Eagerly anticipated within the electronica community, Autechre’s first full-length album in three years, Quaristice, isn’t scheduled for release until March but is presently available for digital download at Bleep. One of the iconic IDM duo’s most easily enjoyable releases in many years, the 80-minute, 20-track album should delight longtime fans and newcomers alike. After three years of silence, it’s a relief the album isn’t as forcefully experimental as some of Autechre’s more inapproachable releases of this decade, most notoriously Confield (2001), though thankfully challenging all the same.

Audiophiles will be happy to learn that — unlike In Rainbows a few months back — the digital downloads at Bleep are available in high-bitrate MP3 (i.e., 320 kbps) as well as super-high-quality FLAC. The tracks can be purchased individually, though it’s more economical to buy the entire album ($9.99 for MP3, $12.75 for FLAC). And even if you’d prefer to wait until the CD release in March, you can still listen freely to streaming samples of each track (one standout is “The Plc” — check it out). Additionally, Autechre will be hosting an Internet radio show on their website (http://www.autechre.ws) on Saturday February 23 at 20:00 GMT to preview the release of Quaristice and also to kick-off their world tour, which commences on February 29 in Manchester.