Quaristice

Quaristice is the ninth studio album by British electronic music duo Autechre, initially released on 29 January 2008 by Warp Records. It was made available for download via bleep.com in FLAC and MP3 format on 29 January 2008 and then received a physical release on 3 March 2008.^[2]

Quaristice
Studio album by Autechre
Released	29 January 2008
Genre	Electronic[1]
Length	73:15
Label	Warp (WARP333)
Producer	Autechre
Autechre chronology
Untilted (2005) Quaristice (2008) Quaristice.Quadrange.ep.ae (2008)

Production

Autechre members Rob Brown and Sean Booth changed their approach for Quaristice, moving from a more deliberate studio process to a more spontaneous and "jam session" style of songwriting, approximately doubling the usual number of tracks per album to twenty.^[3] Booth said in a March 2008 interview, "a lot of the album tracks are edited-down jams; some of them hour-long pieces we made in a day and then worked them down ... We’d have a fifteen-minute jam, a ten- or a seven-minute and end up with a three- or four-minute track, and we just kept them all."^[3] The album is accompanied with track-by-track artwork from The Designers Republic. The last thirty seconds of "The Plc" contain a brief repeated sample of Run–D.M.C.'s 1985 track "Here We Go".^[4]

Release

In an interview, 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."^[5] The album was also released as a 2-CD set with alternate versions of 11 tracks on a second 68-minute CD. The casing is a photo-etched, steel case and the release was limited to 1000 copies.^[6] The limited edition sold out within 12 hours of being announced.^[7]

Critical reception

Professional ratings

Aggregate scores
Source	Rating
Metacritic	71/100[8]
Review scores
Source	Rating
AllMusic	[9]
Drowned in Sound	[10]
The Guardian	[11]
The Independent	[12]
Mojo	[13]
musicOMH	[14]
Pitchfork	7.5/10[1]
Resident Advisor	2.5/5[15]
Tiny Mix Tapes	[16]
Uncut	[17]

Quaristice received somewhat positive reviews overall. Andy Kellman of AllMusic said that despite the large amount and short running time of the tracks, that "the ideas arrive fully formed, never appearing to be dashed off or loosely sketched," and that "not since LP5 has being impressed been so obviously secondary to enjoyment." Mark Richardson of Pitchfork said that while the album was "in some ways the most listenable album [they'd] created in a decade," he warned that it was "ultimately no easier to parse, and can be very rough going indeed if you're not in the mood for their peculiar world."^[18] However, Andy Gill of The Independent gave a negative review, saying that the album found "the Autechre duo of Rob Brown and Sean Booth still searching vainly for structure and meaning among a largely impenetrable undergrowth of synthesized ticks and tones."

Track listing

No.	Title	Length
1.	"Altibzz"	2:52
2.	"The Plc"	4:16
3.	"IO"	3:08
4.	"plyPhon"	2:33
5.	"Perlence"	3:25
6.	"SonDEremawe"	1:21
7.	"Simmm"	5:00
8.	"paralel Suns"	3:03
9.	"Steels"	2:56
10.	"Tankakern"	3:39
11.	"rale"	3:42
12.	"Fol3"	3:47
13.	"fwzE"	2:38
14.	"90101-5l-l"	3:11
15.	"bnc Castl"	2:52
16.	"Theswere"	2:12
17.	"WNSN"	4:56
18.	"chenc9"	4:57
19.	"Notwo"	5:34
20.	"Outh9X"	7:14
21.	"nu-Nr6d" (Japanese bonus track)	3:51
Total length:		77:06

All tracks are written by Sean Booth and Rob Brown

Quaristice (Versions)

A second disc, entitled Quaristice (Versions), was included in the limited edition.

No.	Title	Length
1.	"Altichyre"	1:43
2.	"The PlclCpC"	9:18
3.	"IO (mons)"	7:52
4.	"Phylopn"	2:40
5.	"Perlence range3"	7:37
6.	"SonDEre-ix"	3:27
7.	"Tankraken"	5:28
8.	"fol4"	11:41
9.	"90101-61-01"	5:10
10.	"chenc9-x"	8:28
11.	"nofour"	4:24
Total length:		67:48

Release history

Country/Region	Date	Label	Format	Catalogue number
Worldwide (from Bleep)	29 January 2008	Warp Records	MP3	WARPCDD333
			FLAC	WARPCDD333F
Japan	27 February 2008	Beat Records	CD	BRC-333
Europe	3 March 2008	Warp Records	CD	WARPCD333
			2×LP	WARPLP333
Worldwide (from Warpmart)			2×CD	WARPCD333X
North America	4 March 2008		CD	WARPCD333
			2×LP	WARPLP333

References

1. Pitchfork Media review
2. Autechre goes for March release of new album 'Quaristice' Archived 15 February 2009 at the Wayback Machine
3. Flanagan, Mark (19 March 2008). "Interview: Autechre Life Cycle". The Milk Factory. Retrieved 29 August 2012.
4. "Autechre's The Plc sample of Run-DMC's Here We Go (Live at the Funhouse)". WhoSampled.
5. "Autechre – Quaristice : Exclusive Feature". Clash. 6 February 2008. Retrieved 11 March 2009.
6. "Autechre – Quaristice". Autechre.ws. 30 January 2008. Archived from the original on 1 February 2008. Retrieved 30 January 2008.
7. "Warpmart – Home". warpmart.com. Archived from the original on 15 October 2008. Retrieved 13 January 2022.
8. "Quaristice – Autechre". Metacritic. Retrieved 6 July 2012.
9. Allmusic review
10. Ubaghs, Charles (3 March 2008). "Autechre: Quaristice". Drowned in Sound. Archived from the original on 26 July 2008. Retrieved 3 March 2008.
11. The Guardian review
12. The Independent review
13. It's a fantastic collection, there's still nothing else remotely like it. [Apr 2008, p.104]
14. Hogwood, Ben (3 March 2008). "Autechre – Quaristice". MusicOMH. Retrieved 3 March 2008.
15. Peter Chambers (5 March 2008). "Autechre – Quaristice". Resident Advisor. Archived from the original on 22 December 2015. Retrieved 17 December 2015.
16. Urban Guerilla. "Autechre Quaristice". Tiny Mix Tapes. Retrieved 17 December 2015.
17. It's their best since 1995's "LP5." [Apr 2008, p.83]
18. "Autechre: Quaristice Album Review | Pitchfork". Pitchfork. Retrieved 29 January 2018.

External links

• Listen to Quaristice at Bleep.com
• Quaristice at metacritic