Autechre, affectionately referred to by their fans as “Ae”, are set to release their seventh album, Draft 7.30 today. To celebrate and entice (or repel, depending on your tolerence for non-repetitive beats) Warp Records has put up three clips from the album (in RealPlayer format only, alas!). Unfortunately clips do no justice for music of this sort; it’s not as if you can get a memorable hook out of Ae, or a rousing chorus, for that matter¹. In fact, listening to Ae is much more rewarding when listening through headphones; otherwise, you will miss the most interesting aspects of their craft if you try to listen to their CDs as if they were soundtracks for the morning commute or cleaning the house.²

Here are my impressions regarding the clips:

• “Surripere” sounds subtle and menacing—alternate music for some of the more tense moments in Manhunter or Se7en. I look forward to hearing this track in its entirety.
• “P.:Intl” is broken hip-hop with an amazing chunky bassline and a funky periodic fuzztone attack. I only wish I had a low-riding pickup truck replete with ground FX and bass bins to blast this out of. In a parallel universe, this track might be the backing music to an advert for a new edgy SUV which panders to the more selfish aspects of grown-up Generation Xers everywhere. All that notwithstanding, I like this track, mainly because in writing about it I got to use the phrase “chunky bassline”, and what’s not to love about that?
• “6IE.CR” is, well, you know, Autechre. It could be from any of their recent albums. And what’s up with this track title? 6IE.CR? 6-IE-CR? Sexy cur? Umm, yeah…only Booth/Brown know for sure. Verdict: fairly standard Ae fare.

Feel free to listen, then comment and leave your own impressions, even if you agree with the Independent, whose use of 50-cent words (“bricolage!”, “tempi!”), can’t disguse their view of the record, which is that it’s boring rubbish.