Autechre
Chiastic Slide

Sean Booth and Rob Brown, better known as Autechre, are two of the greatest musical innovators of the past decade, pioneers of IDM and Ambient-Techno, as well as inspirations for a generation of producers and artists who owe much to their more than a decade-long artistic research, still in continuous ferment today.

Two years after the international success of the masterpiece "Tri Repetae" (in every respect a true watershed in the history of electronic music), our duo returns to the scene with "Chiastic Slide" (Warp Records, 1997), a work even more extreme and experimental than the previous one, marking their ultimate consecration as sacred monsters of the genre. In fact, in the twelve tracks of the album, Booth and Brown partly abandon the "groovy" and sometimes danceable atmospheres of "Tri Repetae" in favor of heavy, industrial-based sounds, always accompanied by sustained and skewed rhythms, their unmistakable trademark.

The interference of the opening "Cipater" introduces us to an ideal soundtrack for a day in the foundry, with a beat change midway and a vaguely oriental ending, while the subsequent brief interlude "Rettic AC" flows into the darkest and most chilling Ambient-Noise. "Tewe" appears more subdued but doesn't forgo dark and anguished backdrops, followed by the magnificent "Cichli" and its perfect mix of rhythmic distortions and ethereal, disorienting melodies, which would greatly influence the Boards Of Canada of "Music Has The Right To Children." The suspended "Hub," full of voids, syncopations, and silences, maximizes the ambient-industrial component of the duo's sound, while the epic and majestic progress of "Calbruc" and "Recury" intimidate and enchant at the same time, and the hypnotic "Pule" flirts with pure Trance through its repetitions. The conclusion is entrusted to the 13 minutes of the endless and delirious "Nuane," a synthesis track that brings an intense and never subdued work to a close.

Completing it all is the usual ultra-minimal and bare-bones artwork, characteristic of every new release from the Scottish Warp house group. In short, Autechre strike again, and they do so with a work challenging and not easily digestible, perhaps slightly inferior to the masterpiece "Tri Repetae," but still among the undisputed peaks of their discography, a work that, nine years after its release, still sounds powerful and current. A severely underrated record, undoubtedly deserving reevaluation. Score: 4.5