Quaristice

Autechre are a British electronic music duo consisting of members Rob Brown and Sean Booth. The duo's debut album, Incunabula, would release in 1993 through Warp and saw positive reviews from critics. In later albums such as Confield and Draft 7.30, the duo's music became more experimental, utilising software such as Max to produce generative music. After the conclusion of the Untilted tour, Booth moved from Suffolk to Manchester. This saw him and Brown working more portably, making significant use of laptops and gear used during their live performances. Gradually, the two moved into creating music during longer studio jam sessions, which led to the production of tracks that would make up Quaristice. == Production ==

The tracks that make up Quaristice were constructed from extended jam sessions. Brown and Booth would do two hour-long jam sessions per day. It would take the duo six months to edit these sessions down into six or eight minute tracks, before further reducing them. The track "Tankakern" makes use of a Roland TR-606 Drumatix. The track "fol3" consists of audio recorded on a AKG 1000 microphone, which was processed with a custom patch before being cut up. "Steels" was created using the MPC1000 and "some secret techniques". == Music ==

Quaristice has been described as electronic, Opening track "Altibzz" was described as a beatless ambient piece made up of "pretty analog synthesizer washes". "plyPhon" has "stuttering kick drums" and focuses on both ambience and rhythm. "SonDEremawe" contains "nervous ghost-in-the-machine drone". "Tankakern" is made up of a "dizzying industrial throb" with "heavy-breathing percussion" and "keyboard squiggles". "rale" was described as a "Drexciya-worthy pitch-black neo-electro" track with a "towering beat" and "acid riff". "Fol3" was described as a "complex arrangement of textures" and consists of an "overwhelming assault of white noise bursts" "fwzE" was described as a "taut [piece] of robotic clanker-funk" in a piece for The Quietus. One critic described "90101-5l-l" as "future electro-shock". "bnc Castl" is made up of hi-hats and snares that are "tucked deeply into the mix". "Theswere" contains radio buzz, a simple melody and "plaintive pastoral drones". "WNSN" contains groaning tonal clusters that are "overwhelmed by their own strength". "chenc9" is a "hyper techno" track with hip-hop influences and "tense click beats". Peter Chambers of Resident Advisor said that the track was reminiscent to that of Aphex Twin. "Notwo" is a "moody" track composed of "looping distorted key drones". Closing track "Outh9X" is a lengthier track with a "steady electronic pulse" and an "extended ambient coda". == Artwork ==

The artwork for Quaristice was created by The Designers Republic. They would work together again in 2008 for Quaristice, with tDR noting Autechre's music became "harder, more abrasive, less human than before". Booth stated "the idea was to be type based, neat and producty" and that their brief was "really, really specific". The design was originally inspired by disk defragmentation graphics, specifically from Norton's Disk Tools. tDR stated the squares lack any meaning, other than "to suggest no meaning at all". The colours used for Quaristice reference old consumer technology user guides. James Burton, who handled production at Warp, found a manufacturer that was able to laser-cut into steel, so tDr "re-imagined the physicality of the design as a "techno" metal box" for the deluxe 2xCD edition. == Release ==

Quaristice was originally scheduled for release on 3 March 2008; however, it was made available for download on 29 January. In reference to releasing physical versions of the album, Booth said "the actual product is the FLAC file – but I don't object to those who want to own something that they can hold." The album entered the UK Dance Album Chart at No. 6 for two weeks, Included was a second CD of alternate versions of eleven tracks from the original Quaristice titled Quaristice (Versions). Eventually, these tracks were combined and released as Quaristice.Quadrange.ep.ae. The collection is 150 minutes long, with the tracks being exclusively released as digital files. The decision to release Quadrange digitally came after Booth and Brown produced "Perlence subrange 6-36", an hour-long track that would have filled an entire CD, feeling it would be unfair to charge listeners for a single track of that length. David Abravanel of PopMatters called Quadrange "a simmering exploration of Autechre at their most spacious, and further demonstration of the diversity and profundity of their sound". == Critical reception ==

Quaristice received generally positive reviews. At Metacritic, which aggregates scores from mainstream critics, Quaristice has an average score of 71 based on 22 reviews, indicating generally favourable reviews. In a review for The Guardian, Pascal Wyse said that while Quaristice had "plenty of ingenuity and microscopic beauty across its 20 tracks", it was limited by "its own twitchy algorithms". Erik Gundel of PopMatters said it would take time for listeners to understand the album and that it "demonstrates Autechre's ability to pop in every few years with a firm grasp on the present state of electronic music and a strong sense of the compositional". Writing for The New York Times, Nate Chinen noted how "each track heeds a particular design" and that most tracks consisted of "variable synthetic twitchiness". Charles Ubaghs of Drowned in Sound said that although the album seemed like a "collection of sketches than complete works" at face value, continued listening showed a "welcome abundance of ideas being explored and experimented with over and over again". In a piece for DIY, Richard Bendall-Jones criticised the lack of continuation throughout Quaristice and called its "stop-start" approach "irritating and elusive". ==Track listing==

Credits adapted from the liner notes. • Rob Brown – production • Sean Booth – production • Noel Summerville – mastering • The Designers Republic – design == Charts ==