At press time, there seem to be two predominant attitudes about Autechre. The first is that they're one of the brightest, most consistently interesting outfits in IDM, and records like EP7 or LP5 define the present state of electronic dance music. The other is that Autechre's overly clinical approach puts them in grave danger of running their busy-beat shtick into the ground. 2001's Confield, despite its mention as one of Pitchfork's 20 best albums of last year, practically defined what it means to get mixed reviews. You could almost split its audience down the middle into those who were down with the avant-trip, and those who found it unengaging and devoid of visceral emotion. I like the album, but even I would admit that emotion isn't the first thing that comes to mind when listening to it.
So when you're not sure whether you've stimulated or alienated your audience, what do you do? In Autechre's case, they've gone back to basics. The music on their freshly released five-inch, three-song EP, Gantz Graf, finds them revisiting the 'D' in IDM, as they have to varying extents on just about every release prior to Confield. Does that mean they were listening to their detractors last year? Or does it mean that they simply had some groove left in their brains after so much abstraction? Who knows? Maybe they were just dicking around in the studio and felt like releasing an EP.
Gantz Graf's opener and title track wastes very little time hitting you with over-the-top beats and a distorted mix. There's a punchy melody comprised of successive synth jabs and some of the usual glitch trickery. But this track will immediately catch the ears of folks expecting more random chin-stroking music, as during its first half it features actual recognizable beats. Even the overdriven production can't obscure the clear rhythm. Of course, about a minute into the tune the beat begins to disintegrate, leaving only the melody to twinkle in the gaping void. Then, a while later, even that gets consumed by the twitching computer noise, and by the track's end, Autechre have locked us back inside their signature confusion and manic drill-glitch.
"Dial" is the most straightforward song of the three, with a fast bounce-beat featuring some goofy organ patches and that snappy, Autechre-patented vacuum-pop rhythm track. If this song has any place in the canon of a band who were said to have sold their souls to the chaos theory devil with Confield, I don't know where it is, what with its similarity to 80s new wave quirk. It's a bit on the speedy side, otherwise you might even consider dancing to it. And deep in the mix lie some very treated vocals, though I can't decipher whether they're saying anything or just getting chopped up for the sake of filling out the arrangement. But at a runtime of just over six minutes, this is probably the closest the duo has come to straight club music since 1997's Chiastic Slide.
The final track is the epic "cap.iv," which finds the sound only slightly more abstract-- at least at first. The tempo is similar to that of "Dial," though the beats are considerably more cluttered due to what sounds like a couple of competing electro-figures running concurrently. A straightforward piano line and an announcer who sounds stuck in a cavernous airport terminal play beneath the chattering percussion, adding a subtle but affecting texture. The track makes the Autechre strategy plain: lay an attractive backdrop behind restless, seemingly chaotic (emphasis on 'seemingly') blips and clicks. The backdrop here, however, is somewhat prettier than usual, and I wonder whether the beat that obscures it was only placed in front to appease fans of the tried-and-true Autechre way. As the track wears on, the intruding rhythms grow progressively louder and busier, and a good nine minutes later have utterly overwhelmed the other elements.
The videos offered on Gantz Graf's additional 5" DVD disc-- including a revamped version of an older video by renowned Aphex director Chris Cunningham-- are of only marginal interest to fans, as they're no less abstract than the music. Chances are, you'll watch them once and shelve them indefinitely. And as for the music, nothing here should come as a surprise if you've been paying attention to Autechre's recent releases, unless you expected them to go even further out than Confield. My guess is that these tracks are just cool-downs from that album, or possibly warm-ups for the next, because other than the refinement of ideas they've already realized, there isn't much new to report.
