Tri RePOLLtae -- Autechre :: Tri Repetae :: LP3

looolll, I saw that article and thought the same thing

I remember reading a review claiming there was something 'hidden' in the front cover if you stared at it long enough, any truth to that? I sure as hell don't see it.

that reviewer was likely on the same acid as Booth and Brown were while recording these beats

that guardian link was in the first comment of one of the articles linked above.

I'm an obsessional Ae fan but I literally never listen to this album or Incunabula. Every track repeats a single idea, pretty much. Also that colour is very like the "positional" colour we used to put in place of photographs yet to be scanned when doing layout in the 90s.

I remember exactly where I was when I first heard tracks off this record. It had just been released and I was in the basent of a "Cybercafe".

Here, to be precise.

*basement

Also makes me imagine that "Eutow" is Brown-era Orbital if they happened to be on Warp.

― Ou sont les cankles d'antan? (Leee), Monday, November 1, 2010 9:00 PM (seven years ago) Bookmark Flag Post Permalink

lol i had this exact thought while listening to “clipper” just now

Back in the nascent IDM heyday of emerging apps and Artificial Intelligence comps, "Clipper" was the first Autechre track to really catch my ear, making me a fan for life.

Garbagemx36 is the best track

when i saw them live they threw in a snippet of second bad vilbel

the show gave my ex a migraine

i thought it was okay but christ are these guys shit at track names

Could have been worse, they might have called that one Glossop (twinned with Bad Vilbel).

https://m.youtube.com/watch?v=OJuvZUsKoQ0

just curious does anyone else find this album incredibly harsh on the ears? if I listen at a decent volume my head will be buzzing for an hour after. other Ae albums don't do that.

it used to be my go-to and the one I recommended to people first, for some reason. but someone on ILX pointed out what you pointed out to me, and for some reason it never occurred to me. but you're right.

Idk I’m having a hard time understanding how this is less harsh than almost everything that came after !

sounds great, btw

the 2nd to last track does have some high pitched tones that verge on the painful

maybe … turn it down?

This record I find exhausting because many of the tracks loop a single idea for much longer than it remains interesting. I just shut it off in frustration.

at the same time, it's got Clipper.

i don’t mean to make any assumptions about your age, matttkkkk, but i’ve definitely heard that as a common criticism of 90s electronic music (including trip hop, etc) from young ppl.

i think it’s a fair criticism, and i’m tempted to feel lucky that i “experienced it as it” (it being my youth, i mean the 90s electronic music scene “was happening” (getting into yawnsome ok boomer territory)

but this is probably completely wrongheaded because i also remember a “day 1” allmusic writer telling me in 97 (this anecdote predates his tenure at the site) that he couldn’t stand depth charge (j saul kane) because “the loops just go nowhere”. in the same conversation he told me he was happy with cichlisuite (new at the time) because he could finally listen to autechre without getting bored. he also told me richard devine and phoenicia were better than autechre because their tracks “developed more”, so obviously not all his opinions aged well (he was an early otto von schirach booster, lol)

that got garbled, meant to write

i “experienced it” (it being my youth, i mean the 90s electronic music scene) “as it was happening” …

thank you tlg, but I'm 52! Tri Rep was the first Ae album I got into heavily (at time of release), so it may be that I burned out. But I am very much up for their long, repetitive mood pieces (like that Perlence subrange one, all end, t1a1, yulquen etc.). I love Amber and I love Chiastic, heck I even love the EPs that bracket Tri Rep, but the album itself grates on me.

Idk I’m having a hard time understanding how this is less harsh than almost everything that came after !

― lets hear some blues on those synths (brimstead), Friday, December 9, 2022 4:57 PM (four hours ago) bookmarkflaglink

part of it is just the tones they use on this album. the squealing that comes out of "Leteral" and in the background of "Overand". that nails-on-ice clinky rhythm on "Stud". but I think the production as a whole uses a lot of harsh noises. don't know enough about technical stuff to extrapolate but some knob needed a twist

quite a lot of idm from that time was exploring skronky. parts of tri repetae (specific percussive textures, i guess) remind me of a lot of ventolin, disjecta, that 2nd mu ziq album, etc. maybe the post-rock connection? you want a headache, try listening to labradford’s lfo remix at high volume!

skronky vibes*

I still think RDJ is an asshole for Ventolin

I'm listening to Chiastic now and despite having a pretty similar sound palette it doesn't hurt my ears the way Tri Rep does. idk it's just mastered different or something

young ppl.

lol like the high pitched sounds they supposedly play in stores to shoo away teens.

many of the tracks loop a single idea for much longer than it remains interesting

I always thought they made it as some kind of experiment in repetition, because of the title too.

just curious does anyone else find this album incredibly harsh on the ears?

Yes! It's horribly mixed when compared to their other albums. Completely lacking in bass and lower mids. It relentlessly pummels a lot of 8khz frequencies at you, honestly the vinyl version is the only way I can listen to it, which seems to soften some of its harshness.

I've been wanting this, Chiastic, Anvil Vapre and Envane to be remastered (perhaps with updated mixes), but I'm guessing that's not going to happen.

While some of the best tracks of their entire oeuvre, they're easily the worst mixes.

This album sounds great, what are you on about. Will never get bored of any of it

yeah I don't hear what the problem is either, maybe it's my headphones?

see I have the recent Tri Rep/Chaistic reissues (dunno if they were remastered at all or not) and imo the Chiastic one sounds incredible, really thick and clanky the way it ought to be. TR doesn't sound bad but I think you're right about the lack of bass and mids. I know this is an extreme example but there's an album called Nattens Magridal by Ulver which is just straight up raw lo-fi black metal and it's like shrapnel on the ears. even if I listen to it quietly my ears will ring for a while after. the only thing that mitigates it is the new mix which inserts a tiny bit of bass back into the mix.

also starting to realize that some people just don't find this stuff bothersome - I remember reading a bunch of reviews for this album and being stunned that none of them mentioned how irritating those really high frequencies on "Stud" are

Yeah there's huge differences between headphone and speaker frequency ranges. It shouldn't ever be strictly necessary, but just EQ when something is bugging you.

Between different speakers and headphones I mean

*frequency responses. lol dammit

I love early Autechre but the late great's allmusic friend was right about Cichlisuite. I feel like that was the great leap forward moment for them, where the beats suddenly gained a ton of depth/complexity. Tri Rep definitely has harsher sonics than most of their other early stuff but it's never bothered me.

I never EQ because I know I’ll forget to change it back #stoner

“depth/complexity”

not going to say anything in particular, but not going to let this one slip by without saying anything!

This album definitely has a grinding mechanical quality to it that I hear as more combative and less melodious than those on either side of it.

Lol Nattens Madrigal otm. This is definitely their "black metal" album. Ooh, now you've got me thinking about Ulver and Autechre following similar discographic trajectories... Interesting

They could probably make a sick New Wave album yeah

Another thing that I dislike about a lot of Anvil Vapre and Tri Rep's mixing - it feels very flat and lacking depth, like a low quality recording or a rough punk 45. Might be part of its charm for many, but not me.

Much like what has been said above about Cichlisuite, I believe this is when they really honed in their sound and improved the quality of their mixes immensely. The only record prior I would say is mixed with quality and depth is their debut, which had some additional hands in the production process that their later releases would lack.

Going by Discogs, the debut had a mastering credit (Geoff Pesche) and from LP5 onwards everything has been mastered by Frank Arkwright. Perhaps they did their own in between (Amber, Tri, Chiastic) and this album suffers most. LP5 is absolutely lush compared to the preceding stuff and it’s all sounded great to me since then.

oops I forgot Noel Summerville who has done much more of their recent stuff than Arkwright, and also did the vinyl reissues of the earlier albums

I can't say I really hear a flatness in the mastering/mixing on this album. There are some quite tough frequencies - lots of very high pitched grinding sounds - that lend it a gritty industrial edge.

Anyway, I'm reviving this here because I'm DJing at Glastonbury and I really want to slip in some Autechre as a curveball.

What Ae track would you put in an eclectic (but dancey) festival DJ set? I was sort of thinking Eutow

we r are why? play weisensee against im gluck?

latentcall if you want to push the envelope a bit.