Autechre

The music on Quaristice manages to make Autechre's complex sound designs feel simpler than before, which of course is an art itself. With a selection of tracks that sound like an album made on deep reflection, the whole album is kept exciting through the sheer range of music and ideas. It's a more generous album than more recent albums by them, more playfull, with shorter tracks. At times tracks contain recognizable forms from electronic music's past, especially the pre 90's hip hop, electro and house that Autechre talk about as being the formative music of their youth, but these elements have all been made to adhere to the groups hands on approach to music making. On the surface tracks seem stripped down, but the subtlety of the production comes across in the same instance. Surprisingly given it's Autechre, who have been known for some of the most extreme music on Warp in the past, it's got moments of utter beauty, in a way Autechre hasn't really shown before, it's melodic and impressionistic, more open and very engaging more so on repeated listening.