REVIEWS

Autoclav1.1
Where Once Were Exit Wounds

Tympanik Audio

Posted: Thursday, October 22, 2009
By: Ilker Yücel
Editor

There is a certain humorous irony in the fact that Tony Young's prolific output with Autoclav1.1 would evoke such a response as to call him not a man but a machine, and yet with each progressing album, his music exhibits an even greater reliance on organic textures. On his latest album, Where Once Were Exit Wounds, Young presents the listener with his ever melodic and structure if tonally abstract style with 11 songs that could easily rank as the best he has yet composed. The level of emotional urgency and atmospheric sensation on display, driven by Young's increasingly seamless juxtaposition of intricate programming with skillful musicianship, is such that one can imagine this album appealing as much to progressive rock aficionados as much as rivetheads with an ear for post-industrial instrumental chaos.

"When We Woke Up" begins the proceedings as reversed swells of reverberating guitars fade and overlap as Rachel Haywire's voice introduces Autoclav1.1's reality where words are meaningless amid the inevitability of existence, leading to a frenzied mix of skittering electronic bleeps beneath an effectively enticing percussive break. Some string-like tones play a melancholy melody that fades into a twinkling piano refrain so recognizably Autoclav1.1. From here, "Walk on Empty" and "Taking Blood" pick up the pace with danceable drumbeats amid beautifully engaging bass lines, with the pianos, strings, and stuttering guitar of the former track keep the listener in a heightening state of tension that culminates in the raucous industrialized fury of the latter track, where the guitars raise in volume just enough to provide a euphoric and uplifting if still morose high. "Falling Over Ghosts" slows us back down to a more relaxed but no less dreamy state, with the waves of echoing pianos and acoustic guitars waxing and waning over bedrock of IDM-infused electronica and shoegazing ambience, while the frantic breakbeats of "These Walls Have Seen All" get us back on the dance floor, although the mood is slightly offset by cavernous echoes of a sound that reminds this writer of a Blaster Beam, providing just a twinge of eeriness.

What is most interesting about Where Once Were Exit Wounds is that like past Autoclav1.1 albums, there is a distinct flow amid these tracks, each leading fluidly into the next while retaining its own melodic identity; yet the shift in emphasis to more natural sounds with more live drums, pianos, and gritty guitars gives the album a conceptual framework that rarely works so seamlessly an in instrumental album. Even as hints of vocals appear, thanks to ESA front man and frequent Autoclav1.1 collaborator Jamie Blacker on "Do You Feel Disposable?" and Riotmilloo's Emilie Verbieze on "If Not Something, Anything," they provide more poetic tonality than lyrical exhibition that would ultimately be intrusive on such a compositional achievement as this album. Quite simply, Tony Young has outdone himself with Where Once Were Exit Wounds, as his musical and instrumental versatility makes for what is undoubtedly his finest work yet.