Song Review: Autechre - R Ess

Many artists follow all the classic pop music rules and recipes to get into the favor of the masses. Others just do what they like, and some, like Autechre seem to do only things that go against those rules and recipes.

R Ess, the first track of their newest album Oversteps for instance, starts with a fade in of almost 1:30. Once the melodic synthesizer part is at its peak volume it is time for the beats to slowly fade in as well.

On the left ear we hear the direct sound of the synthesizer, while the rest of the sonic panorama is covered in an ocean of reverberation as the muffled kick drum and crispy snare come in at the center. Towards the end of the track we are treated to some extra low frequencies, it is hard to really call it a bass line.

Compared to some other, rather complex Autechre songs it is quite easy to nod your head to the beat of R Ess, while enjoying the pitch shifting synth tones, even though some snare drums will not be where you expect them to be.

Autechre’s Oversteps is the first album I bought online in a higher-than-CD-audio quality: 24bit/44.1kHz at bleep.com. I really think as storage and bandwidth capacity increase, online music stores like the iTunes store should at least offer an option to buy uncompressed, or at least lossless formats.

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Song review: Ben Frost - Híbakúsja

It is time for something new. Every now and then I would like to write a review of a song. Not a whole album, just one song. In these reviews I will focus on the feeling those songs give as opposed to rating them for their quality, so you could say they will be very subjective.

For one person a certain sound might be completely annoying while for another the same sound might bring back beautiful childhood memories. I hope you will enjoy reading my reviews, and they will make you curious of what it will sound like and what images it will bring up in your own mind. We start off with Híbakúsja by Ben Frost: 

A strange, modified piano starts playing a sequence while the brass section blows haunting tones over the repeating notes. Dark winds surround the stage as something takes over the melodic elements. After a while I realize it might be a huge double bass as I recognize the rambling of the strings when they are played too loud. But instead of a gentle jazz combo this sounds more like a massive sea monster playing the moorings of the ships in a harbor.

The texture of the sounds is beautiful and round unlike the digitally distorted sounds Frost tends to use a lot - and yes, we hear those later on in Híbakúsja as well, hard panned left and right. While this is all happening the monster keeps breathing and hissing and only loosens its grip about a minute and a half before the end of the song, when a quiet string section lays down its soft tones in the background and the rattling comes to an end. 

Híbakúsja is the fourth track on Ben Frosts latest album By the Throat.