Autechre -- SIGN: Review

Autechre -- SIGN

[Warp Records]

SIGN is a lovely addition to the Autechre catalog. Even though it definitely breaks from Autechre’s form as of late, it still offers a very visual experience with a consistent tone that ties it together like no other album in their catalog. Similar sounds of these enormous ambient synths are worked into nearly every track and keep a consistent image of cold colors and desolate geometric patterns.

Over the last few years, Autechre have been broadly expanding the scale and sound of their music. With esleq 1-5 in 2016, Autechre broadened the scope with their IDM, allowing themselves a 4 and a half hour long runtime to experiment and paint larger-than-life portraits in their music. And on their second newest release NTS Sessions 1-4, they kicked up the scale even higher with 8 hours of unrelenting experimentation featuring some of the duo’s most creative and foreign sounds yet.

But with SIGN, Autechre turned in the opposite direction. As opposed to making the next record even longer with wider sounds and deeper experimentation, SIGN is a return to album form, being more organized and consistent than any record they’ve released as of late. The album very concretely has consistent themes and colors that exist throughout various songs in the album.

SIGN feels like a case study on beams of light. The rhythms and grooves take a backseat to the lead synths that exist as the main stars of each song. The wide size of these synths are like buzzing neon lights in a desolate urban metropolis that flash in the dark like droplets or water rippling waves in a quiet pond. The consistent tone of the record gave me the feel of claustrophobia in industrialism and the suffocation of life from the ever growing force of technology.

Now let me say that this is purely my interpretation. Every listener experiences Autechre differently. Your interpretation of the oblique synths and abstract rhythms can vary for various reasons from time of day and weather to your own emotions at the time. What you might interpret as a moddy, intense score to emotional contemplation I might interpret as an abstract club banger. While SIGN made me playback images of Blade Runner and cyberpunk in my mind, you might see it completely differently.

“M4 Lema” is a brutal dive straight into the unique sounds of this record as the song opens with diverse otherworldly synths combusting and deflating sporadically in no specific pattern. As the sharp edges and smooth ambient synths continuously build, a subtle beat comes in around the three minute mark to hold your hand as you go deeper into the world of SIGN. This song is like a portal that works as a cold open to the record, setting the stage for the unique colors and shapes of the record to come.

“F7” feels like the true opening track as it shows Autechre really focusing on flashy synths to make a colorful opening into the long run of the record. While the actual opener is almost like an overture of all the sounds to come, “F7” begins the adventure with these jutting oblong synths bleeping in and out, never sounding the same twice. It’s simple ‘a-a-b’ chord progression provides a blank canvas for the Autechre boys to flex the most colorful sounds they’ve been developing since their last release.

“si00” is led by these wobbly synths that sound like water droplets, skipping over this small kickbeat and this distant bass synth that oscillates louder and louder over the whole track. The slow progression of the tension and mood of this sound make it feel like the building of conflict within a scene that climaxes and dissipates just at the end.

“esc desc” features one of the most icy but lush instrumentals on the whole record. The song is an unrelenting journey into an icy world of sharp edgy synths that bubble and dissipate like glowing stalagmites in an ethereal cave. Unlike the two earlier tracks, the melody of this song feels much more distant and is painting a background rather than following a story.

“au14” is much kinetic then its preceding track that follows this punchy rhythm that plays under fluttering glitchy synths.

“Metaz form8” is one of the most ethereal tracks on the album playing with this subtly dynamic wiry synth and wavy piano keys that ring around it. I close my eyes when listening to this track and it whisks me away into this world, blending into a mixture of exposed dark neon lights in a turbulent city. “gr4” is a shifting collage of sounds made out of buzzing synths in the forefront and kaleidoscopic arpeggios in the background.

“The red a” is a looping set of heavily filtered chords that plays back over and over, constantly shifting and changing color. Sean and Rob’s subtle manipulation is cerebral and strings together the whole affair like living breathing work of art.

“psin AM” feels like the approach to the climax of the record as we are confronted again with a simple chord progression that bounces, marching with anticipation. The climax approaches in “r cazt” which feels like a contemplative song of revelation. The instrumental shifts through various stages between walls of warping synths, ambient organs, and jingling chimes that paint the richest landscape on the record.

While Autechre sounds no less abstract than ever, SIGN is their most tonally consistent record in years, focusing on themes, colors, and sounds to make one of the most visual records of the year.

RIYL: Aphex Twin, Squarepusher

Listen To: “F7”, “psin AM”, “au14”