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Autechre |OT|

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P

Poimandres

Member
swordfishtrombones said:
Excellent topic, will go over it link by link.

Has anyone ever seen them perform live? I heard some rumors that they perform in pitch black?
Click to expand...

I saw them live last year after wishing for an Australian tour for 10 years.

They do play in darkness. Well, as much as the venue will allow. It was utterly mind searing, and completely different sounding from the album they had released only a few months prior (or anything else they've done, for that matter).

You have to know what you're getting in for though. I saw people leaving after 15 minutes. It's definitely an intense experience, but I was suitably amazed.
 
A

Antagon

Member
There's actually quite a few Autechre fans here.

Just been listening to Move of Ten because of this thread, first time listen. Sounds great from what I've heard, quite accessible as well.
 
A

Alex Connolly

Member
Antagon said:
There's actually quite a few Autechre fans here.

Just been listening to Move of Ten because of this thread, first time listen. Sounds great from what I've heard, quite accessible as well.
Click to expand...

Good to hear! It's really quite a subtle piece of production. Utterly raw, sonically, but very well reigned-in.

And yeah, fantastic to see the GAF AE fans in one place.
 
T

thelatestmodel

Junior, please.
Nice OP, I love Autechre - well, the stuff I'm familiar with anyway. I have to say that I have yet to devote the time necessary to really get to grips with their work.

I have listened to the Early Years stuff many times, but Chiastic Slide, LP5 and beyond have only had a few listens here and there. I suppose you could call me a fan of the early years, and something of a neophyte when it comes to their more recent material. I love Gantz Graf, but apart from that I've yet to immerse myself in it.

There is a lot to like on the early albums. I can't think of many tracks that don't fit or are noticeably inferior to the rest. Bike and 444 are particularly awesome, and there is simply nothing like Piezo to make you feel like you're drifting through space, lost forever.

OK, new mission for this week - start at Chiastic Slide and work my way through!
 
S

Smithy C

Member
I've only listened to Oversteps and Quaristice, but they were both pretty good. I should probably get a couple more albums and maybe the EP box set that just came out.
 
H

HappyBivouac

Member
Untitled was the first thing I ever heard from this group and it is what got me hooked. Their music just does this thing to my head that no other music has ever approached. Really great for creative inspiration. Untitled especially does this. It really is an incredible work of art. Everything just happens in a way that feels like a wholly organic, living, breathing machine and it's just beautiful. That's what it is to me anyway.
 
T

thelatestmodel

Junior, please.
HappyBivouac said:
Untitled was the first thing I ever heard from this group and it is what got me hooked. Their music just does this thing to my head that no other music has ever approached. Really great for creative inspiration. Untitled especially does this. It really is an incredible work of art. Everything just happens in a way that feels like a wholly organic, living, breathing machine and it's just beautiful. That's what it is to me anyway.
Click to expand...

Prepare for a shock - the album is actually called Untilted, not Untitled. I made that mistake to begin with!
 
A

Alex Connolly

Member
Smithy C said:
I've only listened to Oversteps and Quaristice, but they were both pretty good. I should probably get a couple more albums and maybe the EP box set that just came out.
Click to expand...

That's pretty crazy! Anecdotally, I've rarely met a fellow who's only jumped into the most recent of AE. Not that there's anything wrong with that at all! Cool beans. You've got a lot of great material to sort through, and moreover, I'm really interested in hearing what you think of the earlier work.
 
T

The Interrobanger

Member
Poimandres said:
Is that a Seven Ark avatar I see?

Personally, I feel the quality of their output is very high and rather consistent. Most IDM artists seem patchy in comparison. I'm curious who you feel in the genre deserves more recognition than Autechre. Also, as much as I love warm melodies and glitchy beats I wouldn't want Autechre to regress.

I'm a huge fan of Autechre, and I'll do a proper write up of my thoughts when I get home from work.
Click to expand...

Seven Ark, yep. :)

Love Noise of the New and it's artwork. Too bad he's off producing for Die Antwoord now instead of doing more solo stuff.

RE: Autechre, I've always felt their recent output pales in comparison to their older work, but this thread seems to put me in the minority.

Brettison said:
As someone who sort of fell out keeping track of IDM, but has recently tried to get back into it (I asked for some recommendations in the big IDM FB group) I came to a similar conclusion.

One the one hand it's totally cool that IDM has seeped into the rest of the music world on some level. I still wish I got more IDM focused albums though. The indie stuff is close, but tends to be less "out there" and with the vocal stuff.

PS: Where the fuck is my new BoC album?!?!?!?!
Click to expand...

There hasn't been alot in the last few years (the following list is 2007-present) that's really gotten me excited. I only buy vinyl these days too, which makes it even tougher. Keep in mind, some of these aren't really classified as IDM but are about as close as you can get.

Mostly instrumental:
Yvat - Unfolded (amazingly warm and crunchy)
Solar Bears - She Was Coloured In/Inner Sunshine
Teebs – Ardour (more downtempo then idm, but really good)
Dam Mantle - Grey EP/Purple Arrow EP
Rival Consoles - Helvetica EP/The Decadent EP
Jon Hopkins - Insides
Cex - Bataille Royale (best stuff he's done since his early work)
Salfetky - Treska (love russian IDM!)
Harmonic 313 – When Machines Exceed Human Intelligence
Gold Panda - Luck Shiner (plus his early EPs)
B. Fleischmann - Angst Is Not A Weltanschauung!/Humbucking Coil
Kelpe - Ex-Aquarium (Last few releases have been shit though)
Cylob - Bounds Green (Sounds like a direct followup to Cylobian Sunset...so good)
Rustie - Sunburst EP/Bad Science EP
EOD - Utrecht (more acid/techno, but whatever)
Wisp - The Shimmering Hour
Eskmo - Eskmo
Nosaj Thing – Drift
Solvent - Subject To Shift (not his best work, but decent)
The Glitch Mob - Drink The Sea (closest thing we'll get to another Crying Over Pros)
Asura - Asura (probably the closest thing to BoC in the last few years)
Kingfisherg - Fire Hum
Misel Quitno - Sleep Over Pieces Vol. 1
Springintgut – Park And Ride

Mostly vocal:
Baths - Cerulean
Son Lux - We Are Rising/At War With Walls And Mazes
The Berg Sans Nipple - Along The Quai/Build With Erosion
Invisible Conga People (kinda sound like The Knife with male vocals)
Tobacco - Maniac Meat/Fucked Up Freinds
Bodi Bill – No More Wars
Memory Tapes - Seek Magic

I also really like most of the "skwee" movement stuff, even though the scene seems to have fizzled out really quick. It's more quirky and playful than most but the melodies are usually fantastic. Basically anything by:
Limonious
Pavan
Daniel Savio
Eero Johannes
Randy Baracuda
Rigas Den Andre
 
S

Sol..

I am Wayne Brady.
i've enjoyed some stuff i've caught around the bend, but i've yet to ever really listen to their stuff because they've never allowed their products on the four subscription music platforms i've used going on almost a decade.
 
U

umop_3pisdn

Member
Untilted, Chiastic Slide, and Confield used to be my top three, but now I have to add Oversteps and Move of Ten to the list, somewhere. I also like Quadrange significantly more than Quaristice, and I'd rank that pretty high, too.

My least favorite overall is probably Draft 7.30 and Incunabula, but they're both still good, and Incunabula has 444 even though I find some of the rest kind of eh.

I probably have a preference for their later stuff, even though it took me a pretty long time to "get" every single track on, say, Move of Ten (or Untilted, or Confield). Their music seems to have more profound refinement the less they seem to bother with accessibility. The less "hooks" there are, the more you have to go actively searching for them, but when you do they begin popping up in the strangest places. It seems like they're often content to explore the dividing line between "music" and "noise", and the dialogue between the two sheds a bold new light on both in a way I never seem to expect.

I find I can listen to an album for months and not really "get it", but then one day I give it just a bit more attention, and it suddenly "clicks", as if all that time that's all I was really missing. It's weird, it's familiar hearing people imply that attentiveness pays off, but this basically takes it to a new level where my entire appreciation for music and sensitivity to sound is effectively deepened beyond my old, more comfortable limitations. Just learning how to listen to it presents both significant challenge and reward.

edit:
Yuop is so good. I don't care what I'm doing or what mood I'm in, whenever it comes on I pretty much have to drop what I'm doing and give it my full attention. Oversteps has such a nice balance between warmer and colder tones, probably my favorite use of melody since Chiastic Slide.
 
A

Antagon

Member
Sol.. said:
i've enjoyed some stuff i've caught around the bend, but i've yet to ever really listen to their stuff because they've never allowed their products on the four subscription music platforms i've used going on almost a decade.
Click to expand...

Which are they? In the last couple of months nearly all their stuff has been put up on Spotify.
 
A

Alex Connolly

Member
umop_3pisdn said:
Untilted, Chiastic Slide, and Confield used to be my top three, but now I have to add Oversteps and Move of Ten to the list, somewhere. I also like Quadrange significantly more than Quaristice, and I'd rank that pretty high, too.

My least favorite overall is probably Draft 7.30 and Incunabula, but they're both still good, and Incunabula has 444 even though I find some of the rest kind of eh.

I probably have a preference for their later stuff, even though it took me a pretty long time to "get" every single track on, say, Move of Ten (or Untilted, or Confield). Their music seems to have more profound refinement the less they seem to bother with accessibility. The less "hooks" there are, the more you have to go actively searching for them, but when you do they begin popping up in the strangest places. It seems like they're often content to explore the dividing line between "music" and "noise", and the dialogue between the two sheds a bold new light on both in a way I never seem to expect.

I find I can listen to an album for months and not really "get it", but then one day I give it just a bit more attention, and it suddenly "clicks", as if all that time that's all I was really missing. It's weird, it's familiar hearing people imply that attentiveness pays off, but this basically takes it to a new level where my entire appreciation for music and sensitivity to sound is effectively deepened beyond my old, more comfortable limitations. Just learning how to listen to it presents both significant challenge and reward.

edit:
Yuop is so good. I don't care what I'm doing or what mood I'm in, whenever it comes on I pretty much have to drop what I'm doing and give it my full attention. Oversteps has such a nice balance between warmer and colder tones, probably my favorite use of melody since Chiastic Slide.
Click to expand...

Spot on. Agreed on the, I suppose, "learning" of an album and the satisfaction received once it hits.
 
P

Poimandres

Member
I think a special mention has to be made of the Autechre-and-friends Gescom releases. Some of their best music has been released under this moniker (sometimes collaborations with friends, sometimes alone apparently)

Key Nell 1 (1996, Key Nell EP): http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Q42PDVvDzHI

Pelt (1998, This EP): http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=QZXk8sD8g8g

Viral Rival (1998, This EP): http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=-J3-As8FqdA

Chunge (1998, That EP): http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=8wOHUssqPPI

Slow Acid (2003, ISS:SA EP): http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Xl93h7eRHzg

I would particularly recommend Keynell and This EP to fans of Autechre's mid career melodic-but-crunchy phase.
 
G

Gaylord Sweetwood

Member
I have known about Autechre for a long time, but completely fell out of touch with them after Tri-Repetae. Incunabula is probably in my top 5 favorite albums of all time though. Here's a few of my favorites from them:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=V2cXsPGJi5E
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=eplM1QfyMsw
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=hfTAv8htci8
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=coPcRW1Xm2g
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=slAxzLC2RME
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=lpnu_RnZr6M (Gescom)
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=hsg9uNThBeM (Gescom)

I guess you could say I lost interest when they stopped channeling Detroit or the Artificial Intelligence era. Their past album supposedly had some elements that were in their old music, but I have yet to give it an attentive listen.
 
S

Seraphinianus

Banned
Sol.. said:
i've enjoyed some stuff i've caught around the bend, but i've yet to ever really listen to their stuff because they've never allowed their products on the four subscription music platforms i've used going on almost a decade.
Click to expand...


well then, swallow your pride and by it on itunes or bleep? seems odd to arbitrarily limit your music choices to just four subscription platforms. it should be about the music and not the industry...
 
8

8bit

Knows the Score
One recent item of interest was the Autechre.ws web radio broadcast in support of the Oversteps release, 12 hours of mostly great music. Dunno where you might find it these days though.
 
P

Poimandres

Member
Gaylord Sweetwood said:
I have known about Autechre for a long time, but completely fell out of touch with them after Tri-Repetae. Incunabula is probably in my top 5 favorite albums of all time though.
Click to expand...

For anyone who is a big fan on Incunabula I recommend (insist!) that you track down Bola Soup. Bola is actually credited on the Incunabula liner notes, and he apparently taught Sean and Rob a few things about synths and melodies. The albums have similar feels, and Soup is amazing in general.

Bola - Forcasa 1 http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=kKdufZcx3W8

Bola - Forcasa 3 http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Lz9itUo5xtc&feature=related

Bola - Whoblo http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=dcbNeRkByDo
 
G

Gaylord Sweetwood

Member
Poimandres said:
For anyone who is a big fan on Incunabula I recommend (insist!) that you track down Bola Soup. Bola is actually credited on the Incunabula liner notes, and he apparently taught Sean and Rob a few things about synths and melodies. The albums have similar feels, and Soup is amazing in general.

Bola - Forcasa 1 http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=kKdufZcx3W8

Bola - Forcasa 3 http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Lz9itUo5xtc&feature=related

Bola - Whoblo http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=dcbNeRkByDo
Click to expand...

Yeah, I have a couple of Bolaman's albums. Soup and Fyuti. I'm pretty sure 1 of the Gescom songs I listed (Five) has a lot of Darrell's input.
 
A

Alex Connolly

Member
CaptYamato said:
This is actually good.
Click to expand...

Indeed! You never know, that ONE collaboration between AE and Mari Hamada back in the 90s (in the OP if you're interested or haven't heard it) means there's always a chance - however infinitesimal - that a AE+KPOP collab might be on the cards. A remix wouldn't go astray.

And great Gescom tracks, Poimandres. I'll edit the OP with them this evening. Pelt and Viral Rival are amazing, totally inspired and worthy of the dog-eared, well-worn, oft-misapplied descriptor "epic".
 
A

Alex Connolly

Member
Autechre.jpg


And for the few who don't know what the gents look like, here's a photo.
 
U

umop_3pisdn

Member
Pylon_Trooper said:
And great Gescom tracks, Poimandres. I'll edit the OP with them this evening. Pelt and Viral Rival are amazing, totally inspired and worthy of the dog-eared, well-worn, oft-misapplied descriptor "epic".
Click to expand...

Those were the two that stood out for me the most, too. Putting the minidisc on repeat for an indefinite period is also a really novel experience.
 
A

Alex Connolly

Member
umop_3pisdn said:
Those were the two that stood out for me the most, too. Putting the minidisc on repeat for an indefinite period is also a really novel experience.
Click to expand...

They are both burned into my amygdala with the detail and definition of a high-quality WAV recording. I dunno, just such awesome tracks. Few others come close by others.

I recently listened to Plaid's remix of Vletrmx and got sentimental about the old days. Those carefree days...it's not a mindblowing remix by any standard, but Plaid always had that summer party feeling.
 
U

umop_3pisdn

Member
Pylon_Trooper said:
They are both burned into my amygdala with the detail and definition of a high-quality WAV recording. I dunno, just such awesome tracks. Few others come close by others.

I recently listened to Plaid's remix of Vletrmx and got sentimental about the old days. Those carefree days...it's not a mindblowing remix by any standard, but Plaid always had that summer party feeling.
Click to expand...

Yes, that remix is awesome
PS, are you me?
 
G

Gaylord Sweetwood

Member
Pylon_Trooper said:
They are both burned into my amygdala with the detail and definition of a high-quality WAV recording. I dunno, just such awesome tracks. Few others come close by others.

I recently listened to Plaid's remix of Vletrmx and got sentimental about the old days. Those carefree days...it's not a mindblowing remix by any standard, but Plaid always had that summer party feeling.
Click to expand...

It may not be as mindblowing as other Plaid remixes (they are the best remixers in my book, Reload/Global Communication come in 2nd), but I do enjoy it more than the original. Plaid/Balil/Old Black Dog are hugely underrated within the Warp community.
 
A

Alex Connolly

Member
Gaylord Sweetwood said:
It may not be as mindblowing as other Plaid remixes (they are the best remixers in my book, Reload/Global Communication come in 2nd), but I do enjoy it more than the original. Plaid/Balil/Old Black Dog are hugely underrated within the Warp community.
Click to expand...

Understandable. I dunno, the sheer simplicity of the original Vletrmx is part of its appeal. At least within my group of friends, Plaid is relatively well-regarded! All their work got regular slots in the playlists.
 
P

Poimandres

Member
Pylon_Trooper said:
Understandable. I dunno, the sheer simplicity of the original Vletrmx is part of its appeal. At least within my group of friends, Plaid is relatively well-regarded! All their work got regular slots in the playlists.
Click to expand...

Plaid are just good fun to listen to. They will always have a place in my collection!

Speaking of which, word is Plaid's new album is done and is waiting for release. Given how long I've been waiting for this one I won't believe it until I hold it in my hands.

Good call on the Gescom tracks as well. Viral Rival and Pelt are also my favourites, and I've lost count of how many times I've listened to both.
 
U

umop_3pisdn

Member
So what autechre tracks do you find exerting more of a subtler pull over time? One track I find kind of mysterious is Pule. At first listen it seemed pretty boring, and even now I often forget about it. But then I get reminded of it again. There's such an interesting emotional tone to that one, I wouldn't really call it a favorite exactly, but it seems to have planted a sort of invisible hook into me. Whatever feeling it scratches seems to have me returning to it quite a bit. Redfall is another one that's sort of like that. They have this talent for conveying complex, ambiguous, or neutrally beautiful feeling in a way that's so entirely concise and to the point
 
O

Operations

Member
I didn't know about their existence before entering this thread. After spending some quality time listening to some of their tracks, I thank and salute the OP!
 
D

Davidion

Member
Poimandres said:
For anyone who is a big fan on Incunabula I recommend (insist!) that you track down Bola Soup. Bola is actually credited on the Incunabula liner notes, and he apparently taught Sean and Rob a few things about synths and melodies. The albums have similar feels, and Soup is amazing in general.

Bola - Forcasa 1 http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=kKdufZcx3W8

Bola - Forcasa 3 http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Lz9itUo5xtc&feature=related

Bola - Whoblo http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=dcbNeRkByDo
Click to expand...

Bola fucking rocks. Eluus and Effaninor gets regular play. Somebody else around here listens to Bola?

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=7o2IqS0OPfE

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=JmwGnJnRQDo
 
P

Poimandres

Member
umop_3pisdn said:
So what autechre tracks do you find exerting more of a subtler pull over time? One track I find kind of mysterious is Pule. At first listen it seemed pretty boring, and even now I often forget about it. But then I get reminded of it again. There's such an interesting emotional tone to that one, I wouldn't really call it a favorite exactly, but it seems to have planted a sort of invisible hook into me. Whatever feeling it scratches seems to have me returning to it quite a bit. Redfall is another one that's sort of like that. They have this talent for conveying complex, ambiguous, or neutrally beautiful feeling in a way that's so entirely concise and to the point
Click to expand...

Pule is a great track! Chiastic Slide as a whole might be my favourite Autechre album.

A lot of stuff on Confield strikes me as subtle. Parhelic Triangle, for example, has this wonderful melody that is only revealed in the closing moments of the track. It took me a while to really notice that one. At one stage Piezo was one of my least favourite tracks on Amber, but now I think it's a real standout.
 
U

umop_3pisdn

Member
Poimandres said:
Pule is a great track! Chiastic Slide as a whole might be my favourite Autechre album.

A lot of stuff on Confield strikes me as subtle. Parhelic Triangle, for example, has this wonderful melody that is only revealed in the closing moments of the track. It took me a while to really notice that one. At one stage Piezo was one of my least favourite tracks on Amber, but now I think it's a real standout.
Click to expand...

I agree Chiastic Slide is amazing, there's something about the tone of the entire album that makes it stand out so much to me. It's a poor comparison, but it's sort of like the impression I get from Debussy, sort of like melody spilling out into empty space. And there's a vague warmth to it that seems to transcend cheesiness. Cichlisuite is also my favorite EP, there's really something magical about that era.

And I agree with Confield and Piezo. I was actually thinking of Parhelic Triangle when I made that post! So haunting, and the combination of the melody with those other more textured sounds. At one point ~5 minutes in it feels like crumpling up and dying, but more like how the French might call an orgasm "la petite mort", I don't know really what else to equate it to. It's kind of feverish, lurching, and haunting, and then leads to this sort of subtle climax that's almost ecstatic... and then it fades out. It's both subtle and raw.

Lentic Catachresis is another subtle piece of brilliance from Confield. Man, just, man. I heard someone say this once, "the closest music can get to the destruction of personality," and if I had found those words myself that is exactly what I would say.

In terms of melody, I probably consider Oversteps second to Chiastic Slide. They're obviously quite different, but there's something about Oversteps that kind of feels similar, though I have no clear idea what it is.
 
V

V_Arnold

Member
Infected Mushroom is my gateway to all this. Before them I could not stand any "electronic"-based music.
OP, I am thankful.
 
B

Brobzoid

how do I slip unnoticed out of a gloryhole booth?
first heard them on a remix in the ninja tune "20 years of beats and pieces" package. I haven't taken the dive yet, but I've been eying some vinyl at a local store for some time now...
 
U

umop_3pisdn

Member
I'm going to be a gibbering fan for a second, but honestly these guys are so great. It's really late but kudos to the excellent OP, I'm glad you were the one to make this thread. I was just so excited to begin discussing their work I failed standard courtesy in actually reading the thread...

edit: Hey, julls :)
 
A

Alex Connolly

Member
'Tis my pleasure. I've been wanting a dedicated thread for the duo for a while now, and it certainly can be a branching discussion into other acts within the subset. Recommendations etc.
 
K

Kraftwerk

Member
I cried in the last 10 seconds.

After the journey through the darkness of space, you arrive on a forgotten planet. Long abondaned by Elder Ones, whom have gone now. Ventured forth into other dimensions.

It just elevates you. Finding the thing you yearn for most.

THIS is what music is about.

So good....
 
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