This changes everything

Often, things are started with no destination in mind. Be it sentences or books, television shows or songs, humans have a penchant for starting something without the slightest inkling of where it could possibly end up. Typically, this leaves the project in question as little more than an ill-conceived piece of trivia, yet, every so often a hint of greatness shines through the mire of confused floundering, creating a grapple point for future projects to build upon. With his full set of NTS Sessions Autechre manages to create more than a few diamonds, though some of the project buckles under its own gargantuan weight.

The primary issue with the NTS Sessions, at least when taken as a full set, is that Autechre is not easy listening. His brand of IDM demands focus and intention. No two lines sound the same, and even when in repetitive cycles, the pitch and warble of his sounds are apt to warp and distort to create soundscapes so detailed that listeners could easily spend a month dissecting a single track. While the intent of NTS Sessions is clearly not for a listener to attach its mammoth heft all at once, those who do are apt to find themselves overwhelmed and outclassed by the inhuman machinations of the record. However, those that are willing to lose themselves within its walls are liable to achieve transcendence.

Some have taken to describing this album as “post-human” and indeed, why shouldn’t they? With its randomly generated names and equally random soundscapes, this music feels as though it was created for a future our species will never see. Though, when listened to intently, the rhythms and patterns of collapse and rebirth presented in the album stitch together in a gorgeous tapestry. Be it the angelic choir section on “xflood” or the glitch madness of “gonk steady one” there is something in each track that demands a careful dissection. Frequently that level of dissection threatens to grow tiring, but much as a dedicated astrophysicist never tires of the formulas on his chalkboard, a listener never truly finds exhaustion beneath the hulking mass of NTS Sessions 1-4. A perfect example lurks within the second portion of the project with “dummy casual pt.” After being subjected to relentless glitchiness and tones that could only seem comforting to the most pre-pubescent of Tesla factory robots, the listener finds a smooth, discernable rhythm punctuated with thrumming distortions. In this moment, it becomes clear that the noodling about is much more planned than we were lead to believe.

The longer one spends in this labyrinth of a record the more their mind will warp and bend to its strange perversions. First, the track names begin to make sense, patterns and keywords like “Casual” begin to indicate either an ambient track or a glitched-out jumble. Then even the jumbles make sense, the brain-busting polyrhythms begin to become evident as sounds teeter into one another. “tt1pd” and “elyc9 7hres” turn from madness into the IDM electronic of math rock, while “all end” and “acid mwan idle” meld into beautiful compositions that challenge the conventions of songwriting. At every turn this album can, and will surprise, whether you choose to jump out of the way, or melt into the front of the train is up to you.

There may not have been a plan for NTS Sessions 1-4. Autechre may have just been pulling an eight-hour prank on the universe, particularly the subset of the universe that worships him, Amon Tobin and Aphex Twins, as though they are the new Messiahs. Though as one sinks deeper into the record, it feels less prank and more revelation. Music, as it is known to most, does not exist on NTS Sessions 1-4. There is simply nothing recognizable or familiar within its grooves. To some, there could be no stronger deterrent, but to the searchers, nothing could excite them more. No matter who it may be, Prurient, Aphex Twin, Lightning Bolt, Clark—no one has made something quite like this. Something so ambitious, so unassailable, so relentlessly divorced from the traditional confines of music, and that is perhaps the most exciting thing about this record. It doesn’t matter whether or not it was planned. All that matters is that it broke down a wall that was so tall, we had all forgotten it was even there in the first place.