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My nomination for Collective Essentials.
Released in 2001, Confield shook up the 'IDM' scene. People were scared. They didn't get it. It all sounded so random. But boy-oh-boy, I thought it was great! Confield is an album, the sort of which I had never heard before, and have never heard since, except in other Autechre releases. In some ways, Confield was a natural progression from their previous releases, untitled [lp5] and 'EP7'. But the direction which they have turned in since, in their album 'Draft 7.30', seems even more like a natural progression from [lp5]. Where [lp5] and Draft 7.30 are firmly electronic dance records, Confield is leaking out into a contemporary classical style - especially in the track 'Cfern' with those beautiful vibraphone sounds. Confield was a far cry from Autechre's techno-ambient roots in the early 1990s. Confield was the very opposite to ambient music - it DEMANDS your full attention. Confield is an album that you need to LISTEN to, as opposed to just hearing. If you aren't paying attention, it'll sound like a messy blanket of random beats, and you will not like it. If you're expecting to be able to hum the melody five minutes later, you will not like it. If you expect to be able to dance to it, you will not like it. BUT, if you want a genuinely new experience, something which will never get boring, an album which makes all others in their field sound four years out-of-date - Confield is for you. And what's more, Confield improves with every listen. If the mesmerising multi-layered mixture of convoluted, fast beats and slow melodies puts you off at first, soon enough you will be unpicking the sounds piece-by-piece, finding a latent melody hidden in here, and a funky drum beat hidden in there. Finding the correct environment to listen to Confield in is also important. I didn't like the album all that much until I put it on my Discman and went for a walk in the middle of the night. The abstract soundscapes and glacial melodies seemed to fit perfectly in the environment: in the darkness; watching cars pass; looking at the stars; staring at the stranger buildings around town. Many people say the best way to listen to the album's intense closing track, 'Lentic Catachresis', is to sit on the floor in your bedroom in complete darkness. So remember all this when you listen to Confield. You almost certainly will not like it first time round. But please: remember that it improves with every listen, give it a chance, concentrate. You will be rewarded.
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