Quaristice

15年以上の時を経て、名作2タイトルが初のヴァイナル・リイシュー!
2008年以来、18年ぶりのヴァイナル・リイシュー。

"Unified" and "cohesive" would not be two of the first couple hundred words used to describe Quaristice, the first Autechre album since 2005's Untilted. The only aspect that prevents Quaristice from seeming open-ended, as a bunch of tracks splayed arbitrarily across a disc, is that it begins and ends with ambient (as in entirely beat-less) pieces; an arc might gradually become apparent, but that would only be the result of increased familiarity with the sequence of tracks. It's disparate, to say the very least, but that is not at the listener's expense. Just by glancing at the length of the track list, it's apparent the album is not standard-operating Autechre; at 73 minutes in length, most of the 20 tracks are more like vignettes, yet the ideas arrive fully formed, never appearing to be dashed off or loosely sketched. The variety of ideas is nearly imposing, the best of which include the deadened chiming and clanging of "Simmm," the stealth jitter of "Tankakern," the Drexciya-worthy pitch-black neo-electro of "Rale," and the handful of stunning and duly swarthy ambient tracks -- especially the closing 12 minutes shared by the chilling "Notwo" and "Outh9x" tandem. A couple moments, unsurprisingly, border on the inscrutable, with "Fol3" sounding like a collage of car collisions and slammed doors smeared and backmasked for nearly four minutes, and "bnc Cstl" more like a hyper-speed gag of sound effects, its high hats and snares tucked deeply into the mix. While it can take some time to get a handle on its generous stream of components, Quaristice is far from just another Autechre album. Not since LP5 has being impressed been so obviously secondary to enjoyment. ~ Andy Kellman

他を圧倒する音響空間を構築してきたオウテカ。一聴して頭で理解しようとするなら、こんなに難しい音楽もそうないと思うが、レディオヘッドやビョークといった切れ者アーティストを筆頭に、さまざまな方面に多大な影響を与えてきたのは、無意識下で引っ掛かるものをたくさん感じさせてくれるからだろうか。通算9枚目となるこの新作は、攻撃的なビートが炸裂した前作『Untilted』と比べて少しメロディアスだったり、アンビエントな要素が窺えたりして取っ付きやすくなってはいる。初期の頃に戻った感じかなとも思ったけど、よくよく聴いてみると確実にアップデートされつつ大胆に深度を増したサウンドでした。これは何だろう?と思わせる力がオウテカにはまだまだある。いったい何歩先を行っているのだろうか。
bounce (C)池田 謙司