1. "Winter In The Belly Of A Snake (2002)" In response to Reply # 0
i like the dark, wintery, eerily subdued but still fucked up vibe and the forays into singing, and it's said to be the album he submitted to warp that they rejected
4. "Hospitality is my shit!!!" In response to Reply # 3
I also dig Calvacade a lot, but Hospitality for me is his best album. Even better than the orchestral albums if you ask me.
But its so weird thinking about Snares in terms of albums. I very rarely can sit for a full hour of it, and I'm a fan. What makes me a fan though isn't necessarily how he makes an album, but how he makes a song. I think you can really pick up any of his works and just listen to the details and get blown away. His lighter works are definitely the most accessible (Rossz and Downfall), but he's got so many lanes.
Howisya has been playing a lot of the Black Sabbath stuff which I hadn't and it was just like damn. It gave insight to the most recent EP which I think may be his best in a few years (Cubist Reggae). Then there's stuff like The Last Step which is way different but at the same time very much A. Funk.
And that's the most amazing thing about him. People think of him as just drill n bass steeze but when he gets down to it, he was a technician at that and can apply that to whatever he sets his heart on.
One thing I'll say which is a cross with the Autechre post, unlike Ae, I think Snares really thrives in the single realm. Two or three songs. I think he sets himself on something, knocks out three bangers and calls it a day. Pink Goat is a great one of those, but he's got others.
When I first heard his music in like 2002 I hated it. I was coming from a British IDM background that took melodies for granted and Snares really didn't learn how to write melodies until later. Arguably until "Rossz".
I was also a struggling electronic musician myself and so having to listen to rudimentary, weak, practically monophonic melodies to get at the good drum programming, while hearing people rave that this was the next Aphex Twin, was maddening on several levels to me. But I kept checking for him because I kept hearing bits that I liked, such as "Chinaski" from "Songs about my Cats" and "Stairs Song" from "Winter...". Strangely I tended to like the least melodic things that Snares did like the aforementioned tracks and at the farthest extreme, the "7 Sevens Med" 7-inch. Then "Rossz" came out which I still think was largely ghostwritten by string players (on the melodic tip) and then Hospitality which is pure genius (favorite track: "Shoot Myself"). The guy learned how to write melody which I did not think was possible.
As for the present, Cubist Reggae is interesting, as was Filth, but I don't find myself listening to them. He needs to change gears even more radically I think (not for me, I'd continue listening to classical sequels forever; but for himself as he's clearly bored).
Going from "I Rent the Ocean" to "Dollmaker" (with that goofy ass cutup of Metallica) to "Befriend a Childkiller" down into "Pressure Torture". It does basically everything: ambient, breaks, ragga jungle, hardcore, power electronics.
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