works best for me overall, but I like the first half of NTS 2 the most of any single hour. The run of xflood through violvoic just kills me every time. But maybe that's because it's the part I've managed to wrap my head around the best so far (since the earlier sessions have been out longer). That said, I agree that the whole thing is very cohesive and progresses beautifully to the end. It's all great. So ... at the moment, my favorite tracks would be 1. gonk tuf hi (kicks so much ass. 5:28 is my favorite single moment of the whole 8 hours.) 2. dummy casual pt2 (disarmingly playful) 3. 32a_reflected (beautiful) 4. g 1 e 1 (one of many impressive expansions on AE_LIVE material) 5. nineFly (so very weird) 6. icari (that long ending groove is really infectious) 7. four of seven (one of their most accessible tracks but no less great for it) 8. violvoic (like flicking gigantic stiff springs jutting out of wooden boards) 9. xflood (ligeti choir in a borg cube) 10. tt1pd (the second half is downright evil)
Dude! love your videos. Been a fan of autechre for a while now. Theyre one of the artists who got me into sound design/synthesizers, etc.. You should do a video showing of your listening set up! Id love to know what speakers, amp, sub, headphones etc... that you use! keep it up ^-^ much love from Indiana.
I agree with your sentiment that the sheer magnitude of the project will turn off reviewers since this would ruin any sort of time to dollars comparison. I know Fantano didn't review Elseq because of that very reason but I think that this record deserves any and all praise we can give it. I'm in love with it but I have to admit that I buy whole hog into the self indulgence of Autechre. Their glitchy and enigmatic style of music enraptures me every time I hear something new from them and the further down this rabbit hole they go the further I want to follow them.
Just starting listening to these now finally and tbh was pretty underwhelmed by NTS 1 until "l3 ctrl" came on. That track is absolutely massive, it kinda makes me understand why they see so much in this often-noodley "live improv" style they've been pursuing since elseq. There's no other way to make a track that mind-blowing, sprawling, and full of pure surprise without letting their generative software run its course. I actually fell asleep listening to NTS 1 then that track woke me up in a sea of delightful (literally) hypnagogic hallucinations, maybe that experience has biased me but I'll take it.
I would love for you to breakdown Miles Davis' fusion era records (particularly the live albums). Like Autechre his music of that era consists of longer tracks that morph and shift over their time span. I see similarities between what Miles did then to what AE did with NTS.
haha!!!! 27:35 -when you say whether their next release will be "an hour long, or 16 hours long"...damn near spit out my beer LAUGHING...because yeaH, so true so true!!! and of course, as you say "bleeding hell autechre, BRING IT ON"!
I love this format, it would be great for exploring Zappa, Miles Davis, or any other artists with too many albums to do a full guide to without barely discussing their best albums. I think it would also be great for discussing classical composers.
THANKS MAN...GREETS FROM THE NEDERLAND...I LOVE AUTHECHRE … NTS IS FROM A NOTHER PLANET...WHAT A SOUND...SICK.....ITS A NEW LEVEL OFF ELECTRONIC MUSIC....SOOOOOO F C ING NICE....THANKS MAN..!!!!!!! .PEACE FOR ALL YOURE...……. authechre lovers..
It scared me too, but the music is such that "time flies." 20 minutes long tracks feel 8 minutes long. A culmination of what Rob and Sean have been doing from the start. Release of the year.
Love that autechre made something that feels daunting to their fans again. I remember thinking I absolutely couldn't handle Confield but it's my favorite now. Currently can't handle NTS but who knows what the future brings!
The same thought crossed my mind. They have had a wonderfully productive period, elseq and NTS and all the live material (I do recommend getting the 24bit WAV formats - amazing on a good hi-fi). It will be interesting to see if SIGN is a condensation of all that research or represents a new direction.
everything you said about this album is exactly what ive been looking for in music. im gonna get high as fuck and listen to this. ive known about it but this video is gonna get me to listen to it. i always knew autechre was the forefront of sound
"six of eight (midst)" is my top music from all NTS sessions reminds me "Oversteps". NTS sessions are not one of my favorite Autechre releases, some tracks are too long, but at least they've released it in physical formats .
Oliver can you please explain the process of breaking down this project? Like, did you listen to a song, write down your thoughts and move on to the next track? Or do you listen to the whole project and listen to it again and again until you're familiar and have formed an opinion on each track and part of the project?
tt1pd is currently my favourite NTS track. It's for me about the destruction of mankind. Hieronymus Bosch paintings in mind. All End serves as a post destruction theme. Aliens cruising over the destroyed earth. We had a good time at r/ae and WATMM. 2018 is the most remarkable Ae year beside the one when there was the WATMM Ae/AMA hype. Ae fanboy since Artificial Intelligence 1. In the year 2100, they will still sound fresh.
Haha yeah, I'm 46. Don't like Cavity Job... Very likely the by far vast majority have heard of them on AI 1 for the first time. Well, after the glorious era of Acid House (Baby Ford awesomeness) and then some XL recordings and The Prodigy WARP came as a game changer. LFO, Rdj, Ae. Incunabula was an enlightenment for me. Always loved Ae most. Just not so much @Quaristice era. LFO soon went out of ideas and so did RDJ after Windowlicker. Or it was just not for me. But Ae are always... fresh.
Tortuosit of Tapiola Could not agree more! RDJ as clever as he is, has never really evolved beyond his acid house stuff. Its good, but Ae is the daddy!
Tired Moon YES! Would love an AnCo guide! I wasn’t wild about their last full length, but my god, that band was such an important part of my early-mid 20s, the soundtrack to my psychedelic youth, really. I still don’t really know any other “indie” band who have gotten so close to making their music sound like what psychedelic drugs feel like, if that makes sense.. Great idea, though, hopefully Olly would be down for it! 🙏🏼✌🏼
Tired Moon Indeed, everything they released from 2003-2012 was great imo, and I include “Person Pitch” in with their peak, despite it being a Noah solo effort. They’re clearly past their peak, and I’d be surprised if they ever released another album that completely blows me away, but as long as their future albums are better than “Painting With” I’ll be happy. Nothing they do is ever going to top that perfect one/two punch of “For Reverend Green” to “Fireworks”, but that’s ok. ✌🏼
My personal favorite song of the album is shimripl casual. I originally liked tt1pd more but shimripl casual grew on me. I like it mainly for the nervous and unsettling vibe it gives off throughout. It would work perfectly for some sort of haunted forest.
I'm massively in love with Autechre, I listen to them very often, their earlier work especially, just earlier today I was listening to the Garbage LP while studying. I didn't get around listening the NTS sessions because I felt they deserved a special moment of reverence. To let myself get fully immersed in the music. So these months I'm just unearthing UKG gems. I don't seem to find the time to listen to them for two hours straight. Thanks for the video, I'm now going to try to at least start song by song. This turned into a blog, sorry. How did you get around to listening to these massive pieces of work Oliver? one album at a time? I feel like these sessions were created for a specific listening experience; one sitting at a time, 4 sittings.
My guide to AUTECHRE - ua-cam.com/video/ea3FP5NqUqM/v-deo.html
deep cuts Thanks so much for turning me on to this music. I’ve been trying to understand experimental electronic music, but needed a transition from the rave scene of the 90’s (last electronic I was really into, though I like bands who’ve “gone electronic”... since then) and glitchy, experimental stuff. In the middle of Chiastic Slide now. I think I found my bridge. Thanks.
Find a girl who loves you like Oliver loves Autechre
Kanye: “Imma make short albums the new thing.”
Autechre: “Lol that’s cute.”
Autechre live-streamed new albums they produced every week for 4 weeks before it was cool.
might as well just come out and say the nts sessions are the absolute peak of music
Rob and Sean the type of lads to make a 2 hour EP and an 8 hour LP
The NTS Sessions represents perhaps a more intimate, unedited glimpse into Autechre's work process. If the various scraps of interviews they've conducted over the years are any indication, most of their albums consist of highly edited, short-form versions of longer pieces. Their music has simply evolved to a point where trying to prune their output down into relatively manageable 5-10 minutes chunks was becoming harder to do. Their algorithms are essentially creating music where time is an almost meaningless concept and things like start and end points are artificial obstructions. I'd go as far to say that Autechre's music is four-dimensional, but ultimately has to exist in our more limited three-dimensional universe and thus concessions have to be made to accommodate it.
We're essentially being offered a more accurate snapshot of what Autechre IS. A 70-minute album split into a dozen chunks gives us SOME insight into what an artist has been doing for the past few years, but is it enough? Do we trust the curation process? Are those the best 70 minutes, a representative 70 minutes, or some sort of median average of the sounds they explored during that time? The NTS Sessions allow us to do our own curation, as if they're saying "okay, we took the best 20 minutes of work from each week of last year, now it's up to you to find your own meaning within all of that" rather than have us merely experience the 70 minutes that Warp Records decided we needed to hear. It requires a lot more work from the listener, but we end up with a more affecting personal experience from having done so.
Old comment but you made me think of something, how cool would it be if they set up a server of some kind and plugged their algorithms into it. Autchere songs constantly revolving and developing without a time limit sounds like a great idea
old comment but made me
think of cork sniffers being a dying breed...
@@arms7260 it is not an algorithm per se doing all songs... each song an algorithm acustomed for the song. The lazy untalented wants some kind of magical tool to create interesting music, but robots are tools not composers. For a robot reggaeton, techno, classical is the same
emotionless 0-1s.
@@totopolo2379 😂
"all end" is like the soundtrack of heaven. great for sleep and meditation.
I'm surprised noone has mentioned this, but the beat switch that comes about 9.5-10 minutes into tt1pd sounds like a straight up modern dancefloor banger. Honestly, I think you could mix 1 or 2 minutes of this section into an EDC or Ultra Music Festival DJ set and people would go nuts. Of course, this is autechre, so they spend the next 10 minutes of the track evolving this beat into chaos, but I still thought it was a really cool addition. It's easy to forget sometimes that Autechre come from the early days of electronic dance music, and that beat switch almost feels like them paying some respect to the modern bass music scene.
Thank you very much for this video. Here in France, it is the intellectual desert. No magazine talks about the work of Autechre ... Everyone masturbates on Courntey Barnett ... So internet is very useful. Essential for not having the unpleasant feeling of living on a desert island! I start listening to NTS, this last monolith, but Autechre is so avant-garde that I'm always late. For example, I listen and rediscover Untilted ... Exaï too, that I took years to integrate. I have not mastered Elseq yet ... I remain amazed by the number 1 but I can not open to all. I agree that "tt1pd" is one of their most powerful compositions. This creates a kind of stylistic link with "pendulu hv moda" (Elseq 1) and "irlite (get 0)" (Exaï) which are for me works that have the scope of the most cosmic improvisations of John Coltrane or Miles Davis in its darkest electrical period ...
How can I get in contact with Courntey Barnett?
Really enjoyed this. Your appreciation of the beauty and dynamic emotions of it was really apparent and was touching to me. Autechre's music I feel hits on a wider variety of emotions that much music doesn't really attempt to examine or touch on, far beyond the ideas of happy or sad or any other emotional or stylistic conventions. Not to criticize other music but to praise Autechre's deep artistic grasp. Their work really speaks to me in raw, emotional ways that are hard to describe, but are present everywhere in life and is wonderful to see reflected so interestingly in music through Autechre. Hope that doesn't sound like a fluffed up statement but rather an appreciation for their willingness and ability to explore and express some of the most beautiful parts of things, things that are too rarely expressed. Things that are just beyond the usual grasp of common emotional description, but among the most powerful feelings.
thank you for this in-depth, track-by-track walkthrough. It's always nice to hear someone elses thoughts on AEs music. I'd agree that tt1pd is one of the best tracks they've ever made
hey there, are you planning on doing a guide on boards of canada? they're relatively easy to get into, but there is a lot of cool trivia and info about them and their music, which i believe is worth sharing on a guide. amazing video as always, cheers!
from what i understand guides are for long discographies, BoC doesnt have much released
@@sen-te8oq But they have so much substance within each release, that you could make a similar length guide as this one for them
Twoism😊
Maybe, since it's being remastered soon, you could do an in-depth breakdown of Soundtracks For the Blind?
This is a great idea!
Yes! I would love this
Yes please.
Yes. I remember listening to this album for the first time, I was shaken.
I would be down to hear you break down Miles' fusion records. And a Zappa breakdown would be great too.
Miles - Zappa - Autechre : the 3 gods.
Agreed! When I heard the examples of breakdown possibilities offered I was like "uh, yes please!"
I particularly enjoyed the drip-drip release of each 2-hour session over a few weeks. Have played it relentlessly ever since, but great to have it put into words. Thanks for this.
I would love an hour or so dedicated to Richard H Kirk's immense output btw
Those are some large droplets you described there
wow major props for this video, I don't know if I'd personally have the patience for 8 straight hours of these guys. (I mean, I made it through 4 with elseq and still came away enjoying most of it, but idk, I just saw the length of this project and thought "nope, no thanks". may have to actually give it a shot at some point)
I also really like your point comparing their stuff more to ambient music, becoming so much less about the individual elements and more about the grand scale of things. really interesting way of looking at their stuff
I find NTS Sessions 1-4 to be significantly more digestible, accessible & more fully-realized than elseq. Odd to see that you of all people would give this release a pass, I think you should definitely give it a listen and release a video on your thoughts! =)
I also think it's more digestible. There are even quite a few tracks on there that wouldn't be out of place in a club.
Not listening to NTS will be the biggest mistake of your life.
The Wonky Angle Somehow this album doesn’t sound as long as it is. Please try. However, admittedly it does require trying. Some tracks are challenging and don’t immediately reveal themselves.
Just tune into the livestream whenever you get a moment or want to put something on in the background. It'll plop you down somewhere in the middle of the 8 hours (depending on how you're listening) and you can get little glimpses here and there ... maybe eventually it'll whet your appetite for more.
www.nts.live/projects/autechre-nts-residency/
that was a great breakdown of the most mindblowing release of the year
Love the entire release, but here's my (ever-changing) top 10 tracks:
1. glos ceramic
2. violvoic
3. xflood
4. tt1pd
5. gonk steady one
6. all end
7. elyc9 7hres
8. icari
9. gonk tuf hi
10. north spiral
Shout-outs: e0, t1a1, clustro casual, nineFLY, dummy casual pt2, six of eight (midst), splesh, fLh, frane casual, four of seven, carefree counter dronal (basically all other tracks :p)
I'd have to agree. both gonk's, xflood, violvoic and all end have got to be on anyone's list. some of the strongest tracks they've released to date
bruh l3 ctrl though...
icari is such gold
Rob&Sean continue to move forward 👍
@@frederickgunther6609 yeah gonk steady one prob my fav from NTS 1, all other tracks are bangers too tho
NTS has been added to Spotify. Its been on loop during my dark rainy drives to work. Its incredible.
Was in Thailand when these sessions dropped and downloaded each session as they were released. Listening to such groundbreaking stuff in a foreign land was awesome.
Having come back home to the UK, having pre-ordered the box set, I still keep on emersing myself in this.
Best thing they have done. Best sessions 2 & 3 in my opinion but 1 & 4 have such amazing stuff in as well.
Brilliant! Props for being able to wrap your head around this singularly monolithic beast of a release. Not only that but being able to put it into words. Excellent work. Excellent release. I've listened to it 4 times all the way through (returning to specific songs occasionally) and I still feel like I'm just scratching the surface. How many listens did you give it before this review?
Haha yes! playing it after another 4times,I might end up wanting to go tagging!!?
An absolute brilliant review to an amazing album. I wouldn't know where to start!
brilliant stuff as always Oliver, I've really been LOVING this release/album/work/opus/thing
Your track descriptions are incredibly good!
I love NTS 4 so much. It is very much like the rest of the album was some kind of trajectory in space and by All End you are speeding off into an infinite abyss. Cathartic stuff.
what do you actually think of the interlude "sinistrailAB air"? i find it super interesting that it ends in that organic flute sound
I've always liked Autechre but never took the time with whole albums. I listened to the four albums over 2 sessions and I was amazed. I've never heard anything like it, wonderful music. If I want to listen to certain tracks I feel like I need to listen to the preceding tracks. I thought I knew about sub bass but I knew nothing. Thank you for making these videos.
These session are the best thing they have ever done (I have been listening since Incunabula). I can't begin to say what my favourite track is but: North Spiral, Four of Seven, Xflood, Vioviol, e0, Splesh, tt1pd, Icari, mirrage, Column 13....
Really insightful and detailed analysis, man! You just earned a subscriber.
My only complaint about NTS Sessions 1-4 is that the length feels a bit forced at times. Most tracks could be half their length or even less and still maintain the same complexity, depth and impact. Still, it's one hell of an insane project.
Voshchronos yeah
I love the lengths, it allows you to dip further & further into the layered sonic liquids.
fantastic breakdown man. this release absolutely deserves this kind of attention and discussion and you were just the guy for the job. a truly special release from some serious pioneers of sound. really does make the last few releases seem like an almost awkward transition towards the sonic achievement that is NTS. appreciate the work you put into this. always nice to have thoughts on such a dense piece of work crystallized by someone else
Love the ae content! Also, a exploration into Zappa's amazing work of Joe's Garage would be funny and interesting journey.
I pretty much agree 100% nts sessions 1-4 is probably my favorite release by them of the post 2000 autechre music.. And the sound on xflood you described as a person whistling I hear as an old squeaky swingset....
Yesss, been looking forward to this
As someone who's also been trying to make sense of this record for a while [deviantart.com/shaunathanbleach/gallery/67646401/The-NTS-Sessions] , you've done a great job of really listing out the highlights. I'd go ahead an agree that Column Thirteen is perhaps the most mind-breaking track on the record, and that either sessions 2 or 3 are the best, but "best" is so subjective here that it's hard to figure out. Keep doing what you do!
YES, please do more breakdowns! I just really wish I knew where I could get ahold of this. It’s not on Spotify, I cannot afford to buy it, all the vids of it on UA-cam that I can find are pitched/altered in some way. So, yeah, it’s cool to hear about this. It sounds amazing, and I love Autechre, but who knows when I’ll be able to hear it... Do breakdowns, though! This is really cool! ✌🏼🙏🏼
Nikola Demitri it's still streaming on a loop at nts.live/projects/autechre-nts-session you wont be able to tell where it's at but if you have it on for 8 hrs you will hear all of it
Alex Tripp Thanks, man! ✌🏼
it's on spotify now!
Hezamac1 thank you!!!!
I've listened to everything a few times now and my opinions are definitely still evolving, so it's a little embarrassing to write about it knowing that I'll probably feel totally different by the time I listen through it again. At this very moment I'd say NTS 1 works best for me overall, but I like the first half of NTS 2 the most of any single hour. The run of xflood through violvoic just kills me every time. But maybe that's because it's the part I've managed to wrap my head around the best so far (since the earlier sessions have been out longer).
That said, I agree that the whole thing is very cohesive and progresses beautifully to the end. It's all great.
So ... at the moment, my favorite tracks would be
1. gonk tuf hi (kicks so much ass. 5:28 is my favorite single moment of the whole 8 hours.)
2. dummy casual pt2 (disarmingly playful)
3. 32a_reflected (beautiful)
4. g 1 e 1 (one of many impressive expansions on AE_LIVE material)
5. nineFly (so very weird)
6. icari (that long ending groove is really infectious)
7. four of seven (one of their most accessible tracks but no less great for it)
8. violvoic (like flicking gigantic stiff springs jutting out of wooden boards)
9. xflood (ligeti choir in a borg cube)
10. tt1pd (the second half is downright evil)
I am so excited by this release...it sounds like its a summary of everything they have done. Roll on the box set!
Excelent as always.
Cheers from Argentina!
Of course it will become a new series! Keep the vids coming Oliver
I really appreciate your efforts giving us a review.
Dude! love your videos. Been a fan of autechre for a while now. Theyre one of the artists who got me into sound design/synthesizers, etc..
You should do a video showing of your listening set up! Id love to know what speakers, amp, sub, headphones etc... that you use!
keep it up ^-^
much love from Indiana.
I agree with your sentiment that the sheer magnitude of the project will turn off reviewers since this would ruin any sort of time to dollars comparison. I know Fantano didn't review Elseq because of that very reason but I think that this record deserves any and all praise we can give it. I'm in love with it but I have to admit that I buy whole hog into the self indulgence of Autechre. Their glitchy and enigmatic style of music enraptures me every time I hear something new from them and the further down this rabbit hole they go the further I want to follow them.
Have you done a video on the headphones/speakers you use? I'd be interested in that
Me too!
in the thumbnail it looks like he’s using sennheiser hd 280 pros
Good spot!
Just starting listening to these now finally and tbh was pretty underwhelmed by NTS 1 until "l3 ctrl" came on. That track is absolutely massive, it kinda makes me understand why they see so much in this often-noodley "live improv" style they've been pursuing since elseq. There's no other way to make a track that mind-blowing, sprawling, and full of pure surprise without letting their generative software run its course. I actually fell asleep listening to NTS 1 then that track woke me up in a sea of delightful (literally) hypnagogic hallucinations, maybe that experience has biased me but I'll take it.
I would love for you to breakdown Miles Davis' fusion era records (particularly the live albums). Like Autechre his music of that era consists of longer tracks that morph and shift over their time span. I see similarities between what Miles did then to what AE did with NTS.
You should do a review of BoC.
444 yes! 🤩
I'd watch that, to be honest.
But why is an Autechre track, of all things, saying this?
haha!!!! 27:35 -when you say whether their next release will be "an hour long, or 16 hours long"...damn near spit out my beer LAUGHING...because yeaH, so true so true!!! and of course, as you say "bleeding hell autechre, BRING IT ON"!
I love this format, it would be great for exploring Zappa, Miles Davis, or any other artists with too many albums to do a full guide to without barely discussing their best albums. I think it would also be great for discussing classical composers.
Awesome video. Gonk Steady One - the Gonk in question is a sample from an old Star Wars droid!!
holy shit I need to make a date for these sessions
Finally made it through these sessions. My favorite tracks are "north spiral", "xflood", "violvoic" (my favorite overall), "tt1pd" and "all end".
THANKS MAN...GREETS FROM THE NEDERLAND...I LOVE AUTHECHRE … NTS IS FROM A NOTHER PLANET...WHAT A SOUND...SICK.....ITS A NEW LEVEL OFF ELECTRONIC MUSIC....SOOOOOO F C ING NICE....THANKS MAN..!!!!!!!
.PEACE FOR ALL YOURE...……. authechre lovers..
Can you do a breakdown of The Caretaker's Everything at the end of time series when it's finished? It's a really interesting series of albums
I love Autechre but even this one overwhelms and scares me. I still haven't listened to it in full.
Life-changing. Take the plunge man.
It scared me too, but the music is such that "time flies." 20 minutes long tracks feel 8 minutes long. A culmination of what Rob and Sean have been doing from the start. Release of the year.
Love that autechre made something that feels daunting to their fans again. I remember thinking I absolutely couldn't handle Confield but it's my favorite now. Currently can't handle NTS but who knows what the future brings!
Do it! It's a monument.
I recommend casual listening while falling asleep for starters. It has great subconscious potential.
The same thought crossed my mind. They have had a wonderfully productive period, elseq and NTS and all the live material (I do recommend getting the 24bit WAV formats - amazing on a good hi-fi). It will be interesting to see if SIGN is a condensation of all that research or represents a new direction.
Dude I just want to say your channel and videos are fucking awesome
everything you said about this album is exactly what ive been looking for in music. im gonna get high as fuck and listen to this. ive known about it but this video is gonna get me to listen to it. i always knew autechre was the forefront of sound
NTS 1-4 is to Autechre as Daughter Of Darkness is to Natural Snow Buildings(one of my favourites ever)
Hey man, would you consider making a 5 Albums to Get You Into JUNGLE video?
That's cool u like it,like your comments,wow,I've met so many haters, they would rather play,we will,we will rock you! autechre murders that song.
dummy casual pt2 is probably my favorite song here.
edit: five months later, it’s now shimripl casual
"six of eight (midst)" is my top music from all NTS sessions reminds me "Oversteps". NTS sessions are not one of my favorite Autechre releases, some tracks are too long, but at least they've released it in physical formats .
I'd pay a few nickels to see the challenge of a guide to R. Stevie Moore completed.
Oliver can you please explain the process of breaking down this project? Like, did you listen to a song, write down your thoughts and move on to the next track? Or do you listen to the whole project and listen to it again and again until you're familiar and have formed an opinion on each track and part of the project?
dude wants a breaking it down of the breaking it down
@@peking.o im still waiting for an answer
tt1pd is currently my favourite NTS track. It's for me about the destruction of mankind. Hieronymus Bosch paintings in mind. All End serves as a post destruction theme. Aliens cruising over the destroyed earth.
We had a good time at r/ae and WATMM.
2018 is the most remarkable Ae year beside the one when there was the WATMM Ae/AMA hype.
Ae fanboy since Artificial Intelligence 1. In the year 2100, they will still sound fresh.
Wow, you were there at the beginning! (Or almost-I wonder if there are any Cavity Job fans out there.)
Haha yeah, I'm 46. Don't like Cavity Job... Very likely the by far vast majority have heard of them on AI 1 for the first time.
Well, after the glorious era of Acid House (Baby Ford awesomeness) and then some XL recordings and The Prodigy WARP came as a game changer. LFO, Rdj, Ae. Incunabula was an enlightenment for me. Always loved Ae most. Just not so much @Quaristice era.
LFO soon went out of ideas and so did RDJ after Windowlicker. Or it was just not for me. But Ae are always... fresh.
I'm a relative new bro...I only came in around the Anti EP! Hee hee
Tortuosit of Tapiola
Could not agree more! RDJ as clever as he is, has never really evolved beyond his acid house stuff. Its good, but Ae is the daddy!
Love the series! Thank you!
Hey Oliver I love your channel dude. Can you do a 5 albums to get into Screamo video or a Post Hardcore one?
I've gotten through 1 and 2 so far. Brilliant, the range is incredible so far.
I've just got to Elseq 3 and it's taken me 2 years to get that far. Their music is good enough to re-listen to every one ov their records.
On their AE bleepstore website
Guide to animal collective? Also the breakdown series is a fantastic idea
Tired Moon YES! Would love an AnCo guide! I wasn’t wild about their last full length, but my god, that band was such an important part of my early-mid 20s, the soundtrack to my psychedelic youth, really. I still don’t really know any other “indie” band who have gotten so close to making their music sound like what psychedelic drugs feel like, if that makes sense.. Great idea, though, hopefully Olly would be down for it! 🙏🏼✌🏼
Nikola Demitri Yeah painting with was meh but they have at least 5 beloved albums that are all unique.
A breakdown specifically on Geologist's head bobbing would be much appreaciated.
Tired Moon Indeed, everything they released from 2003-2012 was great imo, and I include “Person Pitch” in with their peak, despite it being a Noah solo effort. They’re clearly past their peak, and I’d be surprised if they ever released another album that completely blows me away, but as long as their future albums are better than “Painting With” I’ll be happy. Nothing they do is ever going to top that perfect one/two punch of “For Reverend Green” to “Fireworks”, but that’s ok. ✌🏼
WeirdElf Hahaha.. he does bob along quite a bit! 😂✌🏼
Yes, more breakdown videos please :)
5 albums to get into Glitch?
Yes, please!
You ought to check out Richard Devine
Stongly agree
Jan Jelinek - Loop-Finding-Jazz-Records
Prefuse 73 - One Word Extinguisher
Prefuse 73 - Vocal Studies + Uprock Narratives
Machinedrum - Now You Know
VA - Clicks & Cuts vol. 1 (Mille Plateaux, 2000)
Oval - 94 Diskont
Maybe Velocity : Design : Comfort by Sweet Trip
I really like this format and I would like see a Brockhampton break down but I'd put that off because of recent issues in the band.
My personal favorite song of the album is shimripl casual. I originally liked tt1pd more but shimripl casual grew on me. I like it mainly for the nervous and unsettling vibe it gives off throughout. It would work perfectly for some sort of haunted forest.
nice video, i like the format!
Do you think you'll do a Matthew Herbert guide in the future?
Do the miles davis breakdown! Would you do like 1959-1969?
Great video. How about some listen links?
Well described review cheers
GONK TUF HI is a total banger
I come to this video after feeling dumb for not liking the 1 HOUR DRONE OF ONE SINGLE CHORD from "all end" in Session #4, I hope this enlightens me.
Carefree counter dronal is just the end ov Latentcall turned into a whole trak
Yeees I was waiting for this!
I pre-ordered the box set and am still itching with anticipation
I snagged it with a friend and am also beyond excited for it's release. Maybe the only large box set I'll ever spring that much cash on.
Nate Vice i am the friend who snagged it with him. my nuts are filled and waiting
Greate Job!
I'm massively in love with Autechre, I listen to them very often, their earlier work especially, just earlier today I was listening to the Garbage LP while studying. I didn't get around listening the NTS sessions because I felt they deserved a special moment of reverence. To let myself get fully immersed in the music. So these months I'm just unearthing UKG gems.
I don't seem to find the time to listen to them for two hours straight. Thanks for the video, I'm now going to try to at least start song by song. This turned into a blog, sorry.
How did you get around to listening to these massive pieces of work Oliver? one album at a time? I feel like these sessions were created for a specific listening experience; one sitting at a time, 4 sittings.
Defeshh Most NTS tracks work fine as background music too. You can just put it on shuffle, don't have to make a big thing out of it.
Thanks, that's what I'm doing and I'm loving the sessions
All end might be my favourite Autechre track
Can you say something about your experience with autechre live?
Guide to Boards Of Canada
Autechre is the best maker of music ever, it is 2nd grade science.
Please check out their live set in Glasgow in 2005! It is pure gold!!!
Have you thought about doing a Scott Walker video?
THANK YOU! ❤️
carefree counter dronal is so fucking beautiful
t1a1, clustro casual, column 13 , north spiral, vivolic and tt1pd are my favorites
Evolving synthesis is pretty beatific especially when it's texture based.
What are your thoughts on SIGN and PLUS?
awesome vid m8
There should be a compilation of British people saying the phrase "absolute banger".
A 'gonk' is a daft cuddly toy creature from the 70's btw. A bit like a plushy is this days.