thats what i miss about autechre, the silly melodies! i mean lp5 was laced with them and thats their finest work i reckon. i saw autechre live once and it was appaling, it was just computers making fuck ups and the sound of a cd sticking but yet the crowd were still "finding the beat" to dance to...... funny funny sight to behold. i was assured that there was an actual glitch in autechres equipment! im gonna catch them in dublin on their annual visit next time definatly.

so, a silly melody is ... ? I mean, I think I have a grasp of the concept, because some melodies in electronic music can sound over-the-top but it's usually not the melodies themselves that are bad, it's the synth tone they used to play the melody.

Like, I think squarepusher has some brilliant melodies but perhaps he has used a synth with a ... not-that-cool .. of a tone on it .. so does qualify the melody as being "silly" or...

I'm thinking too hard about this..

im guessing a silly melody are the simple, casio type 4 or 5 notes that are repeated over and over the entire piece of hard mettalic beats and loud beeps and whisses that ae use. the best example of which i can think of is on the 2nd track (cant think of name) on their 1995 peel sessions e.p. after lp5, my favourte ae release.

the melodies completely dissapeared for a while after that but again they are back , more subtley, on the new album which by the way, i love even more now.

basscadet.... a genius of a song!

Yeah, basscadet rocks. Also the stuff on Tri Repetae, Anvil Vapre etc. The melodies used to play an important role in ae's music back in the days.

Silly melody in this sort of electronic music = childlike sounding melody*, the sort of fragile and bedtime sounds that'll put your baby to bed. If memory doesn't fail me, didn't our friend Authecre get inspired to make a track by carpol, which you give to your baby before you put him/her to sleep?

*See also Telefunken and their ice cream van music inspired album.

Hmm. Well, with that in mind, I disagree with the poster who said the new album has "silly" melodies. It has melodies, but they're... non-silly.

Haha.

Fucking descriptioner-of-music of the year is me.

the silliness?

methinks it's a combination of the actual melodic line and the timbre used.
the silliness archetype for me is
square waves+no filter+ quick attack+straight 8th notes. no?
think of those alphaville hit singles. i can't really pin it down...

specific song examples:

SILLY

IO.
perlence.
chenc9

NOT SILLY, GREAT

rae / lp5
dropp / ep
untilted, except ipacial section, fermium (silly, pulls it off)
++AROVANE ( artist)
++BOLA (artist)

RATHER SILLY, BUT PULLS IT OFF NICELY or even GREATLY
777 lp5
Eidetic Casein
++APHEX TWIN (artist)
++PLAID (artist)

I see.

Tankakern is really a fantastic track, probably one my Autechre's favorite now. That massive bass goes perfect with those furious beats.

I've finally managed to listen to this record and it's ok, nothing more.

bump
!

track # 18 "chenc9" – 4:57

This is the defining track in all of Autechre's catalogue.