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Draft 7.30
[Warp/PIAS]
Listening to an Autechre record is always an intense and incomparable pleasure as much for the mind as for all the senses. Despite their six albums and eight EPs, each new journey in their sound universe always brings about the same wonder while remaining a particularly difficult exercise. Indeed, Sean Booth and Rob Brown, the two members of the Manchester-based duo, can be especially obtuse at time, often taking a vicious pleasure in steering their electronic windings in always unexpected, unforeseeable directions. Xylin Room, the track opening the album, is the perfect example. It rebounds thrice, taking each time a totally different direction. If IV VV IV VV VIII seems insurmountable, 6IE.CR, at the opposite, is almost bombastic. The track is a crescendo and appears to be the more "logical" (to us, not them) of the album. The magnificent Reniform Pulse, Surripere or Theme of Sudden Roundabout, P.:NTIL or the almost danceable (!) V-Proc provide other pleasurable moments, endless and always renewed experiences shared by the duo. But the enumeration of the tracks is difficult because each of them is made of numerous elements which appear to be incompatible at first. If this album has more relief than "Cornfield", which might be their hardest to grasp, some of the tracks are still particularly difficult but will be unravelled after several auditions which are always necessary to perfectly get Autechre's works. If it seems they will never attain again the madness and clarity of "Gantz Graf", Autechre tirelessly carries on imprinting the history of electronic music, and once again "Draft 7.30" will establish itself to the next generation as a new measurement unit without the slightest clue as to its essence, like a brand new device without a user guide.
Christophe Labussière |
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