a journal update

Saw Autechre last night at the showbox. I’ve been listening to some of their older stuff for quite some time, but only recently have I been exposed to some of the newer recordings. It seemed to me as though they’re taking quite the atonal and disjointed path, but it’s tricky…

I’ve noticed a trend that I like very much in some electronica these days, and that is to get away repetitive downbeats; to mix it up quite a bit. Not breakbeat, per se, cause that’s almost as predictable as everything else. It’s more like little offsets that are inserted before a beat… maybe just a sixteenth note in duration; sometimes triplets. So you get these offsets cranking in such a way that you maybe only actually land on a downbeat once every 4 (5, 7?) measures. Then on top of that these little offsets are scattered throughout the length of your rhythm, perhaps in predictable locations but with always changing values.

This kind of music isn’t immediately easy to listen to. Last night I found myself having to work quite a bit to figure out what they were doing, where the emphasis was, and where the rhythmic undulations were going. As a result, once I finally did fall into a grove (which it seemed that most people didn’t ever find, judging from the number of bodies moving and shaking), I appreciated it that much more.

Oh, and they both had g4 laptops, and the apple logo was really bright :)

In other news, I’m basically settled at my new / temporary digs… I’m quite happy with it, actually… Behold: