elseq 1-5

elseq 1-5


Artist	Autechre
Released	19 May 2016
Label	Warp Records (WARP512)


AE_LIVE (2015)	elseq 1-5	JNSN CODE GL16 / spl47 (2017)

elseq 1-5, often shortened to just elseq, is the twelfth studio album by Autechre released on Warp Records. It was originally released on May 19th, 2016.

History

elseq was all recorded directly to stereo^[1]. The tracks are all solo tracks, split evenly between Sean and Rob.^[2]

In Autechre: elseq et al, June 2016, Autechre explained much of the background for the record. The store-front was initially set up in collaboration with Warp to just release live shows, before Autechre realised they could also use it for putting out long tracks that were otherwise ill-suited for any proper release, similar to Quaristice.Quadrange.ep.ae. The initial plan was that for any track, they would do a session on Friday, get it approved by Warp, have designs made by The Designers Republic and then put them out by Monday morning. However, Warp instead wanted to package the material into something promotable, which coalesced the tracks into groupings. Sean noted that due to the bizarre format, they didn't know if "it's an album, or a collection of EPs or albums or just... things. We have no idea what this actually is."^[3]

elseq 1-5 was released on May 19th, 2016 as a digital-only release, with no plans for a physical release.^[4] Initially Autechre planned to just throw it onto the store, but Warp wanted to first give a promotional cycle before releasing it.^[3] This included debuting "feed1" and "c16 deep tread" as singles before release.

Tracks

elseq 1

feed1

BPM: 112
In a leadup to the release of elseq, "feed1" was debuted on May 13th, 2016 on BBC Radio 6 at 9PM.^[5]^[6]^[7]
One analysis of "feed1" put forth by IOS from WATMM is that the bass drums are a basic 2 bar loop (shown below), with probability to retrigger any amount of the main kicks again after 3 sixteenths notes. ^[8]

|1 . 2 . 3 . 4 . |1 . 2 . 3 . 4 . |
|B . . B . . B . |. B . . B . . . |

c16 deep tread

BPM: 157, 160
"c16 deep tread" was debutted as the second single on KSUA, a small Alaskan college radio channel on May 18th, 2016, at 12PM Alaskan time.^[9] A now-deleted SoundCloud upload of it was also linked by Warp.^[7]
The track appeared on the 2014/2015 live sets in a mostly final, albeit abridged form. (example)
The main snare sound on "c16 deep tread" was made using subtractive synthesis of oscillator and noise plus frequency shifting with feedback, among other things. ^[10]

13x0 step

BPM: 130

pendulu hv moda

BPM: ?, 74
"pendulu" is one letter short of "pendulum". A possible theory for "hv' is that it stands for "heavy", as Rob mentioned that amongst their archives they had a few tracks categorised as "heavies".^[11]
An early version of the track appeared at the end of most of the 2015 US live sets. (example)

curvcaten

BPM: 162 (?)

elseq 2

elyc6 0nset

BPM: 160
The elyc sounds were only made around 2014/2015.^[12]
Sean confirmed that he recorded "elyc6 0nset" in a day. ^[13]
Certain elements of this track were later reused on "elyc9 7hres"

chimer 1-5-1

BPM: 151

c7b2

BPM: 120

"c7b2" appears on the 2015 US live sets. (example)
Sean was unable to explain what exactly was going on behind the scenes for "c7b2", however notes that "a lot of the sort of screamy stuff is sort of delays and something that's a bit like a phaser, but it's getting webbed around quite a lot." ^[14]

elseq 3

eastre

BPM: 153 (?)
In a Mixlr stream on 30 March 2020, Sean remarked that he had a 52 minute long version of "eastre" as he was skimming through jam folder snippets. ^[15]

TBM2

BPM: 85.91

mesh cinereaL

BPM: 83 (?)

elseq 4

acdwn2

BPM: 124
Elements of "acdwn2" first appeared on the 2014 live sets. (example) They were also later reused on "xflood".

foldfree casual

BPM: 160
The track shares elements with both "pendulu hv moda" and "carefree counter dronal"

latentcall

BPM: 148
Elements of "latentcall" appeared in the 2015 live sets. (example)

artov chain

BPM: 148
"artov chain" is a play on Markov Chains.
Early versions of "artov chain" appeared in the 2015 US live sets. (example)
The main "ah" sample in the track is from the Fairlight CMI sound library,^[16] specifically HUMANS1/AAHHL2.wav being stacked harmonically.

7th slip

BPM: 160
"7th slip" was done by Rob.
The synths were previously used in the 2014/2015 live sets. (example)

elseq 5

pendulu casual

BPM: 80
"pendulu casual" shares a few elements with "frane casual".

spTh

BPM: 186

spaces how V

BPM: 162
In the July 2022 Twitch AMA, Sean confirmed that "spaces how V" was made by Rob. ^[17]
The track had early apperances in both the 2010 live shows (example) as well as appearing in Atoms Vectors Pixels Ghosts™.

freulaeux

BPM: 137

In the Hanalgig AMA, July 2022, Sean confirmed that the track title is a reference to Franz Realeaux that was chosen by Rob. ^[18]

oneum

BPM: 95 (?)
"oneum" shares a few elements with "turbile epic casual, stpl idle".

Tracklist


#	Title	Length
elseq 1
1	feed1	11:38
2	c16 deep tread	12:31
3	13x0 step	8:57
4	pendulu hv moda	12:15
5	curvcaten	6:59
		52:21

elseq 2
6	elyc6 0nset	27:09
7	chimer 1-5-1	5:03
8	c7b2	13:22
		45:35

elseq 3
9	eastre	22:15
10	TBM2	6:44
11	mesh cinereaL	24:28
		53:29

elseq 4
12	acdwn2	11:52
13	foldfree casual	9:49
14	latentcall	14:31
15	artov chain	4:04
16	7th slip	6:36
		46:54

elseq 5
17	pendulu casual	9:01
18	spTh	8:21
19	spaces how V	9:57
20	freulaeux	11:06
21	oneum	11:01
		49:28

Total		4:07:49

Trivia

elseq 1-5 is the only Autechre album to have a title stylized in lowercase.
One theory argue that “elseq” is an abbreviation of “edited live sequences”, meaning it would be pronounced "ell seek". During interviews Sean did pronounce it as "ell seek", lending credence to that theory.
The CAT number, WARP512, was likely specifically requested by Autechre. 512 is a power of 2, as are WARP128 (ConfieldConfield) and WAP256 (Gantz Graf). Another theory is that the “5” represents the 5 parts of elseq, whereas the 12 represents it being the twelfth Autechre album.

Gallery

feed1
c16 deep tread
13x0 step
pendulu hv moda
curvcaten
elyc6 0nset
chimer 1-5-1
c7b2
eastre
TBM2
mesh cinereaL
acdwn2
foldfree casual
latentcall
artov chain
7th slip
pendulu casual
spTh
spaces how V
freulaeux
oneum

Links

Credits

The Designers Republic (design) ^[19]

References

↑ https://web.archive.org/web/20241107183922/https://post.lurk.org/@sean_ae/113442509470527990
↑ Hanalgig AMA, July 2022. "Phoenix: can you tell us one track that was yours from elseq? XH HX: we try not to do that so i'm not gonna. just pick one at random and there's about a 50% chance"
↑ ^3.0 ^3.1 Autechre: elseq et al, June 2016.
↑ https://x.com/WarpRecords/status/733707079404421120
↑ https://www.factmag.com/2016/05/14/hear-a-new-autechre-track-feed-1/
↑ https://twitter.com/WarpRecords/status/731183045575905284
↑ ^7.0 ^7.1 https://cdm.link/2016/05/hours-and-hours-and-hours-of-autechre/
↑ https://forum.watmm.com/topic/93475-feed1s-kicks/?do=findComment&comment=2557279
↑ https://www.factmag.com/2016/05/18/autechre-alaskan-radio-appearance/
↑ https://web.archive.org/web/20230726161856/https://post.lurk.org/@sean_ae/110771366258863281#:~:text=that%20snare%20is%20a%20combination%20of%20things%20but%20mainly%20subtractive%20(oscillator%2Bnoise)%20and%20frequency%20shifting%20w/feedback
↑ Autechre on Their Epic NTS Sessions, David Lynch, and Where Code Meets Music, August 2018. "There’s a few “idles,” a few “casuals,” a few “heavies.”"
↑ Hanalgig AMA, July 2022. "the elyc stuff was 2014/15 iirc"
↑ Sean Twitch AMA, June 2022. "How did you make elyc6 0nset, and is it true you made it in one day? Yeah, but I don't know where, I don't think I ever said that to anyone. But yeah, it's true that I made it in a day, yeah."
↑ Sean Twitch AMA, June 2022. "Anything you say about c7b2 sequencing sound engineering? It seems to have a lot of interesting reoccurring themes like the rumbling low end? Yeah, I mean, I don't know what to tell you about it. It's quite, it was quite a few different patches working together, that track. So, a lot of the sort of screamy stuff is sort of delays and something that's a bit like a phaser, but it's getting webbed around quite a lot. So there's a lot of, kind of, I don't know. I don't even know what it was doing to be honest. I'd have to open it all up again and have a look because, you know, once it's set up and saved, I don't really look at it so. But I know roughly which modules were getting used and I know roughly what they would have been doing, so yeah. “I don't know” is the short answer."
↑ https://docs.google.com/spreadsheets/d/1g52y2e2rnqVhQJdkw0Qk1YYJoen1uhVvn2Fd-tABywA/edit#gid=1580406988&range=E16
↑ https://web.archive.org/web/20240119174137/https://post.lurk.org/@sean_ae/111783830699925880
↑ Sean Twitch AMA, July 2022. "spaces how V was Rob, so I can't talk about how he did it. You're gonna have to ask him. Rob knows some mean tricks for stereo manipulation, and he doesn't even share him with me, so."
↑ Hanalgig AMA, July 2022. "Anuel: thoughts on Franz Reuleaux? XH HX: that was rob's reference so i guess ask him"
↑ https://www.discogs.com/master/1003066-Autechre-elseq-15

[1] ttps://web.archive.org/web/20241107183922/https://post.lurk.org/@sean_ae/113442509470527990

[2] Hanalgig AMA, July 2022. "Phoenix: can you tell us one track that was yours from elseq? XH HX: we try not to do that so i'm not gonna. just pick one at random and there's about a 50% chance"

[:1-3] 3.0 ^3.1 Autechre: elseq et al, June 2016.

[4] ttps://x.com/WarpRecords/status/733707079404421120

[5] ttps://www.factmag.com/2016/05/14/hear-a-new-autechre-track-feed-1/

[6] ttps://twitter.com/WarpRecords/status/731183045575905284

[:0-7] 7.0 ^7.1 https://cdm.link/2016/05/hours-and-hours-and-hours-of-autechre/

[8] ttps://forum.watmm.com/topic/93475-feed1s-kicks/?do=findComment&comment=2557279

[9] ttps://www.factmag.com/2016/05/18/autechre-alaskan-radio-appearance/

[10] ttps://web.archive.org/web/20230726161856/https://post.lurk.org/@sean_ae/110771366258863281#:~:text=that%20snare%20is%20a%20combination%20of%20things%20but%20mainly%20subtractive%20(oscillator%2Bnoise)%20and%20frequency%20shifting%20w/feedback

[11] Autechre on Their Epic NTS Sessions, David Lynch, and Where Code Meets Music, August 2018. "There’s a few “idles,” a few “casuals,” a few “heavies.”"

[12] Hanalgig AMA, July 2022. "the elyc stuff was 2014/15 iirc"

[13] Sean Twitch AMA, June 2022. "How did you make elyc6 0nset, and is it true you made it in one day? Yeah, but I don't know where, I don't think I ever said that to anyone. But yeah, it's true that I made it in a day, yeah."

[14] Sean Twitch AMA, June 2022. "Anything you say about c7b2 sequencing sound engineering? It seems to have a lot of interesting reoccurring themes like the rumbling low end? Yeah, I mean, I don't know what to tell you about it. It's quite, it was quite a few different patches working together, that track. So, a lot of the sort of screamy stuff is sort of delays and something that's a bit like a phaser, but it's getting webbed around quite a lot. So there's a lot of, kind of, I don't know. I don't even know what it was doing to be honest. I'd have to open it all up again and have a look because, you know, once it's set up and saved, I don't really look at it so. But I know roughly which modules were getting used and I know roughly what they would have been doing, so yeah. “I don't know” is the short answer."

[15] ttps://docs.google.com/spreadsheets/d/1g52y2e2rnqVhQJdkw0Qk1YYJoen1uhVvn2Fd-tABywA/edit#gid=1580406988&range=E16

[16] ttps://web.archive.org/web/20240119174137/https://post.lurk.org/@sean_ae/111783830699925880

[17] Sean Twitch AMA, July 2022. "spaces how V was Rob, so I can't talk about how he did it. You're gonna have to ask him. Rob knows some mean tricks for stereo manipulation, and he doesn't even share him with me, so."

[18] Hanalgig AMA, July 2022. "Anuel: thoughts on Franz Reuleaux? XH HX: that was rob's reference so i guess ask him"

[19] ttps://www.discogs.com/master/1003066-Autechre-elseq-15

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elseq 1-5

Contents

History