Autechre - Amber

What sounds like Amber? Yeah nothing *exactly*, of course, except maybe Gescom's (duh) Sciew Spoc, although that's atypical with its almost A/B song structure.

Other than stuff already mentioned, Bedouin Ascent had a similarly nifty way with syncopated patterns (of which Montreal is almost the ideal form, Glitch and Piezo to an extent of I remember titles correctly. Later the mighty Rotar.)

Treading The Earth is prob the most Amber-like. I loved Pavilion Of The New Spirit but the jazz / proto broken beat vibe turned / may turn some off.

Oh, this EP came out in 1992!

https://youtu.be/QZdC2fNhhls

The ambient bit at the end of four of seven on NTS 1 sounds a *lot* like it could be on BA's Science, Art & Ritual, incidentally.

Always happy to get an excuse to mention this guy's music.

loving the takes in this thread, map in particular very much otm

Just for the hell of it I checked my iTunes library and I have 495 tracks in my Autechre section, no repeats (unless you count "Weissensee" at both 33 and 45). And many of those are live sets, so I could actually listen for 7 straight days from front to back.

Map, were you calling me a drunk guy?

no lol, tombot

although we've all been drunk guys i'm sure

great posts by map and j upthread, a pleasure to read

also this:

it wasn't so much new plugins as it was gradually moving to max/msp and an object-oriented programming approach to composition though, right? at least that's how i always think of their transition from more conventionally arranged music of the amber era to their amoebic morphing (but always readily identifiable as autechre) recent music.

― obviously DLC (Karl Malone), Friday, May 4, 2018 11:30 PM (three days ago) Bookmark Flag Post Permalink

is otm. I guess I fall on the side of preferring the recent (post-Confield) music because, at the most basic level, I'd rather listen to Roland Kayn than Boards of Canada. At a less basic level, j said it more eloquently than I could in the post quoted above.

ok i get what you're saying, i get that the aleatory elements were always there (at least since flutter) but i feel autechre were much much better when the tension between avant garde and functional was still there

― the late great, Saturday, May 5, 2018 1:02 AM (two days ago) Bookmark Flag Post Permalink

I feel exactly the opposite! It isn't as if the Mantronix / boom bap / Kraftwerk funk has disappeared, it's just become so much more integrated and subtle, which is why I find latter-day Autechre so singular and why early Autechre (as many have argued on this thread) can--fairly or not--sound part of a particular time and place. This may sound naive, and I may regret writing this if ILX exists in fifteen years, but I don't think NTS Sessions will ever sound dated.

I will also concede it may also be that the early work reminds me of my life back then, so of course it sounds dated to me. I wonder what a person discovering Autechre for the first time today would make of listening to Amber and Exai back to back. I think context is mega important here. Does Portishead's Dummy sound like the 90s because it is forever associated with a certain strain of coffee shop lifestyle music, or does it sound like the 90s because that's when you heard it? Would a teenager in 2018 hear "Wandering Star" and immediately think "oh, 90s, blech." I'm not so sure.

I sort of envy a person getting to hear any of this stuff for the first time.

I think you're mostly right PP, but the elements of NTS which disappoint me a little are the very obvious sonic callbacks to their earlier work, e.g. column thirteen is basically an extended O=0 - sometime when I'm feeling strong I might make a list. But aside from those quibbles, it's clear that the guys have complete control over the sounds they are trying to get, and the balance of chaos and determinism in the way the tracks play and mutate. At heart they feel rhythm and sound viscerally, and in many ways I think their quest has been finding ways to maximise that buzz - letting a track mutate slowly so that the same rhythm figure means something different every time, or making the sequence stumble and trip while your brain fixes it and waits anxiously for the track to get back on the rails, or presenting 200 variations on a sound or a melody until it lifts out of the track. They've been pressing these buttons for the last 25 years and getting better and better at it, so now tracks can run 10, 20, 60 minutes and stay riveting.

column thirteen is basically an extended O=0
One is all tuned comb filters, the other is FM chimes. Completely different ;-)

O=0 sounds like it should be the theme tune for a science-based afternoon quiz show in the 80s.

So does the following track now I come to mention it.

One is all tuned comb filters, the other is FM chimes. Completely different ;-)

Foil for me here every time

Autechre have come back to the Amber sound and structure in later works, definitely on Exai for example.

apparently even perception of similarity can be completely subjective!

It isn't as if the Mantronix / boom bap / Kraftwerk funk has disappeared, it's just become so much more integrated and subtle

right, so ... pretty much what i was saying?

starting to become more familiar with this album, my love for it growing each and every day

Automatic thread bump. This poll is closing tomorrow.

Automatic thread bump. This poll's results are now in.

Did I ever share this?

https://i.imgur.com/ByzHWT7.jpg

Coincidence? I think not. Just played Papa Don't Preach backwards at 33rpm and it sounds remarkably like Teartear ;-)

soundcloud or it didn't happen

it didn't. love the cover connection though

Very good! Wrong album, but I've always through 'Recury' off Chiastic Slide would have been brilliant with an MC over the top.

I do love the idea of Madonna, ear to the ground, reading word of Autechre in the hipper corners of the press, putting on an album in search of new producers to mine for ideas, then immediately pressing stop.

Desperately seeking Surripere.

autechre really should have done more work with mcs

Ccec iis the only thing I can think of with an "MC" on it.

Funkstorung are kind of "Autechre with MCs", right?

East Flatbush Project - Tried by 12 (Autechre mix) (which basically dissolves into ccec); The Bug - Skeng (Autechre Remix); the microphone fiend 'remix' (mashed up with blifil live)...

but yeah, more would be great.

"Goz Quarter" from Envane samples Kool Keith rapping

Them collaborating with Tricky in the 90s is one of the big missed opportunities I think. He was going into dark electronica territory on Pre-Millennium Tension which would have married with ae's aesthetic quite well I think. They could have bonded over a shared love of 'Microphone Fiend'.

I always thought their remix of Tortoise was an odd match. They never remixed or worked with NIN, did they? That's surprising, all things considered.

YOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOO @ the madonna combo

Heh, yeah always makes me laugh. It was a genuine double take on my part - the Madonna album was out on a shelf one day and in the corner of my eye I thought I saw Amber. Some of the detailing and how they may have up is uncanny

https://www.stonesthrow.com/app/uploads/2020/06/beauty-and-the-beast-1024x518.jpg

Just read that was a thing

I dreamt that there was a suite of videos for the whole album that somehow I'd never discovered - drone flybys of landscapes like the one on the cover, manipulated with 2d and 3d digital effects, fitting the music perfectly and talking it to another level (though I think in the dream the music was actually my own subconscious creation!)

Feel like I need a full-library Autechre session soon, it's been a while since I've listened to any of their albums which is stupid because they are perfect for losing myself in sandbox video game worlds and late night hacking