This is a review of elseq 1–5 which I initially published on RateYourMusic back in October of 2022. Now that I am distancing myself from the site and trying to focus on my own little corner here, I thought it’d be fitting to carry over the reviews which I held in a higher personal regard, with this one being the obvious first one to tackle (partly due to the ongoing honeymoon period of the recently-released new live set batches of AE_Live 2022－ and elseq being one of my all-time favorite releases of anything, period.
With that introductory preamble out of the way, here’s the elseq 1–5 review, including some minor corrections and edits which I felt were necessary.
There was a period of time when I was freshly exposed to the world of Warp IDM greats like Aphex Twin and Boards of Canada, and while I was enamored by their discographies and eagerly curious to delve deeper, Autechre was one of those groups that I just didn’t…get. Quaristice in particular kept appearing in my YouTube recommendations, and despite really liking the beautiful opening trackAltibzz and some select tracks from their earlier releases, not much made “sense” to me. That was until elseq 1–5 released in 2016 and I heard it heavily talked about in various communities I was into at the time. About how it didn’t have a physical release, how it compared to their previous album, Exai, but more than anything it was the 4 hour length which became the primary talking point.
On a quick note regarding the length before I dive into the actual music, I understand the fascination with the size of this thing from the perspective of an outsider looking in. My only complaint about this is the fact that the length was far more discussed than the music itself (at least according to my experience back when this came out). That wasn’t the case anymore until the release of NTS Sessions which had double the duration and became the next big talking point, but you get it. I think talking about release lengths should only be a fraction of the discussion instead of being the entire conversation. People shouldn’t feel intimidated to listen to a long release just because it goes well over 45 minutes or two discs and I fear this was the case with elseq; perhaps a lot of people avoided it due to the intimidation that came with the 4 hour duration, and that super sucks! You are not required to listen to these things in a single, long sitting in order to “get it” (contrary to what some RYMers may claim). Pace yourself, listen to it chunk by chunk and absorb it all slowly – this is music which rewards patience and persistence and you’ll probably come out a better person this way instead of powering through it all in a single listening session and pointlessly tiring yourself, maybe even disliking the release as a result as well. Rant over.
elseq 1
elseq (headcanon title Edited/Extended Live Sequences) starts off its first volume with feed 1 – an enormous, disorienting monstrosity which was quite the shocker to me when I first heard it. I never imagined Autechre could sound this mean and relentless, and it was at that instance where every track of theirs I considered difficult at the time seemed puny in comparison. The only proper description I can think of is “controlled chaos”.
The volume then fades into c16 deep thread where you’re met with cold, mechanical metallic slams and an ungulating, off-kilter bassline. These two elements compliment each other very well as the track moves in and out of its amusement park ride intensity, with the highlight for me being the extended bassline decay at around 1:09. The hits are sonically incredibly satisfying due to how well mixed everything is; ever since Exai, Autechre‘s production has managed to create spaces for each individual sound, making them easy to pick apart, and as a result rendering repeated listens incredibly rewarding, moreso than any other electronic act in their ballpark that I can think of.
13×0 step feels like a strangely classic IDM tune that has been chewed apart and haphazardly put back together in Autechre‘s Max/MSP machine. It sounds rather conventional in comparison to the preceding tracks and is actually very fun and catchy (in particular the melodic motif starting at 3:30).
pendulu hv moda begins incredibly wacky but then suddenly settles itself in a steady pace with its shimmering ambient pads surrounding the structure whenever they see an empty space of volume available to them. A lot of its elements have a rather performative and improvisational nature to them, in particular the solo synth which kicks in at about a minute in. The underwatery bass synth at around 7:30 sounds absurdly cool and is quite honestly one of my favorite sounds of theirs. The rest of the track slowly starts to vaporize around it as it slowly growls out of existence, leading to elseq 1‘s closing track, curvcaten.
Rather interestingly, there is no sense of “finality” to this track. It’s a dance of noisy percussion with more cold synths enveloping it, bleeping like lights in an infinitely wide server room. This track leaves me with a sense of intrigue rather than a feeling of finality (which is very true, and we’re just getting started).
elseq 2
After hearing almost all of their discography, I can confidently say that (in my opinion) elseq 2 contains some of Autechre‘s most challenging material. elyc6 0nset contorts and vaporizes in high frequency shrieks during the course of its duration which features mostly no real melodic direction for you to hold yourself onto. The panicked bubbly squeaks and blips are seemingly trying to make sense of the situation as you probably are.
chimer 1-5-1 is as conventional as this volume is going to get – the disjointed nature of the main melody combined with the phaser effect everything in this track is being fed through makes it a strangely disorienting listen despite the constant presence of an unchanging drum pattern accentuated by several clap hits not unlike what LCC from Untilted does.
c7b2 is a monstrous entity which proves to be an endurance challenge of a closer for this volume – its feral, rotary motor sounding growls are randomly juxtaposed by shrieking bursts of high frequency sounds almost as if the track itself is screaming in fear of the rotary being looming underneath most of the track.
elseq 3
The third installment begins rather somberly with eastre – a 2 chord drone is repeated over the course of 22 minutes as slow rustling that has been time stretched to hell and back, resulting in yet another dissonant layer to the track which phases in and out, almost as if the track itself is breathing in and out. It’s one of their most emotionally interesting tracks in my opinion, it strays away from what emotions can be expressed musically and has its eyes set on a feeling not unlike the one where a foreign language has the exact word to describe a particular emotion that you have no words for.
TBM2 is finally a return to something normal again – a conventional hip-hop rhythm which is rarely joined by brief flashes of some bouncy synths as if they were sunlight peering through the windows of a train moving past an assortment of architecture.
mesh cinereaL is without a doubt the highlight on this volume for me; a constantly morphing, slow tune which sounds like it is being fed through a vocoder throughout its entire duration. There’s a strangely addicting, oppressive atmosphere which also makes it one where I want to continue existing in after it ends, despite the 24 minute length – without a doubt one of Autechre‘s absolute best and most engaging long-form tracks. It’s a constantly entertaining listen which slowly develops even when it doesn’t exactly feel like it, up until the climax hits and you’re assaulted by the FM lasers as the track bursts with volume as if it were threatening you into submission.
elseq 4
While I personally do not enjoy ranking the volumes and picking favorites, I would be lying if I said that elseq 4 isn’t the volume I find myself returning to the most. It kicks off with the banger acdwn2 – with its crunchy bass synth and rigid, yet organic sounding drumming I often mistake one for the other as both of these elements compliment each other extremely well in the sound spectrum through the balance of rhythm and tonality. The track then suddenly cuts off midway through and the bassline begins to growl in a void, slowly building up both anxiety and tension until the end of the track.
The glassy synth pad of foldfree casual is slowly churned up by the glitchy beast within Autechre’s complex machine and it devolves into a glitchy, uncertain being that is topped off by feral slams of percussion, almost as if the track itself is seemingly trying to break loose and run wild at any moment.
latentcall starts off incredibly badass, especially the sequence at 2:04 onward, and then slowly dissolves into this strangely emotive piece which is led by shaky synth pads which sound like the chewed up remains of a choir.
The warping, formless shape of 7th slip is the most weirdly satisfying track in this ensemble – the sounds of what sounds like a tape machine possessed by the Max/MSP system constantly fast-forwarding and rewinding a stack of vocal samples are juxtaposed by a frail hip-hop rhythm that is desperately trying to support the entire structure which always feels like it’s on the brink of collapsing and folding in on itself.
elseq 5
The fifth installment is a rather ambient conclusion to the project. pendulu casual to me feels like the natural evolution of the 58 minute Perlence Subrange 6-36 from Quaristice.Quadrange.ep.ae, featuring a hi-hat that acts as a metronome of sorts – a clock ticking in a vast, empty space which is devoid of anything substantial besides a single synth as if it’s attempting to broadcast a signal into the ether.
spTh has a very cool bass synth which is accentuated by a resonant-like feedback that’s rendered even more ominous by the mysterious atmosphere of the whole thing, my favorite part of it being the especially auraly satisfying drums.
spaces how V flourishes in these grandiose, utterly gorgeous washes of sound which roll off in a wide slice of spacious sub-bass.
elseq‘s final track, oneum is within the context of the entire project about as perfect of a closer as one could expect – much like curvcaten, it leaves me with a feeling of intrigue and curiosity about what I’ve just listened to and that feeling is expressed within the confines of a single powerful drone. That’s a pretty good thing to achieve with so little!
elseq et al
Many people consider Tri Repetae or Confield to be Autechre‘s triumphs, which is a perfectly understandable claim. In my personal opinion, it is elseq 1-5 where they’ve truly peaked, as it is their ambition fully unchained and realized in the shape of this boundary-pushing monster of an album.* It feels like a culmination of what every previous release of theirs has been building up to. While Confield showed intelligence in its showcase of technical prowess, elseq 1-5 showed brilliance through the development and perfection of said prowess. My wish is that one day it’ll be celebrated within the electronic music community just as much as Tri Repetae and Confield are, because it damn well deserves it. elseq personally saved me from a slowly developing disinterest of electronic music and to it I owe a lot of my curiosity for sound design and music production.
* Editor’s note: While editing this within the aforementioned honeymoon period of AE_Live 2022－, I just find it absurdly impressive how they are seemingly able to keep one-upping themselves on this particular statement.
Perhaps one day I will have the courage to tackle the live set batches in a similar form…
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