Autechre
Untilted

Year 2005: Autechre is back. Two years after "Draft 7.30," an undisputed masterpiece that, more than any of their other works, synthesized the post "Tri Repetae++" innovations of the group's sound, the two sound-manipulating geniuses Sean Booth and Rob Brown return to the scene with "Untilted" (Warp, 2005), the eighth album in a career spanning over a decade that has given us essential works for the evolution of electronic music in the past decade, such as "Incunabula," "Amber," and the epic and already mentioned "Tri Repetae++".

"Untilted" is undoubtedly an album that is difficult to define; throughout its eight tracks, it attempts to fuse the modern experimentalism of "Draft 7.30" with the ambient-techno and IDM of the early days. "Aiming towards the future, but with a glance at the past," this is the phrase that the Manchester duo seems to state, and after two years of work, the result can be considered almost fully achieved.
The first part of the album is the one that aligns most closely with the experimentation of recent years, where harsh rhythmic fragmentations, imperceptible rustles, and dark and unsettling reverberations reign supreme in tracks like the opening "Lcc," "Ipacial Section," and the gripping "Augmatic Disport." However, the miracle of the previous work is not repeated, and although excellent, Autechre's cerebral sound research seems to have reached a dead end.
Continuing on this path risks definitively losing the allure of their beginnings, crossing into a musical laboratory that is refined and intriguing, but ultimately self-serving.
And then, here comes the unexpected turning point. In the second part of the album, the sounds that had projected Brown and Booth into the electronic music hall of fame return, with regular beats and atmospheres more suited to the intelligent-techno of the past, making pieces like the magnificent "Iera," the single "Fermium," and the engaging "The Trees" shine.
This is the best moment of "Untilted," culminating in the final and infinite "Sublimit," where old and new come together to form an admirable intensity. It's as if the entire career of Autechre unfolds in 15 minutes, a progressive deviant hypnosis that spills into the final minutes of the composition, where the beats become increasingly irregular and schizoid, the atmosphere more rarefied, for what could be considered a worthy conclusion to a journey that lasted over 14 years. Autechre, ultimately, hit the mark once again, and they do so with an ambitious and successful album that, while positioning itself a notch below the epochal "Draft 7.30," will satisfy everyone, from last-minute fans to nostalgic old ones, in a unique and unrepeatable flow that only the English band manages to create.
Approved, once again.