Autoclav1.1 - "Where Once Were Exit Wounds"

Artist: Autoclav1.1
Album: Love No Longer Lives Here
Year: 2008
Label: Tympanik Audio
Genre: ambient, post-rock, IDM
Website: http://autoclav.sentrymusic.com












Where Once Were Exit Wounds is another progression for Autoclav1.1 It has hints of his last album, yet clearly shows him evolving in a more post-rock direction. There are many similarities between this and his last album, however he is moving even farther from the IDM/broken beat sound of Visitor Attractions.
Once again, this album is full of "that autoclav pad" and "that autoclav piano", both of which (at least to me) are instantly recognizable and awesome. I absolutely loved his new sound on Love No Longer Lives Here, and it's all over this new record as well. It's very thick, organic and almost jazzy. He is using the more acoustic sounding drums, the pianos, the realistic stringed instruments, and of course the guitars. Yes, the new album has more guitars and seems to be moving in a more post-rock direction. I guess you could sort of think "oh, like Bitcrush". Yep, it's like "oh like Bitcrush on that second album when he started to do post-rock but still kinda the idm/dryft sound". If you are a fan of the evolution of Bitcrush than you will probably love this too. I am not into post-rock stuff at all, but I can respect this record because it does the sound well. It has tons of emotion, it has atmosphere, it is convincing. The guitars have a good tone to them, and they manage to fit in and mesh with the electronics. Some of the guitars on the last album were annoying because they were distorted in a death metal way and sounded terribly out of place, but on this album the guitarwork is less aggressive and feels like a component of the track rather than getting in the way. Ok, well there is the song with ESA which has ridiculous metal guitars but it's also weird and interesting.

I have to admit that I like Love No Longer Lives Here more, but WOWEW is an admirable record. Perhaps it is due in part to the more post-rock sound, but I can't connect as well to this album. Parts of this seem rushed and less developed than LNLLH, and some of the sounds are too familiar and I forget that I'm not listening to LNLNH.

All in all, a worthy addition to Autoclav1.1's catalog. Fans of the the last album on Tympanik would defintely enjoy this.

Overall: 7.5/10