Sign (Autechre album)

Sign
Studio album by
Autechre
Released8 October 2020 (2020-10-08)
Recorded2018–2020[1]
Genre
Length65:33
LabelWarp
ProducerRob Brown and Sean Booth
Autechre chronology
NTS Sessions 1–4
(2018) 		Sign
(2020) 		Plus
(2020)

Sign (often stylized as SIGN) is the fourteenth studio album by British electronic music duo Autechre. It was announced by Warp Records on 2 September 2020 via their Twitter page, and was released on 16 October 2020.[2][3] The album was broadcast for the first time on 8 October on the Autechre website.[4] Shortly after, it was made available as a digital download to those who pre-ordered. The cover and packaging artwork was created by The Designers Republic.[5]

Sign's companion album, Plus, was released without announcement twelve days later.

Sign and Plus were both teased prior to release in a series of Autechre live mix sessions that aired on streaming service Mixlr during the COVID-19 pandemic.[6]

Critical reception

Professional ratings
Aggregate scores
SourceRating
Metacritic82/100[7]
Review scores
SourceRating
AllMusic[8]
Clash9/10[9]
Exclaim!8/10[10]
The Guardian[11]
Mojo[12]
musicOMH[13]
Pitchfork8.1/10[14]
Record Collector[15]
Uncut8/10[16]
Under the Radar7/10[17]

Sign was met with critical acclaim. At Metacritic, which assigns a normalised rating out of 100 to reviews from professional publications, the album received an average score of 82, based on 12 reviews.[7]

Track listing

All tracks are written by Sean Booth and Rob Brown

Sign track listing
No.TitleLength
1."M4 Lema"8:49
2."F7"5:56
3."si00"5:51
4."esc desc"4:55
5."au14"5:03
6."Metaz form8"6:00
7."sch.mefd 2"5:25
8."gr4"3:21
9."th red a"6:35
10."psin AM"6:20
11."r cazt"7:12
Total length:65:33
Japanese bonus track[18]
No.TitleLength
12."n Cur"6:14
Total length:71:47

Charts

Chart performance for Sign
Chart (2020) Peak
position
Belgian Albums (Ultratop Flanders)[19] 10
Belgian Albums (Ultratop Wallonia)[20] 56
Dutch Albums (Album Top 100)[21] 51
German Albums (Offizielle Top 100)[22] 53
Scottish Albums (OCC)[23] 16
UK Albums (OCC)[24] 41

References

  1. ^ Frere-Jones, Sasha. "Autechre + Sign". S/FJ. Internet Archive: Substack. Archived from the original on 29 December 2020. Retrieved 29 December 2020.
  2. ^ Warp Records (2 September 2020). "AUTECHRE 'SIGN' WARP329 01:05:33 16 OCT 2020". Warp Records. Retrieved 2 September 2020.
  3. ^ Marissa Cetin (2 September 2020). "Autechre announce new album, SIGN, on Warp". Resident Advisor. Retrieved 2 September 2020.
  4. ^ "SIGN". AE_STORE. Retrieved 8 October 2020.
  5. ^ Bleep.com (2 September 2020). "Autechre - SIGN". Bleep.com. Retrieved 2 September 2020.
  6. ^ Marissa Cetin (29 October 2020). "Autechre surprise with another new album, PLUS". Resident Advisor. Retrieved 29 October 2020.
  7. ^ a b "SIGN by Autechre". Metacritic. Retrieved 19 October 2020.
  8. ^ Simpson, Paul. "SIGN – Autechre". AllMusic. Retrieved 17 October 2020.
  9. ^ Roseblade, Nick (15 October 2020). "Autechre - SIGN". Clash. Retrieved 17 October 2020.
  10. ^ Keating, Daryl (20 October 2020). "Autechre Are as Accessible as They Can Possibly Get on 'SIGN'". Exclaim!. Retrieved 21 October 2020.
  11. ^ Amin, Tayyab (16 October 2020). "Autechre: Sign review – electronic masters soar and fall in negative space". The Guardian. Retrieved 17 October 2020.
  12. ^ Highlights a voracious creative appetite and their relationship's enduring strength. [Dec 2020, p.87]
  13. ^ Devlin, Ben (16 October 2020). "Autechre – Sign". musicOMH. Retrieved 16 October 2020.
  14. ^ Sherburne, Philip (16 October 2020). "Autechre SIGN". Pitchfork. Retrieved 18 May 2018.
  15. ^ Goldsmith, Mike (1 December 2020). "SIGN - Autechre". Record Collector. Retrieved 1 December 2020.
  16. ^ An album of their most beautiful tracks. [Dec 2020, p.27]
  17. ^ Arnone, Joey (2 December 2020). "Autechre – Sign". Under the Radar. Retrieved 2 December 2020.
  18. ^ Tower Records Online (2 September 2020). "Autechre/SIGN＜通常盤＞". AE_STORE. Retrieved 2 September 2020.
  19. ^ "Ultratop.be – Autechre – Sign" (in Dutch). Hung Medien. Retrieved 23 October 2020.
  20. ^ "Ultratop.be – Autechre – Sign" (in French). Hung Medien. Retrieved 23 October 2020.
  21. ^ "Dutchcharts.nl – Autechre – Sign" (in Dutch). Hung Medien. Retrieved 23 October 2020.
  22. ^ "Offiziellecharts.de – Autechre – Sign" (in German). GfK Entertainment Charts. Retrieved 23 October 2020.
  23. ^ "Official Scottish Albums Chart Top 100". Official Charts Company. Retrieved 23 October 2020.
  24. ^ "Official Albums Chart Top 100". Official Charts Company. Retrieved 23 October 2020.