Autechre-see on see

This year's release of Autechre's Oversteps found me still digesting their 2008 Warp offering, Quaristice. Due to a bizarre mystical experience I had one night as I dozed off to that album's closing track, Outh9X (Autechre speak for "really intense dozing off and getting shot in the chest with a crossbow in a dark barn and waking up screaming experience?"), I've had a lingering fascination with that record. The follow-up LP has Rob Brown and Sean Booth following their own hardware meets hardwire lead, definitely reasserting their arctic B-boy stance in the land of broken washing machine funk and flourescent euphonia. This track, see on see, shimmers from the outset like a favor in the hand of a robotic maiden at a futureworld jousting tourney. The vibe is romantic without being vulnerable. The tones are glassy, serene and modal. Despite the usual nerdish naysaying that accompanies releases from long-in-the tooth electronic artists these days, æ still leave the wanna-B-boys back on the tundra.