The second of
Autechre's four
NTS Sessions (each two hours in length) begins with overwhelmingly complex beat-driven material before settling into more of a gaseous drift for much of its second half. The first hour is loaded with some of the duo's most fascinating, mind-bending material yet, all of which flows together perfectly. "elyc9 7hres" is splashy yet prickly, with some caffeinated Super Mario bloops popping up toward the end. There's some supreme brain trickery going on during "six of eight (midst)," where the beats constantly seem to fall out of place, while still maintaining their composure. The booming kickdrum of "xflood" is big enough to take up an entire ballroom, and it's nearly overpowered by the ominous droning which pours in. Following some of the album's most complex, electrified tracks, things start to wind down when "violvoic" segues from a mutant splatter rhythm to something more metronomic (although it does tense up and shock out by its ending). Following two brief, foggy interludes is the awe-inspiring crystalline drift of "e0," where bright yet vaguely apprehensive textures are kept afloat by digital cymbals and a gelatinous rhythmic bump. Following "peal MA," which consists of rippled feedback over a silent backdrop, "9 chrO" is a return to rhythm, albeit one that's crackled and broken, and constantly being pushed into more puzzling directions. The session ends with "turbile epic casual, stpl idle," a fluid dream-scape worthy of
Steve Roach which concludes with the brittle metallic splashing of digital waves.