I too am on the Cloudline bandwagon following mentions ITT. If I'd clocked it properly before it would have ranked quite high in my ballot. Puts me in mind of Funkadelic or something, that one and I'm a sucker for formant filter vocal effects or whatever it is. Otherwise Uviol is the latest released track on my ballot.
I only named 14 tracks on my main list. May well be some changes if doing it again. Thanks to the organisers and contributors, it's been fun!
Goz QuarterGlitchCorc444Uviol OverandCichliTilapiaSecong PengFold4, Wrap5Draun QuarterVLetrmx21CipaterMontreal
― Noel Emits, Saturday, 4 October 2014 11:38 (nine years ago) link
thanks for doing this Leee and ledge. I had a lot of fun rediscovering autechre. the tracks that didn't make the top 50 are in bold.
1. Rettic AC2. Ccec3. Recury4. Eutow5. Acroyear26. Clipper7. Leterel8. Sim Gishel9. Rae10. Nil11. Bine12. Liccflii13. Rsdio14. Gelk15. Simmm16. Basscadet17. Pen Expers18. Dropp19. Pir20. Foil
1. Tri Repetae2. Confield3. LP54. Chiastic Slide5. Amber
― prince moth mothy moth moth (cajunsunday), Saturday, 4 October 2014 11:55 (nine years ago) link
This was a really interesting rollout to follow as a non-voter, esp since the work is on Spotify and I could drop in and listen along when the comments really piqued my interest. Favorite new discovery - Vletrmx.
― it's taco science, but it works like taco magic (WilliamC), Saturday, 4 October 2014 12:11 (nine years ago) link
Yes, many thanks for all your efforts Leee and Ledge.
Autechre newbies following this are also recommended to checkout the individual LP/EP poll threads that Leee organised a few years back. First one is here: IncunaPOLLa -- Autechre :: LP1 :: Incunabula and I think each thread has a link to the next somewhere in the posts, so you can follow the trail all the way to Oversteps/MOT.
I credit those threads with reviving my interest in AE, which had flagged a bit. They inspired me to try again with Confield and pick up Draft 7.30 / Quaristice, which are now some of my favourite albums, by anyone.
― Steve Reich In The Afternoon (Against The 80s), Saturday, 4 October 2014 12:41 (nine years ago) link
lol the world is only now ready for the early noughties shit
was continually consulting those threads fwiw, they're a useful resource
lots of ballots with plenty of later stuff, three of us with both cap.iv and surripere in the top 3
― Ƹ༑Ʒ (imago), Saturday, 4 October 2014 12:50 (nine years ago) link
Great poll! Thanks guys... I'll be back with a few thoughts on the last few entries - particularly Arch Carrier, my #1.
Looks like most of my choices made it in. Whoop!
Still, I was listening to Zeiss Contarex, which has to count as the most evil insidious track they've ever made (WTF are those scratching, cackling noises at the beginning?! Mummy!!) and sad it didn't place higher. Netlon Sentinel could have made an appearance too - pure apocalypse.
Arch CarrierCichliPirRaeMaphive 6.1PiezoFold4, Wrap5Netlon SentinelGarbagemxZeiss ContarexUnder BOACSlipGelkVose InKribEutowMilk DXLetereld-sho qubV-Proc
― Shepard Toney Album (dog latin), Saturday, 4 October 2014 14:40 (nine years ago) link
Last four tracks of EP7 all on your ballot - that run of tracks is probably my favourite discovery of the poll, they're all superlative. Maphive and Netlon especially may have troubled the upper reaches of my ballot. More even than LP5, those tracks may represent the most balanced moment of transition between Autechre and Autechre 2.0
― Ƹ༑Ʒ (imago), Saturday, 4 October 2014 14:56 (nine years ago) link
Agree. EP7.2 is my favourite run of any autechre
― Shepard Toney Album (dog latin), Saturday, 4 October 2014 15:33 (nine years ago) link
Thanks Lee and ledge -- I've listened to more Autechre in the past two weeks than I had in the past couple of years. My opinion on the post-Gantz Graf stuff has been slowly shifting over the years so it's always nice to have a reason to revisit that stuff.
#1 was a big surprise -- is this the first ILM poll where the winning track didn't get a single #1 vote? I thought that "Arch Carrier" was a shoo-in, seeing that LP5 won the albums poll and most of the tracks from it finished in the top 50.
I sort of regret splitting the "Basscadet" vote by voting for one of the remixes, if I'd voted for the original then it would have finished somewhere in the low 30's.
I think this was the "purest" ILM poll that I've participated in. With most polls, there's a subtle bias in the ballots depending on how voters feel about the established canon, where people leave out some obvious hits for somewhat challopsy reasons so they can get a few of their secondary faves into the poll (obviously I am guilty of this as well). I think with Autechre, the canon is established for albums but not so much for individual tracks (or even EPs), and I think it's reflected in the final results. People voted for their favourite songs without really caring about what other voters would do. This is how it should be!
Key Nell 4TeartearBasscadet (Bcdtmx)PiezoStudRecuryCap.IVSecond PengChatterSecond Bad VilbelArch CarrierCipaterCichliLentic CatachresisGarbagemx36SilversideEggshellVLetrmxFlutterd-sho qub
― NoTimeBeforeTime, Saturday, 4 October 2014 17:06 (nine years ago) link
Loved this poll. I voted without relistening and revisited the albums during the roll out (and I loved how long the roll out was cos it resulted in some great discussion). Having heard everyone else's pics I could conceivably vote for 20 different tracks, but this is what I went for
DraneVlertrmxDoctrineGarbagrmxSecond Bad VibelFurtherKalpol IntroWindwindYulquen444EutowSilversideArch CarrierFoilMontrealMelveBladeloresSlipGlitchNine
― A solid little house from the p-funk boys (I am using your worlds), Saturday, 4 October 2014 17:45 (nine years ago) link
"Chatter" is a jam.
I think with Autechre, the canon is established for albums but not so much for individual tracks (or even EPs), and I think it's reflected in the final results.
Along with what nakh said about canon-building being equivalent to entombing them, I think that the clear divisions in their discography (melodic/pretty vs. throbbing noise) sets up a few camps of listeners, and the different perspective that each camp comes from reveals a novel understanding or appreciation of all the work. I think a lot of us have gotten a new appreciation onto tracks we'd dismissed or hadn't even heard of before, so that instead of a sepulchre (or even the vivisepulchre), this top 50 is explicitly a snapshot of taste at a specific time, and that if we were to do this again in a couple years' time (considering my history of doing such things, not out of the question!), the results would look pretty different ("Cichli" would still probably win though!).
― cichleee suite (Leee), Saturday, 4 October 2014 18:43 (nine years ago) link
I kinda always knew Cichli would get #1, yet no one actually voted for it as their own #1. Interesting. Also, outside of Arch Carrier, no other song had more than 1 vote as #1. I love how so many people can latch onto and love different facets of this band in very different ways. Speaks to their talent, diversity of output and staying power. My ballot:
Song poll 1 Cipater2 drane23 Psi-Onyx (Psix Million Dollar Myx Oscar Goldmans Bonus) 4 Eutow5 C/Pach6 Key Nell 47 d-sho qub8 4449 Clipper10 Goz Quarter11 Cichli12 are y are we13 jatavee C14 Inhake 215 bladelores16 Pir17 M39 Diffain18 Simmm19 Second Scout20 Surripere Album/EP Poll 1 Chiastic Slide2 Exai3 Tri Repetae4 LP55 Untilted6 Envane7 Incunabula8 Draft 7:309 Anvil Vapre10 Cichlisuite Remix Poll 1 Psi-Onyx (Psix Million Dollar Myx Oscar Goldmans Bonus) 2 Aveugle & Sourd (Autechre Mix)3 Viral Rival (Rmxd By Ae)4 Keynell Mix 15 Tunnels Ov Set Autechre Remix Non-AE poll 1 Gescom - Key Nell 42 Gescom - Go Sheep3 Lego Feet - Leaves on the Line4 Gescom - Key Nell 15 Gescom - Go Sumo
― octobeard, Saturday, 4 October 2014 18:53 (nine years ago) link
Oh and thanks Leee for putting this together! I had been anticipating this poll for quite a while now and it's been showering me in nostalgic musical bliss all week.
― octobeard, Saturday, 4 October 2014 18:59 (nine years ago) link
favorite remix is of d'breez "crazy for love"
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=_1bTis9ee3U
― clouds, Saturday, 4 October 2014 22:37 (nine years ago) link
― cichleee suite (Leee), Saturday, 4 October 2014 19:43 (3 hours ago)
yeah, i like things from everything they have released (note that solitary vote for accelera) so it was good to see partisans for all of those
i didnt realise cichli was quite this popular, i guessed eutow might get #1
― the final twilight of all evaluative standpoints (nakhchivan), Saturday, 4 October 2014 22:42 (nine years ago) link
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=dr3CCv6OvDo
― the final twilight of all evaluative standpoints (nakhchivan), Monday, 6 October 2014 16:41 (nine years ago) link
I really thought Leterel would place higher. It was my number one and I'm a proud mf for voting for it despite it getting some disrespect upper in the thread. Its a great tune but really I didn't know whether to put that first or Clipper so its nice to see the latter place high.
Listening to Confield again now and it is fckn magnificent.
Cheers all and especially Leee for reigniting my love for this weird and special music.
― kraudive, Monday, 6 October 2014 23:09 (nine years ago) link
1. GoSheep (Gescom)2. Bronchusevenmx3. Yulquen4. Arch Carrier5. Cichli6. Fold4, Wrap57. VI scose poise8. Overand9. Maphive 6.110. VLetrmx11. Krib12. Further13. Goz Quarter14. Rotar15. Flutter16. Under Boac17. Drane18. Lowride19. Nil20. Clipper
― Acting Crazy (Instrumental) (jed_), Monday, 6 October 2014 23:14 (nine years ago) link
yes this was really great thanks lee and all for the kewl write-ups, also the roll-out pace was great as it allowed me to bitch
― mattresslessness, Monday, 6 October 2014 23:16 (nine years ago) link
ty Leee
― Acting Crazy (Instrumental) (jed_), Monday, 6 October 2014 23:21 (nine years ago) link
LeterelClipperEutowDraneCichliGelkCipaterKribBasscadetDaelStudRpegGantz Grafylm0pt2ph8d-sho qubHubM62Milk DXInhake 2
― kraudive, Monday, 6 October 2014 23:28 (nine years ago) link
also the roll-out pace was great as it allowed me to bitch
lol ur welcome. I don't follow these results threads much -- was this on the slow side?
― cichleee suite (Leee), Monday, 6 October 2014 23:32 (nine years ago) link
can't find an autechre remix thread so am bumping the most recent ae thread as that'll be the one people have bookmarked.
anyway, ae remix article in this month's wired.
― koogs, Thursday, 16 October 2014 08:48 (nine years ago) link
You mean the wire.
― ledge, Thursday, 16 October 2014 13:56 (nine years ago) link
yes, i do (bought both this morning)
disappointingly the magazine is nothing like the tv series.
― koogs, Thursday, 16 October 2014 14:05 (nine years ago) link
if there was a magazine called Wired all about the show the Wire it would make life even more complicated than it already is.
― Shepard Toney Album (dog latin), Thursday, 16 October 2014 14:33 (nine years ago) link
So it appears that a bracing immersion in the top half of this poll was the best way to get into Autechre after a couple of failed attempts. I suppose I made a mistake starting with Incunabula and Amber, both of which did very little for me bar one or two tracks, and I never had the interest to explore further into the supposedly more 'difficult' records. This is partly because the discourse around Autechre is almost uniquely terrible - cf their supposed shift from warmth to coldness throughout their career, when to these ears something like Confield sounds way warmer than Incunabula. All those crackling and purring noises and emberish melodies, it's like watching a fire.
I'd always liked Cap IV but assumed that was an outlier, but the run from Chiastic Slide to Confield, once they start playing more with meter and texture, is just so great. And their melodies get better as well. Been taking it one album after the next and I'm about to plunge into Draft and onwards. But yeah, good work all concerned here.
― Matt DC, Monday, 27 October 2014 18:55 (nine years ago) link
I still think LP5 is the best way to get into these dudes
― Abstinence Hawk (frogbs), Monday, 27 October 2014 19:02 (nine years ago) link
The idea of Autechre as having ever made 'cold' music is one of the biggest misnomers around their music. If it were so I'd probably not be a fan. Glad you got into them Matt DC. The run you mention is my favourite era. Found things a little bumpy from then on up until the Quaristice era, but as this poll proves, there are plenty who will rep for Draft and Untilted.
― Shepard Toney Album (dog latin), Monday, 27 October 2014 19:03 (nine years ago) link
X post yeah LP5 was my introduction to them.
― Shepard Toney Album (dog latin), Monday, 27 October 2014 19:04 (nine years ago) link
I've been re-discovering my love for "Leterel," well done, voters.
― Tantivleee Mucker-Maffick (Leee), Monday, 27 October 2014 19:38 (nine years ago) link
The idea of Autechre as having ever made 'cold' music is one of the biggest misnomers around their music. If it were so I'd probably not be a fan
I do think that the gap between "what they sound like if you like them" and "what they sound like them if you don't like them" is about as big as it could be for any group
― Abstinence Hawk (frogbs), Monday, 27 October 2014 19:39 (nine years ago) link
there is cold as shorthand for the emotional froideur that people find in neutral abstract forms that do not go out of their way to engage them....
that might be a misunderstanding, though there is something in it too, neutral implacability and indifference is integral to the sublime
then by the same measure, sean booth has said that when they make violent and choleric music, that directness is misread or not read at all and it gets described as just 'complex' as if it is that were an end in itself
― the final twilight of all evaluative standpoints (nakhchivan), Monday, 27 October 2014 20:44 (nine years ago) link
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=j_JCt0jv86I
the exai bonus track, never got around to this before but its got a chimey mid 90s feel to it
― Chetniks in Šumadija kill a Partisan through heart extraction.jpg (nakhchivan), Saturday, 1 November 2014 17:24 (nine years ago) link
wow yeah. their japan bonus tracks often feel a bit throwaway but that is lovely. a few untilted era sounds hidden in there.
― ledge, Monday, 3 November 2014 13:46 (nine years ago) link
that was gorgeous
― imago, Monday, 3 November 2014 13:59 (nine years ago) link
yeah id agree with both parts there ledge
the untilted trebly electro sound is gorgeous although compositionally its not quite up to confield or draft
― Chetniks in Šumadija kill a Partisan through heart extraction.jpg (nakhchivan), Monday, 3 November 2014 16:58 (nine years ago) link
where can i see the full recap?
― canoon fooder (dog latin), Tuesday, 25 August 2015 15:31 (nine years ago) link
hit Previous Page twice
IS IT WASHAPOLL? - ILM ARTIST POLL #57 - AUTECHRE - RESULTS thread
― koogs, Tuesday, 25 August 2015 15:41 (nine years ago) link
"Nuane" is one of my top 10 faves i think, so satisfying in every department
― be the cringe you want to see in the world (Noodle Vague), Wednesday, 20 September 2017 18:54 (seven years ago) link
that whole album and especially that track gives me this vibe of abandoned missile silos in siberia
― clouds, Wednesday, 20 September 2017 22:48 (seven years ago) link
i love the way it descends into that final outro of chattering teletype noise and the way they let it run on
― be the cringe you want to see in the world (Noodle Vague), Wednesday, 20 September 2017 22:51 (seven years ago) link
been in a real Autechre mood since it turned out my housemate has had a vinyl copy of Draft7.30 stashed away and didn't tell me. Man, that album did nothing for me when I first heard it but it's taken this long to really show its colours. I always heard it as an extremely rhythmic, monochromatic album with few melodies, but listening to the record in the kitchen on my battered old portable turntable somehow made the basslines and more melodic textures jump out loads. There are at least 3 tracks on there that I'd consider putting in my top 10 or 20 tunes now, whereas before I'd written it off as a dud.
This is an interesting poll. If I'd have put money on it, I'd have expected Arch Carrier to win outright but it got beaten by a good few places. Funny that Cichli, the winner, didn't get any number 1 votes. Also strange that Cap.IV, the third track on a relatively obscure stand-alone single made it right into the top 5 - not a track I'd have expected to place so high.
It's a shame Dropp and Outpt ranked so low - two peas from the same pod that rely on a very simple idea executed really well on EP7.
The top ten is a jumble of my all-time faves and ones that just never really registered or moved me (VletRmx, Clipper, Pen Expers, the latter which I find actively horrible).
― Badgers (dog latin), Monday, 5 February 2018 10:36 (six years ago) link
I also wonder, if we were to do this again with the latest album included, would more late-period Ae place? Much as I love Cichli and Arch Carrier etc, it's interesting to hear how some of their music has aged. LP5 sounded like the most complicated, futuristic, impossible music ever at the time and now it sounds relatively flat-pan, poppy even. I can't even listen to Amber any more although strangely Incunabula sounds better than ever these days
― Badgers (dog latin), Monday, 5 February 2018 12:09 (six years ago) link
'latentcall' would have a shout of making the top ten i think
― imago, Monday, 5 February 2018 12:17 (six years ago) link
c16 deep tread would be in there too i'd hope
― Badgers (dog latin), Monday, 5 February 2018 12:32 (six years ago) link
LP5 sounded like the most complicated, futuristic, impossible music ever at the time and now it sounds relatively flat-pan, poppy even.
hah I know exactly what you mean. I still think their pre-Confield material holds up quite well (Amber still sounds great to me), but yea LP5 sounds a bit gimmicky now, though my opinion there is probably colored by the fact that I too thought that was probably the pinnacle of IDM and maybe electronic music in general at some point
would be interesting to run this again, especially given that Ae's stuff generally tends to run through a three-year cycle of "This is hardly music!" -> "It's actually pretty good, just different" -> "Absolutely classic". As great as they were in the past, every time I want to listen to them I wind up playing something from the last 10 years. "d sho qub" would be my #1 if I were to take it again.
― frogbs, Monday, 5 February 2018 13:46 (six years ago) link
a three-year cycle of "This is hardly music!" -> "It's actually pretty good, just different" -> "Absolutely classic"
Or even 15 years in some cases (fuck, how did Draft come out FIFTEEN YEARS AGO???)
― Badgers (dog latin), Monday, 5 February 2018 14:01 (six years ago) link
Anyone else think of Autechre in terms of 'eras' above albums, a bit like console generations? For fear of starting yet another Ae poll, this is how it's organised in my head:
1st era - Incunabula, Amber, Tri RepetaeThis is the trickiest to define really since each album sounds quite different from the last, but it's kind of them starting out, finding their sound etc. Incunabula and Amber were groundbreaking and full of great ideas, but in retrospect slot nicely in with the Warp/Artificial Intelligence roster. Tri Repetae certainly points to the granular, mechanoid sound that would come to define them.
2nd era - Chiastic Slide, LP5, EP7This is the 'classical' period for me. They've worked out who they are and are making a completely unique sound away from most. I still go back to these albums all the time. Chiastic Slide still sounds challenging. LP5 is actually a little more accessible and has fantastic flatplan melodies for days. EP7 is just a chocolate box of great ideas.
3rd era - Confield, Draft7.30, UntiltedI guess I'd call this a 'wilderness' era. Confield was so hyped at the time but compared to the (relatively) accessible sounds of LP5, I always found it an abstruse and awkward listen. I treid and tried with that one, but I felt like there was something I wasn't getting, and that any attempt to 'enjoy' it felt a bit like I was eating my greens. I've come around to Draft and Untilted in recent years, but at first I was disappointed by the focus on pure beats and lack of pretty hooks. It also felt like this kind of music was losing its cachet around this time - Aphex was to all but stop releasing new music in the 2000s, Plaid were in a creative dead-end, and dubstep and minimal house stepped in to fill the 'home listening electronica' hole (except you could dance to it).
4th era - Quaristice, OverstepsI'm not sure what you'd call this period, maybe the 'First Data Era'? Often overlooked, I see it as a creative (if not commercial) bounce-back. A bigger focus on melodies and the kind of playfulness heard on LP5 and EP7 rather than the po-faced hyper-intelligent rhythmic overdrive of Untilted. Quaristice is an outlier in that it seems to be made up of short vignettes that keep things moving along. Oversteps is a really enjoyable 12-track album you can listen to in one sitting without getting a headache. But conversely, it's also the start of Autechre proliferating multiple accompanying albums which bulked-out their output considerably. No longer was it about a handy collection of tracks but a huge sprawl of sounds that would only multiply as the years went on.
5th era - Exai, elseq, NTS SessionsI remember reviewing Exai and wondering at the time whether a double album of Autechre was really necessary, expecially when I was struggling to catch up with quaristice.quadrange and Move of Ten. Were I to know exactly how much material they'd go on to release in the 2010s, I would have kept quiet. The Second Data Era is defined as much by the medium as the message: the format being one of the most remarkable things about it. The fact they were able to release the whole of the NTS Sessions on vinyl (whereas they'd stipulated that MP3 was the preferred format on previous releases), was interesting but not surprising. Autechre have always stayed firm about being a breaks-based act and it would make sense that their music is playable on a vinyl format.
― frame casual (dog latin), Tuesday, 8 October 2019 13:33 (four years ago) link
Good post. I like the 3rd era far more than you seem to, and I'm one of those people often ridiculed here for thinking that NTS is not only Ae's masterpiece but one of the greatest collections of music of the past ten or fifteen years, but I think this is a pretty reasonable breakdown of the distinct eras
― Paul Ponzi, Tuesday, 8 October 2019 13:37 (four years ago) link