Confield

Confield
Studio album by Autechre
Released	30 April 2001
Genre	IDM
Length	62:03
Label	Warp
Producer	Rob Brown and Sean Booth
Autechre chronology
Peel Session 2 (2001) Confield (2001) Gantz Graf (2002)

Confield is an album by the electronic music group Autechre, released by Warp Records in 2001 (see 2001 in music).

Production and musical style

With Confield, Sean Booth and Rob Brown largely abandoned the warm ambient sounds of their earlier works such as Amber and Tri Repetae in favour of the more chaotic feel that they had been pursuing with LP5, EP7, and Peel Session 2. Confield saw the experimental use of computer programs to form the basis of songs instead of stand-alone synthesizers. According to Booth, "Most of Confield came out of experiments with Max that weren't really applicable in a club environment." ^[1] One of the more controversial aspects of the album's production was, like EP7, the use of generative sequences for certain aspects of the songs. Booth countered this, arguing that although the beats created with the sequences may seem completely random to some people, that he and Brown had tight control over the limits and rules of what the beats could do, and that the concept was no different from the improvisation found in jazz. Although the bases of most of the songs were created by computers, analogue synthesizers and conventional drum machines were in fact used in many of the tracks.

The cover art for this release is a screenshot from a short animation created by Booth and Brown.^{[citation needed]}

Reception

Professional ratings
Aggregate scores
Source	Rating
Metacritic	82/100[2]
Review scores
Source	Rating
Allmusic	link
Blender	link
Pitchfork Media

Pitchfork Media gave the album an 8.8/10, the highest they have ever rated an Autechre album, claiming that, "For those willing to take these times in stride, Confield promises elegant production, accessibility in moderation, and one of the most enveloping, thought-provoking listening experiences to come forth from leftfield this year." However, Allmusic, giving the album only a 3/5, argued that Confield was "a record to respect, not enjoy," a viewpoint expressed by other review outlets. The Washington Post's Mark Jenkins said that the duo had progressed from "making music that sounds odd" to "craft[ing] its music to sound wrong", further commenting that the pair now sounded "ragged and fidgety" rather than "smooth and pulsing" as in the past. He said many of the songs sounded as though the CD player was skipping, and said the album was more madness than method.^[3] Fiona Shepherd of The Scotsman held a similar view, saying the album sounded like "a malfunctioning dishwasher or a CD jumping. Forever."^[4]

Despite the record's controversial nature, the album scores an average of 82/100 at Metacritic based on ten reviews, the highest average for any Autechre album on the site.^[5]

In 2009, Alarm Will Sound made a classical cover version of the song "Cfern", included in their album a/rhythmia.

Track listing

References

External links

• Confield at the official Warp discography (features audio clips).