A journey through Autechre's discography. - Music Diaries

Fast-and-Bulbous

Thumbnail. Click to enlarge.

With the release of SIGN, i have find myself diving once again into Autechre's discography. Now for years i have called myself an Autechre fan, and i even had the chance to watch them live (it was awesome and someone thankfully made a recording of the mix here).

But i must confess i have mostly gravited around the same release, meaning Oversteps, Envane, Quaristice and Amber. Part of it is because Autechre is such a prolific duo, their discography feels very daunting. Since i have discovered them on Oversteps, they have released three LPs, one compliation, two EPs, a enormous live compilation, and one equally long radio session; all of them ranging from 70min to frickin 8 hours. And their back catalog is enormous as well. With so much to listen, you could understanbly feel quite lost. Furthermore, anyone that has listened to Autechre knows that their music is asking for a really focused listen.

So, all that being said, i have finally decided to tackle this monstrosity. I will listen to one release per day chronologically, including EPs and LPs since so much of Autechre's best stuff is on EP ( and some of them are frickin' two hours long). I don't think i will include the live stuff because... well i hope to finish this before my hair has turned gray. I will probably cut the later long release like elseq 1-5 in manageable pieces (i am not sure what i'll do with the NTS Sessions yet, we will see if i have gone mad by the time we get to there.)

Anyhow, i'll try to repot daily on here, and maybe rank them, but i don't promise anything. Feel free to discuss anything along the way.

Fast-and-Bulbous

Day 1. Lego Feet - Ska001 / Cavity Job

Thumbnail. Click to enlarge.

At first, i thought i would start this diary with cavity Job only, being the first relased under the name Autechre. But then i found out that first it's only a single with two tracks, so i wouldn't have much to say about it. Second, it is pretty much a product of the Manchester rave scene that the duo were in at the time. It is hardcore acid techno stuff, designed to be blasted at full volume in an abandonned warehouse. Outside of that context, i guess it depends if you are into that type of music. Not so much for me. Still the opener starts with a very relevant moment for this journey (sadly absent from the latter EP 1991-2002 reissue), as you hear someone saying :

Quote:

Now, i don't want you to panic. Just lay back and relax.

Folowed by what sounds like... well a cavity job gone extremely wrong. Otherwise not much autechrism© on here.

Lego Feet, on the other hand, sounds much more like Autechre than the first Autechre will. It is also a very honest 36 minutes long. There is some mix-up in the tracklist, since it has been reissued latter by Skam with additional tracks that i suspect Autechre tinkered with a bit. As far as i'm concerned this seems to be the original pressing.

It is still club music in 4/4, but you can hear on there some of the sounds and textures that Autechre will latter explore, like the long and dark harmonies around the 25min mark, that are drowned by throbing harsh percussions. Each "track" (originally none of them were titled) are followed by a disprutive short bridge of various harsh white noise or sound, showing that Sean Booth and Rob Brown already couldn't be asked to be straigthforward for a long time.

Last edited by Fast-and-Bulbous on 10/23/2020 22:32; edited 2 times in total

Luigii

Gender: Male
Age: 28

This is definitely something I want to stay up to date with. Still have to listen to Elseq as well as the majority of eps. But Autechre are one of my personal favorites and will enjoy the ride.

Fast-and-Bulbous

Day 2. Incunabula

Thumbnail. Click to enlarge.

god is this cover art ugly

Now we're getting into the real stuffs. Incunabula now has some kind of a cult following, but it was never really my favorite until now. After this listen i certainly appreciate it a bit more, although it still isn't my preferred album by Autechre. For an actual first LP still, it is remarkable how much of the duo's vocabulary of sounds and textures is already here. It only misses a little bit of the Autechre abstraction for the duo to trully become the one-of-a-kind band that they will become.
Once again, it is still designed for the club i feel, if there was really ever an Intelligent Dance Music, this what it would sound like. At the same time, it is much more chill than i remembered. The whole album gives off a kind of Selected Ambient Work vibe, but it is really the last time than any influence can be discernebly assigned to Autechre.

A lot of the tracks can be boiled to a formula of long dark harmonies under a continous beat. Maybe it lacks a bit of variety, but it is a pretty effective formula that makes for a very enjoyable listen, and this is not an adjective that usually comes to mind at first when listening to Sean and Rob. Then, it is nice to have some Autechre that you could actually play at a party without everybody asking you if you have lost your mind Very Happy

. Although rarely straigth bangers, pretty much all of the track have this head-bobbing quality of club music.

The only exception is the opener, Kalpol Intro, a beatless collection of harmonies that prefigure the type of abstract landscapes that Autechre will latter excel on. It is followed by Bike, that became somewhat of a classic among Autechre fans, and understandbly so. it is a somewhat calm track with a continous melody on the synth that feels almost improvisional. The use of analog synthetisers gives off a warmth that is very agreeable, on here like on the rest of the album
The middle of the album have some more arsh cuts, that feels sometimes more foreign and interesting like on Basscadet, and sometimes a bit unfocused where the beat collides with the melodies like they do on Doctrine.

The real gem for me is Windwind, a long and contemplative track that has a very melancholic feel. Great for car rides and introspection. People like to say that Autechre is cerebral, but it can feel very emotionnal for me, as this track proves. It is just that the duo after this will not really guide the listener on what exactly they are supposed to feel.

PS. i hope my english is ok, it is not my first language as you can see <---

Last edited by Fast-and-Bulbous on 10/25/2020 10:59; edited 1 time in total

Fast-and-Bulbous

Luigii wrote:

This is definitely something I want to stay up to date with. Still have to listen to Elseq as well as the majority of eps. But Autechre are one of my personal favorites and will enjoy the ride.

Thanks, i hope you will like the diary Very Happy

. Like i said, Autechre has a discography that feels very daunting, but if you want to listen to the EP, their reissue under EP 1991-2002 is pretty comprehensive.

Luigii

Gender: Male
Age: 28

Fast-and-Bulbous wrote:

Thanks, i hope you will like the diary Very Happy

. Like i said, Autechre has a discography that feels very daunting, but if you want to listen to the EP, their reissue under EP 1991-2002 is pretty comprehensive.

I have a feeling I will. And that is true, the 1991-2002 does give a good amount of eps.

Fast-and-Bulbous

Day 3. Anti Ep

Thumbnail. Click to enlarge.

It is now well known that this EP was a response to the Criminal Justice and Public Order Act of 1994, designed to prohibit raves with music defined as "a succession of repetitive beats". This very loose definition prompted Autechre to compose Flutter, the third and final track of the EP, with no two bars repeting themselves. The cover of the EP wore a seal that red :

Quote:

"Warning: Lost and Djarum contain repetitive beats. We advise you not to play these tracks if the Criminal Justice Bill becomes law. Flutter has been programmed in such a way that no bars contain identical beats and can therefore be played at 45 or 33 revolutions under the proposed law. However we advise DJs to have a lawyer and musicologist present at all times to confirm the non-repetitive nature of the music in the event of police harassment.

Important:
By breaking this seal, you accept full responsibility for any consequential action resulting from the product's use, as playing the music contained within these recordings may be interpreted as opposition to the Criminal Justice and Public Order Bill."

Lost is another one that could be on Incunabula. The acid beats are paired with some quite nice and sometimes complex ethereal melodies. It seems that i use the term chill a lot to describe Autrechre's early work, but i now realise that it must have sound very different blasted on a huge soundsystem in an abandonned warehouse. The beat must have packed a few more punches that it does on my headphones.

Djarum is all about beat, that althought less straightforward, hit quite hard. It feels almost drum & bass (at least i think, since i am not well-versed in the sub-genres of electronic music). Not a great track for me though, it feels a little bit unfocused.

Flutter of course, is the star here. It is intersting to see how Autechre with the constraints they have set, manage to still make something that you could arguably dance to. It could have been all over the place, but Autechre has the good idea to keep the melody mostly the same and act as an anchor for the non-repetive and therefore non-criminal beats. It makes for a quite engaging and interesting listen. The track also ends with a very slow fade-out, that elects it for a nice closer to a DJ-set.

Furthermore, i do think that Flutter is quite important in Autechre's work, as it is where the duo started experimenting with this type of deconstructive beat. It is not by any mean Autechre's best record, but one where, even if it is obviously very rave-oriented, they finds the sparks that will make of their music so much more than just rave music.

Tap
to resume download

Gender: Female
Age: 38

nice idea for a thread! have you seen this archive of the massive ama thread they did on watmm

https://docs.google.com/spreadsheets/d/...p=drivesdk

you can search for release names and maybe glean some extra insights on some of these

Fast-and-Bulbous

Tap wrote:

nice idea for a thread! have you seen this archive of the massive ama thread they did on watmm

https://docs.google.com/spreadsheets/d/...p=drivesdk

you can search for release names and maybe glean some extra insights on some of these

Thanks for the support ! I did scroll through the thread a bit but it is quite a mess to navigate, still fun to look at.

Fast-and-Bulbous

Day 4. Amber

Thumbnail. Click to enlarge.

I always had a soft spot for Amber, even though it is not usually the preferred album (but i love Oversteps also, so i guess i'm like the other girls Autechre fans). I understand that between Anti and Garbage, it may feels like a detour from the road to Autechre "sound". A detour it may be, but quite a good one in my opinion. It is definitly more home-listen oriented than the previous releases. Autechre seems to adopt here a more minimalistic approach, that play in favor of a better focus for a lot of the tracks. It tends towards the more melodic side of the band, which was always the side i preferred. One thing that is very noticeable is the heavy use of reverb on all the tracks. Autechre always liked their reverb, but it is much more intense on this one. I like to picture it being played in an abandonned cathedral centuries after the end of humanity.

The opening track, Foil, prefaces the minimalistic nature of the album. It is mostly comprised of a continous drone reverberating under a single heavily delayed note that goes up and down in pitch, with a few colors here and there. For those you know it, it makes me think of a quiet version of Pilldriver's Pitch-Hiker (although i wouldn't claim that it was an influence by any mean).
Silverside is a dark orchestral track, with a more complex beat. Slip is one of the more famous cut on there. It feels quite joyous to me, which is rare in Autechre's discography. A bouncing synth acts as the centerpoint of the track, and like a lot of tracks on here, it is more warm than it is cold, an adjective that is too often assigned to Autechre. Slip really is quite sweet, and the complex deconstructive beats does not take away from that impression.
On the middle point of the album, Glitch and Piezo are more beat-oriented and hard, and for the case of Glitch, more abstract.
Nine and Yulquen pushes the minimal approach even further, with Yulquen being completely beatless, with only a very quiet melody, kind of feeling like it is played far away from you (in an abandonned cathedral, remember ?).
Teartear, the closing track trully is the best of the album. To continue with the cathedral metaphor, this one definitly sounds like a requiem. The whole piece is centered around a very dark and low melody that continiously repeats its few and rich notes. The textures are overall extremely refined. It feels quite devastating to me, like if the world was already dead for a long time and all that was left to do is mourn those that were.

I still love Amber after this new listen. I found that a few tracks were a bit more forgettable, like Montreal or Nine, but the whole album is a very cohesive and enjoyable experience. Like its cover art, it sticks out in Autechre's discography as a more figurative concept. As Autechre from now on will fly away higher and higher into abstraction, it is nice to have a bit of solid land to fall back to.