Diary of Musical Thoughts Podcast Episode 43

"Munich Mix June 2019" -- 61 minutes 

https://www.mixcloud.com/bruiserfs/munich-mix-june-2019/

I recorded this mix sixteen months ago because I wanted something new to listen to during a trip to Munich.  After returning home, I intended to fix and improve on some parts of the mix, but never did.  I finally revisited the mix after all this time and decided -- after all that waiting -- to simply post it as-is.  

There are a few blips in the middle third and I'm not sure the old school section at the end really fits but this is what we have.

The pandemic has thrown countless people off of their routine.  That is one reason why my podcasts have fallen by the wayside -- a trivial thing of little consequence in the grand scheme of things, but still something I very much enjoy doing.  

I have always said that this blog is about more than writing.  It can cover the full spectrum of whatever I am doing in music.  I recently invested in a new DJ controller, which is my first major music hardware purchase in well over a decade.  I finally decided to step up my game -- and DJing just became a lot more fun.  

This is the most significant (and time consuming) offline music-related activity that I have been doing lately.  I wish I had more time to work on my mixing skills but I do what I can.  It was time to clear out the backlog before I start posting "new era" mixes.  Stay tuned.    

Autechre, "SIGN"

Discourse among even the most devoted Autechre fans can be distorted and backwards sometimes.  When Autechre's music turns more experimental, abstract, and unconventional, technology becomes a major motivating factor in shaping the band's outlook.  The technology is there, they are the purported experts, and thus they can't help but follow through with pursuing it.  Stretching the capabilities of their equipment becomes an end unto itself, perhaps even the key purpose of making the music to begin with.  The duo become the conduits for developing a process dictated by the machines, and that's why, save for outliers like "Oversteps", they've not made anything similar to their 90's output.  

"SIGN" strongly suggests that Autechre haven't made another "Tri Repetae" because they simply haven't felt like it.  I really enjoyed the unfiltered jams in their past two albums/filedumps, but this is a refreshing about face, taking me back over twenty years to the days when Autechre albums weren't such a challenge to listen to, in one sitting or not.  They have arguably not come this close to anything on the "Anvil Vapre EP ("au14") or LP5 ("si00") or "Amber" (Metaz form 8") since those times. The Slowdive reunion album was the best of its kind because it pulled off the impossible trick of updating their signature poses to make them contemporary again which simultaneously sounding exactly like they always did.  "SIGN" certainly comes close ... and it's not even a reunion album.