NTS Sessions 1-4
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NTS Sessions 1-4, often shortened to NTS Sessions, is the thirteenth studio album by Autechre released on Warp Records. The four sessions were first individually broadcasted on London-based online radio station NTS throughout April 2018, before the entire project became available for download on the April 26th, 2018. Physical versions later became available for purchase over August 2018.[1][2]
History
Having previously done a DJ Mix for NTS Radio on January 22nd, 2016[3], NTS Radio approached Autechre with a residency offer. They were initially hesitant whether they wanted to construct an 8-hour DJ mix until they realised that they had enough original material to span that time.[4][1] Autechre noted that NTS Sessions 1-4 was conceived first as a radio show performance, with the release instead being the archival version similar to their previous Peel Sessions.[1][5] Other points of influence noted by Autechre for this format includes both their IBC pirate radio shows around the time of Lego Feet[1] as well as their Kiss FM Disengage shows.[6]
Autechre explicitly noted the aesthetic goals were to create "developed alternate versions of existing Autechre material",[6] and to focus on "deep mixing", where elements are not upfront or noticeable on first listen.[1]
Similar to other adjacent records, the material was a lot of long jams sessions that were edited down.[6][7] Much of the material either came from jams done between Exai and elseq 1-5 or new jams done on old patches, with the oldest material dating back to 2011 with a "bladelores" jam.[1] Some of the material was also performed at their 2014/2015 and 2016/2018 live shows, with Sean noting that "most of NTS Sessions was like cells from live sets".[8] Most of the tracks were done solo by either Sean or Rob.[9] All tracks were recorded directly "in the box" to stereo.[10]
On April 3rd, 2018, the announcement was sent out that each 2-hour session would be aired every week Thursday at 4PM GMT throughout April on the 5th, 12th, 19th and 26th respectively.[11][12] The first session was made available for download on April 9th, with the rest being made available hours after being aired.[11] After all four sessions were aired, the entire 8 hours were then looped constantly in a permanent residency, which is still ongoing as of writing.[13]
Initially, the plan was to just keep it as a digital-only release similar to elseq 1-5, however with the wider audience that NTS Sessions would reach, physicals were arranged for 12xLP boxset, 8xCD boxset and individual 3xLP for each session, which were sent out a few months later to customers who pre-ordered.[11][14] The initial 12xLP box set however was laden with warping issues and had replacement copies sent to buyers.[15] Due to the length restraints of physical copies, edits were made to fit tracks on each CD/disc, mostly in regard to their transitions.
Design
Regarding the design of the physical releases by The Designers Republic, Anderson noted that "there was a sense that the physical releases (conceptually) served to archive the radio sessions — so we imagined what Autechre archives would look like."[16]
Tracks
NTS Session 1
t1a1
- BPM: 140
- The percussion was previously used at the start of the 2014/2015 live sets. (example)
bqbqbq
debris_funk
- On the LP version, the outro ends solely with the note decay rather than the immediate transition into "l3 ctrl".
l3 ctrl
carefree counter dronal
- BPM: 160
north spiral
- BPM: 164
- On the CD version, the intro has been altered to just start with the clicks, rather than the transition from "carefree counter dronal" to it.
- "north spiral" appears in an remixed form on the 14/15 live sets. (example)
gonk steady one
- BPM: 124
four of seven
- BPM: 120
32a_reflected
- BPM: 80
- The synths used in "32a_reflected" appear at the end of the 2016 live sets. (example)
- The "reflected" in the title likely refers to the composition of track, whereby the original recording was duplicated, its channels flipped, and then played in reversed against the original track, creating a musical palindrome via reflection.
NTS Session 2
elyc9 7hres
- The title shares its name with "elyc6 0nset", which "elyc9 7hres" reuses certain elements from.
six of eight (midst)
xflood
gonk tuf hi
dummy casual pt2
violvoic
- "violvoic" appears partially on the 2014/2015 live sets. (example)
sinistrailAB air
wetgelis casual interval
- The synths from "wetgelis casual interval" appeared a few times in their 14/15 live shows. (example)
- "wetgelis" likely references the composer Vangelis.
e0
peal MA
- On the LP version, "peal MA" has a much longer intro that got separated from "e0"
9 chr0
turbile epic casual, stpl idle
- "turbile epic casual, stpl idle" shares a few commonality with "oneum".
- Elements of "turbile epic casual, stpl idle" appear in the 2016/2018 live sets. (example)
NTS Session 3
clustro casual
splesh
- "all end" briefly appears at the end of "splesh".
tt1pd
acid mwan idle
- On the LP version, "acid mwan idle" fades in rather than transitioning straight from "tt1pd".
fLh
- Sean was involved with "fLh" and noted the track had "quartertone abuse" [17]
glos ceramic
g 1 e 1
- In the 2014 live shows, "g 1 e 1" could be heard near the end of the sets. (example)
- "g 1 e 1" is constructued mostly from tuned delay lines.[18]
nineFly
- An early version of "nineFly" appears on the 2015 US live sets (example).
- The studio version of this track uses "basic threshold fft" noise reduction.[19]
shimripl air
- "shimripl" may be a shortened version of "shimmer, ripple"
icari
NTS Session 4
frane casual
- "frane casual" shares a lot of similarities with "pendulu casual".
mirrage
column thirteen
- An altered version of "column thirteen" appeared in the middle of the 2018 live sets. (example)[8]
- On the LP version, the transition element from "mirrage" is removed.
shimripl casual
- "shimripl casual" appears in the 2016/2018 live sets. (example)
- On both the CD and LP version, the track ends with a fadeout.
- On the LP version, the track is split into 2 parts, with a few minutes on the side with "column thirteen" and the rest on a different side.
all end
- BPM: 11
- The particular drone sound at the end of "bladelores" is what became "all end". In an interview, they confirmed that the name is in fact because the track uses the end of "bladelores" for all of the track, alongside feeling right because "It was the end, and it was long and all."[6] It also appears at the end of "splesh".
- It was confirmed that "all end" was solely made by Rob. [20]
- On the LP and CD versions of NTS Sessions, "all end" only has a fade in rather than the short transition from "shimripl casual" at the start. Due to the length of "all end", it was split up into 3 parts to fit on 3 sides.
sinistrail sentinel
- Exclusive bonus track for people who brought NTS Sessions on AE_STORE and Bleep. Part of the Adult Swim Single Program.
- "sinistrail sentinel" appeared on the 2014/2015 live sets. (example)
Tracklist
| # | Title | Length |
|---|---|---|
| NTS Session 1 | ||
| 1 | t1a1 | 18:40 |
| 2 | bqbqbq | 11:16 |
| 3 | debris_funk | 10:25 |
| 4 | l3 ctrl | 16:52 |
| 5 | carefree counter dronal | 5:14 |
| 6 | north spiral | 15:01 |
| 7 | gonk steady one | 22:25 |
| 8 | four of seven | 13:06 |
| 9 | 32a_reflected | 7:02 |
| 2:00:00 | ||
| NTS Session 2 | ||
| 10 | elyc9 7hres | 10:21 |
| 11 | six of eight (midst) | 8:42 |
| 12 | xflood | 9:25 |
| 13 | gonk tuf hi | 7:53 |
| 14 | dummy casual pt2 | 5:16 |
| 15 | violvoic | 15:01 |
| 16 | sinistrailAB air | 2:41 |
| 17 | wetgelis casual interval | 2:39 |
| 18 | e0 | 15:45 |
| 19 | peal MA | 5:04 |
| 20 | 9 chr0 | 15:45 |
| 21 | turbile epic casual, stpl idle | 21:30 |
| 2:00:00 | ||
| NTS Session 3 | ||
| 22 | clustro casual | 11:03 |
| 23 | splesh | 8:56 |
| 24 | tt1pd | 22:12 |
| 25 | acid mwan idle | 11:57 |
| 26 | fLh | 8:18 |
| 27 | glos ceramic | 13:26 |
| 28 | g 1 e 1 | 7:00 |
| 29 | nineFly | 10:04 |
| 30 | shimripl air | 7:06 |
| 31 | icari | 19:58 |
| 2:00:00 | ||
| NTS Session 4 | ||
| 32 | frane casual | 13:43 |
| 33 | mirrage | 6:22 |
| 34 | column thirteen | 17:02 |
| 35 | shimripl casual | 24:32 |
| 36 | all end | 58:22 |
| 2:00:00 | ||
| 37 | sinistrail sentinel (AE_Store & Bleep exclusive bonus track) | 11:42 |
| Total | 8:11:42 | |
Trivia
- NTS Sessions 1-4 is by far the longest Autechre album, with a runtime of exactly 8 hours. The vinyl release of NTS Sessions 1-4 spans twelve LPs (24 sides, A-X), making it the largest album Warp Records has ever released.
Links
Credits
- Autechre (production)
- Rob Brown (writer, producer)
- Sean Booth (writer, producer)
- Noel Summerville (mastering engineer)
- The Designers Republic (design) [21]
References
- ↑ 1.0 1.1 1.2 1.3 1.4 1.5 Autechre on Their Epic NTS Sessions, David Lynch, and Where Code Meets Music, August 2018
- ↑ https://headphonecommute.com/2018/08/28/autechre-nts-sessions-warp/
- ↑ Autechre. "Autechre 22nd January 2016 | Listen on NTS". NTS Radio, 22 January 2016, https://www.nts.live/shows/guests/episodes/autechre-22nd-january-2016. Accessed 8 March 2024.
- ↑ Autechre: ‘Something happens when you listen to music in the dark’, July 2018
- ↑ Biazzetti, Claudio. "Autechre: niente di più umano dei computer". Rolling Stone Italia, 25 August 2018, https://www.rollingstone.it/musica/interviste-musica/autechre-niente-di-piu-umano-dei-computer/424382/. Accessed 8 March 2024.
- ↑ 6.0 6.1 6.2 6.3 野田努, 小林君. "音楽とともにオーディエンスも進化する". ele-king, 28 August 2018, https://www.ele-king.net/interviews/006477/. Accessed 8 March 2024.
- ↑ Sean Twitch AMA, June 2022. "What's the process of collecting or creating a tracklist as big as NTS? How do you decide to flow the album? You just do, I don't know. I've been doing long mixes for a long time, so I'm really into planning out these long sessions. I used to do mixes for just acid sessions. We used to use DATs because that's, you could get like four hours on a tape back in a day, so we'd do these big long fucking mixes and you'd know at what point the drugs start working and at what point you're gonna start getting trails and all that, so. That was just that, you know what I mean? But I'm saying yeah, I mean long term, long mixes for long periods of time, I've always liked that. I always liked Mixmaster Morris sets, you know, he could play sets all day. He would just play a set all day and it, and you'd still be with him by the end of the day. He'd still be able to keep you interested and I always admired that about him because he's got such a kind of, you know, encyclopedic knowledge of music history that he can keep pulling him out the bag as it were. I feel like he doesn't get enough credit as a DJ, to be honest."
- ↑ 8.0 8.1 Sean Twitch AMA, July 2022. "column thirteen, I think it was a live set cell. I don't know if we'd used it before NTS came out. I think we might have used a bit of it, I can't remember. Most of NTS Sessions was like cells from live sets, either at the time or a bit prior to that, that we already had jams fully recorded. So we just editing them down into things, and we basically like made it knowing that it was going to go out on the radio. So it was kind of, there's a different editing process to what we'd normally do. So bits of it from before, bits of it were from just then, bits of it were made especially for the thing, for the broadcast, you know. It was a combination of stuff."
- ↑ https://web.archive.org/web/20231118215345/https://post.lurk.org/@sean_ae/111433472440615681
- ↑ https://web.archive.org/web/20241107183922/https://post.lurk.org/@sean_ae/113442509470527990
- ↑ 11.0 11.1 11.2 "'NTS Sessions' 01–04". Warp, 8 April 2018, https://web.archive.org/web/20180417023755/http://warp.net/news/autechre-nts-sessions/. Accessed 8 March 2024.
- ↑ Twells, John. "Autechre announce four day NTS Radio residency". Fact Magazine, 3 April 2018, https://www.factmag.com/2018/04/03/autechre-nts-radio-residency/. Accessed 8 March 2024.
- ↑ Autechre. "NTS Residency.". NTS Radio, https://www.nts.live/projects/autechre-nts-residency/. Accessed 8 March 2024.
- ↑ Sean Twitch AMA, July 2022. "So yeah, that's what elseq was, but when we come to doing NTS, we kind of knew that, with the boost of it being on the radio, that we might be able to get away with doing a physical for it. So we pushed it a little bit, and it turned out to be a wise move. But it was a gamble, you know. But we would have done the same for NTS otherwise. It would have been digi only, but Warp was pretty convinced that we could move physicals of it. So we tried it and it worked, so. Fair play to Warp for taking a chance on that, because I probably wouldn't have, left to my own devices, but I approached them with it and they were up for it. So we did it, so."
- ↑ tjech. "Warped Box Set". Reddit, 22 August 2018, https://www.reddit.com/r/autechre/comments/99fodl/warped_box_set/. Accessed 8 March 2024.
- ↑ "NTS Sessions". The Designers Republic, https://www.thedesignersrepublic.com/nts-sessions. Accessed 19 Sep 2024.
- ↑ https://web.archive.org/web/20240612141855/https://post.lurk.org/@sean_ae/112603198530829122
- ↑ https://web.archive.org/web/20230726161856/https://post.lurk.org/@sean_ae/110771366258863281#:~:text=the%20g1e1%20stuff%20is%20just%20tuned%20delay%20lines%20iirc
- ↑ Sean Twitch AMA, June 2022. "How exactly was the sound of nineFly made? Spectral stuff? Noise reduction. Just basic threshold fft shit, you know. So, really simple. It's not hard to do. It's like pretty entry-level fft stuff, so."
- ↑ Hanalgig AMA, July 2022
- ↑ https://www.discogs.com/master/1395770-Autechre-NTS-Sessions