Autechre - classic or dud

Somehow along the years, like every band in history, they got to the point where instead of just churning out quality tunes in the "heat of the moment", the momentum you get when you go "hey, we're on to something here", they sat down and began to *think* about their music and where the development should lead to - and that's the point where a band loses the plot. I feel that Autechre started to go down a path where each successive album/EP *had* to be more dissonant, harsher, less aesthetically pleasing - just for the sake of it. The balance between the sublime abstract weirdness and the charisma of the "listenable" warm synths and coherency has been tipping too much in the direction of "what can we do to fuck as much with the sound just to make it barely listenable". Somehow they're trapped in what people expect from them: to deliver the most abstract and mathematically precise form of music on the planet. And paradoxally, this expectation has made them turn into both extremely unlistenable (yet still worthwile, because the gratification of spending hours to "get" it is still a lovely experience) and extremely predictable music.

Dare = time-travelling prodigy!

I bet Confield will make sense in 2006.

If you were to hear Second Bad Vibel or Viral(as Gescom) on a loud club system you would get autechre. Autechre rules because they were a UK IDM act that you can actually dance to.

This is one of those cases where, even if you don't like the group, you have to admit that they're pretty much classic.

(just posting here for a special troll in my heart who i see didn't bother to air his own opinions.)

Indeed!

I'll say it again (I really remember discussing this before): pure soul music for the 21th century. Maybe forbidding at times. Cold? Inhuman? Never.

Jess, this isn't a Felix da Housecat thread!

I am no jess

i think this is a joke or a taking of my piss. i hope to god it is.

(and gareth, if you must know, it's sometimes lurker/poster/troll dr. funk - my first critic! - who apparently (to read his blog) thinks i'm dumber than pigshit, although he's yet to have the guts to say it on the board.)

but when it comes out, the press (Wire specifically) will be heralding it as the new-sound... blah blah blah blah...

all signs point to a new ep, as they need to keep their name out here after their tour, i guess.

http://www.absorb.org/reviews/eps_10.html

i've listened to it a few times through already. it's ok enough i suppose. i can't tell if it's supposed to be a joke or not.

Silverside, Slip, Piezo, Pen Expers, Uviol, Maphive6.1, Zeiss Contarex, Pir, Rae, Fold4 Wrap5, Arch Carrier, Cichli, Garbagemx, Leterel.

Then come back, change your above comments about Autechre and go out and buy their entire back catalogue ;-)

destroy: euro-english newspeak.

though I will say I'd choose an entirely different set of tracks lol

Yeah - shit I'd probably change this list wholesale myself after a day or two. spl9 I put on because I wanted at least one insanely aggressive up tempo banger on it, but kinda wish I'd gone with Flep or recks on. Probably should have gone with Parhelic Triangle on Confield.

I chose acroyear2 for LP5 because it is a wild shift in their sound and accurately foreshadows some of their future direction while retaining the clear melodic accessibility of the 90's. I chose Ccec to showcase the Ae "swagger" and hip hop influence in their work. Neither are my favorites on each.

I will say though - damn, their opening tracks on nearly every full length album (and "EP") are just absolute stunners. Maybe only Amber and Quaristice are lacking in this department.

Octobeard, that's a fantastic set of "Welcome to AeLand" tracks.

I recently introduced a 63-year-old friend of mine to Autechre, the first time I've attempted to do so with anyone (I'm 37). He has really wide-ranging but kind of "basic" taste, from CSNY to Metallica to Olivia Rodrigo for example. Spends a lot of time on Youtube checking out new stuff. For newer electronic stuff he said he's into Skrillex, Daft Punk, and DJ Snake in particular. He's also into the Blade Runner soundtrack. He had never heard of Autechre, Aphex Twin or pretty much anything "IDM" adjacent.

So I played him some tracks from LP5. He was blown away by "Acroyear2" and said it was like electronic speed metal. But he started to lose interest after a few minutes. I was like, "you have to wait until they switch the beat up!" So we did, and when the beat came back in half-time he thought it was cool, but clearly not as much as I did.

I followed that up with "Corc" as an example of their gentler side. He thought it was pretty, but about halfway through it he said something like "This doesn't really go anywhere, does it?" For me this listening session had already become the awkward situation where you're showing someone a song or a movie you love and you become ultra self-conscious and every potential fault in the work of art becomes magnified. So I said what I was already kind of thinking, something like, "yeah it's pretty repetitive/static in some ways but I think the details in the percussion and synths that are constantly changing are really interesting." He could appreciate that too, but he was craving something like pop song structure, where Autechre is like, "here's an idea, let's see what we can do with it" with nothing resembling a verse, chorus, etc.

He had basically the same reaction to "Arch Carrier" where he really dug it at first but wanted it to go somewhere else after a couple minutes.

Overall I'd say it was a success in that my friend appreciated the production and wasn't freaked out by any of it. And he did think the speed up/slow down effect on "Fold4,Wrap5" was really cool. So maybe he would be more into the rhythmic experimentation on Confield or Untilted. So I might send him some of those tracks and let him explore on his own without me anxiously sitting next to him lol.

he might be more interested in Aphex Twin tbh, send him the RDJ album

^Good call

J. Sam, I like using synaesthetic analogies for explaining their style sometimes. You were basically sharing some abstract expressionism with someone with an aesthetic tolerance that borders around cubism.

With Ae, the minimalist song structures are often the point. He'd probably feel similarly listening to Villalobos perhaps

I.e. he is the kind of art person that needs representation, even if abstracted, rather than purely abstract exploration of texture, shape and color with no earthly reference points.

I think a 63 year old person into CSNY even giving Ae a chance is miraculous, and cool to hear how open they were to it

If someone was curious about Autechre but had never heard them, I'd play them something from their classic 90's run, probably "Tri Repetae". That would be my answer in 2024, and also in 2004.

If someone had never heard of, say, Neil Young, then I'd play an album he recorded in the 70's, that to me is the spirit of the question, and everything he's done in the past 20+ years and the artist he is today isn't relevant.

When you need an intro to an artist with a decades long career and a prolific, highly varied catalogue, it's always best to start at the beginning or close to it, no?

I think SIGN is maybe the right choice here. I would have be tempted to say something like LP5, which was my introduction to them, but I think the futureshock might have diminished with that one by today's glossy standards

Tri Rep remains their worst album for me. Lots of static tracks that pall quickly.

the thing with ae is that they're at their best now. neil young peaked in the 70s.

Agreed - and I love Tri Rep but it's not exactly demonstrative of where they've been for most of their career (Chiastic Slide maybe more so)

I rank Tri Rep near the bottom too though a lot of that has to do with how much it just hurts my ears

I'd always heard that referred to as their best so I tried it over and over again, decided to give Chiastic a shot just to see if I should give up on them or not, and wound up liking it way more. no reason this kind of music can't groove.

Tri Rep my fave by a wide distance - guess people look for different things in Ae

i really like tri rep but it took me a while, like frogbs is saying, lots of weird high end and the rest is kinda still comparatively. chiastic slide and garbage are my favs from the 90s.

I'll occasionally put on one of the first three autechre albums which I do enjoy a lot, but yeah, Chiastic Slide to me is the one where they actually start becoming the autechre I love and if I wanted someone to get into them, I would probably not pick something from the early-early albums

If I had to pick some tracks, I would go with the tracks on each of the albums which initially hooked me, something like:

Cipater
Archcarrier
Ccec
Drane
Eidetic Casein
Gantz Graf (the video)
Surripere
Perlence
known(1)
bladelores
c16 deep tread
gonk steady one
au14

Funnily enough I actually made a "one track from each release playlist a while ago:

https://open.spotify.com/playlist/4I4DcXrTiNjhcBw9Y5vNM3?si=c8b42457b6924f46

Not sure how satisfactory it is in being a "best of", since there are albums where I prefer multiple tracks over those on other releases, but it's:

Lowride
Slip
Garbagemx
Second Bad Vilbel
Eutow
Cichli
Laughing Quarter
Krib
Rae
Maphive6.1
Gantz Graf
Cfern
6IE.CR
Augmatic Disport
Simmm
d-sho qub
iris was a pupil
bladelores
c16 deep tread
violvoic
gr4
ecol4

Said it before but I would really love to hear some updated mixes/remasters of Tri-Rep and Amber. The former especially could use some mixing adjustments and more prominent bass and sub bass. At times it's almost 80's-ish in its sonic presentation.

some things that haven't been mentioned yet (I think? these song titles, man...) that I would personally include:

the egg (from the first artificial intelligence lp)
under BOAC
sublimit
ylm0
cap.IV
lentic catachresis

under BOAC is spectacular. That would make a good starter track if you knew they were ready for a wild ride

under BOAC was the first autechre I truly got obsessed with

titles have definitely stood in the way of word of mouth

Just throw on Theme of Sudden Roundabout

every time I click on the 'essetial live recordings', I get booted off (logged out) ... I have no idea why.

I just wanted to ask about the venue in Brooklyn called Brooklyn Steel - wondering if it's spacious or not so much so (wondering if the Autechre show on October 25 will be packed; if it'll be difficult to move around, etc.

Any comments about this would be v much appreciated!

Brooklyn Steel is pretty spacious, should be plenty of room to be where you want or need to be.

meant to post this before, some may enjoy... "Ed graced the decks down at Holding Patterns, Leeds, UK,

His mix is full to the brim of Autechre and related artists in the lead-up to their gig at Project House."

edv3ctor @ Holding Patterns 27/10/25

iirc he also supported on the Manchester gig Feb 2025? Which I didn't make it in the end... Leeds I did!

Apart from a 20 minute stretch in the middle which was like some of the most perfect, rawer than raw gnarled grooving acidy techno you'd ever wish to experience, I was in the "didn't enjoy that as much as I'd hoped" crowd. Absolutely pummeling start to end, great but would have liked some range/beauty. Guess they're not crowdpleasers, we know, c'est la vie.

Apart from a 20 minute stretch in the middle which was like some of the most perfect, rawer than raw gnarled grooving acidy techno you'd ever wish to experience, I was in the "didn't enjoy that as much as I'd hoped" crowd. Absolutely pummeling start to end, great but would have liked some range/beauty.

I felt the exact same way about their Toronto set (same chunk of tracks, have seen it described on Reddit and Aepages as "Set E"), incl. most enjoying that middle section.

Bristol show a few weeks ago was a similar non-stop claustrophobic onslaught. It was divisive - one friend described it as "like eating dry bread". Another mate described it as "You look at the hole and you just fall into the hole". Me? I loved it.