Quaristice.

I do enjoy a bit of Autechre. I think you have to, if you like electronic music. Autechre immediately appeal to something in your genetic structure; occasional glimmers of faintly optimistic melody crackling like lightning around the dense clouds of thudding beats and twitchy rhythms are what geeks want to listen to. It's the Future! Or was. Y'know, at the end of the last decade.



Still, to my ears, Quaristice is the best Autechre release since LP5. Where Untilted was a challenging exercise in mathematics and rhythm, Quaristice is a breathing space. The individual tracks, now in bitesize chunks, are contemplative pieces, feeling more like hypotheses than full-blown experiments. However, some of it does sound a little too reminiscent of I Care Because You Do. The unfortunate truth about many once pioneering electronic acts is they now sound as though they're falling behind. Autechre will have to work harder than this to catch up again.

Quaristice is definitely worth investigation; it's enjoyable and rewarding, benefiting from repeated listens.