Ep 7
Thick fractals of bloops, blips, flutterings, and kerrangs are combined onEP 7, Autechre's least textural, most rabidly experimental release yet. At this point, Autechre's music pretty much exists within its own, idiosyncratic subgenre of the experimental techno subgenre. Their music invites hyperbole rather than external comparison: one could easily imagine that the discordant bleeps of track 4 are the sound of R2D2 flipping out on angel dust or that one segment of track 9 captures the demon baby fromIt's Alivedevouring a microphone. While some tracks approach sublime chaos--where a dense, hard-to-grasp internal order is revealed after multiple listens--most of the pieces are perfectly content to resemble indecipherable alien transmissions.EP 7's 60 abstract, knotty minutes will clear most any dance floor but, by sheer force, cleanse the brain of all but the most primitive functions. It's fabulous.--Mike McGonigal