''Chiastic Slide'' is the fourth

studio album An album is a collection of audio recordings issued on compact disc (CD), Phonograph record, vinyl, audio tape, or another medium such as Digital distribution#Music, digital distribution. Albums of recorded sound were developed in the early ...

by the British

electronic music Electronic music is a genre of music that employs electronic musical instruments, digital instruments, or circuitry-based music technology in its creation. It includes both music made using electronic and electromechanical means ( electroac ...

group Autechre, released 17 February 1997 by

Warp Records Warp Records (or simply Warp) is a British independent record label founded in Sheffield in 1989 by record store employees Steve Beckett and Rob Mitchell and record producer Robert Gordon.Southern, Richard (2003) "Label of Love: WARP", X-RAY, A ...

. The album saw the duo continue to move further away from the ambient techno sound of their early releases, employing harsher, glitchier beats. Though not initially met with the same critical acclaim as ''

Tri Repetae ''Tri Repetae'' (stylised as ''tri repetae.'') is the third studio album by English electronic music duo Autechre, released on 6 November 1995 by Warp in the United Kingdom. In contrast to the duo's previous albums, ''Incunabula'' (1993) and ''Am ...

'' or ''

LP5 ''LP5'' is the untitled fifth studio album by English electronic music duo Autechre, released on 13 July 1998 on Warp. No title was printed anywhere within the artwork, in line with the later EP ''EP7''; it has also been called ''Autechre'', as ...

'', ''Chiastic Slide'' was eventually recognized by critics as an innovative and "enormously influential" album.

Release

''Chiastic Slide'' was released on 17 February 1997. It did not receive a release in the

United States The United States of America (U.S.A. or USA), commonly known as the United States (U.S. or US) or America, is a country primarily located in North America. It consists of 50 states, a federal district, five major unincorporated territorie ...

until Warp Records began distributing its own releases there in 2001. Autechre referenced the fourth track, "Cichli", in the name of their subsequent EP ''

Cichlisuite ''Cichlisuite'' is the sixth EP by electronic music duo Autechre, released on August 26, 1997 by Warp Records. The EP was simultaneously released on CD and as two 12” records, all with unique cover art by The Designers Republic. ''Cichlisuite ...

'' (1997). The sleeve was designed by

Sheffield Sheffield is a city status in the United Kingdom, city in South Yorkshire, England, whose name derives from the River Sheaf which runs through it. The city serves as the administrative centre of the City of Sheffield. It is Historic counties o ...

-based design agency

The Designers Republic The Designers Republic (also tDR, and styled as The Designers Republic™) is a British graphic design studio based in Sheffield, England, founded in 1986 by Ian Anderson and Nick Phillips. They are best known for electronic music logos, a ...

Reception

Allmusic critic John Bush panned ''Chiastic Slide'' as being an underwhelming follow-up to 1995's ''

'', saying it was too repetitive and lacked ideas. Tim Barr in ''Techno: the Rough Guide'' called ''Chiastic Slide'' "The aural equivalent of being at the bottom of the sea." He went on to say the album was "Dark, claustrophobic... yet full of strange beauty". A 2017 ''

FACT Magazine A fact is a datum about one or more aspects of a circumstance, which, if accepted as true and proven true, allows a logical conclusion to be reached on a true–false evaluation. Standard reference works are often used to check facts. Scient ...

'' retrospective described ''Chiastic Slide'' as "an enduring classic" that marks "the axis point around which all of Autechre's work revolves," representing a "break from contemporaneous orthodoxy" in electronic music and sound composition. In an interview with ''

Popular 1 Magazine ''Rock and Roll Popular 1 Magazine'' is a Spanish music magazine based in Barcelona, operating since 1973. History ''Popular 1'' was founded in Barcelona in 1973 by artist José Luis Martín Frías ( Martin J. Louis) and his wife Bertha M. Yebr ...

'', guitarist

Kavus Torabi Kavus Torabi ( fa, كاووس تورابى; born 5 December 1971) is a British-Iranian musician and composer, record label owner and broadcaster. A multi-instrumentalist, he is known for his work in the psychedelic, avant-garde rock field (prim ...

Cardiacs Cardiacs are an English rock band formed in Kingston upon Thames by Tim Smith (lead guitar and vocals) and his brother Jim (bass, backing vocals) in 1977 under the name Cardiac Arrest. The band's sound fused circus, baroque pop and medieval mu ...

named ''Chiastic Slide'' as one of his favourite albums.

Track listing

References

External links

''Chiastic Slide''
at the official Warp website. Autechre albums 1997 albums Warp (record label) albums Albums with cover art by The Designers Republic {{1990s-electronic-album-stub