Algorhythmachines

The new Shackleton/T++ 12" on Skull Disco is the latest confirmation of the label's status as a stolid purveyor of trans-dubstep Fourth World music. T++ had a pretty high standard to meet for this project, considering that the last remix of Shackleton released on Skull Disco was the Villalobos remix of "Blood on My Hands." While the original mix of Shackleton's 4/4 percussive workout uses acoustic drum samples to create a warm, tactile space, T++ encrypts the beats in a fragmentary computer language. Maybe it's just that Berlin and Detroit are parallel dimensions, but to my ear this has more in common with Drexciya than with most UK dubstep. Space and time come unhinged, the extensive becomes intensive, and dubstep is alchemically transformed into... post-IDM-step?

Shackleton feat. Vengeance Tenford - "Death is Not Final (T++ Remix)" [alt link]

...but IDM's not dead: just ask Autechre. Quaristice, their first release since Untilted in 2005, finds the duo introducing live dynamics into their studio productions. The 20 tracks collected on this LP cover so much territory that no single track typifies the album's sound. Although there are periodic moments of sonic saturation, Quaristice is not as aurally imposing or texturally austere as previous Autechre albums - so take a chill pill and immerse your weary consciousness in the ephemeral delicacies of spontaneous electronic sound.

Autechre - "chenc9" [alt link]