šŸŽµ How Good Are They Really šŸŽµ Autechre

Iā€™ve gone 4/5 rather than 5/5 because of that ā€˜whenā€™ really. When they get the balance right they are absolutely unstoppable but when they sometimes lean into the more formless, no beat to hang your hat on stuff, they lose me.

Canā€™t remember which ā€˜modern-ishā€™ release it was but I swear the two of them worked totally independently on their own tracks and then just smashed them together with no idea of what the other had been doingā€¦

But yeah, that gripe aside, they are peerless.

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I kinda like the first album but the rest of it leaves me cold. Will have a listen to some of the recommended tracks before voting.

oh god. saw them once at Dour, and my mate dragged me off after 20 mins to see Erol fucking Alken. still unforgiven for that. it sounded great.

always thought they were quite good but never got hooked on any of the albums. i think itā€™s just a bit too abstract for me. assume that at some point iā€™ll get it as itā€™s right up my street, but it hasnā€™t happened yet.

would like to see them again but they donā€™t seem to tour that much do they?

If they had only ever released Rotar Iā€™d be giving them a high mark, but there is such quality in their catalogue that it has to be a 5.

Nobody else reaches their level of ā€˜tactileā€™ listening for me. (Lowā€™s Double Negative comes closest)

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Absolute 5/5 top chief legends. Among everything else, their use of weird timbres is so great. Gives the music such a presence and physicality.

Probably the best, certainly the most awe-inspiring, boundary-pushing electronic artist of all time, for meā€¦ and thereā€™s some stiff competition.

Their music often demands a lot of listening to reveal itself but it always pays off. Iā€™ve often found that each album clicks only after the next album drops. That might not sound enjoyable but, honestly, it is.

I first heard them back at university in 1993 when I picked up Incunabula from the uni CD library. Windwind had been playing for about 20 minutes before I realised there was this perfect skip that had created a locked groove effect. Bloody students.

In the context of Warpā€™s original Artificial Intelligence series, Incunabula wasnā€™t the best release (Bytes was) but it was the most mysterious, with its otherwordly take on Detroit techno. The Warp Tapes 89-93 release they put out a year or two ago shows their gestation up to that point.

Amber had me completely hooked and the Garbage EP is just as good. More complex rhythms, bright sonics, melodic experimentation and some enormous outros, particularly on Piezo and Garbagemx36. It makes me chuckle to read that Rob and Sean have since described Amber as ā€œcheesyā€. Yeah, more accessible than everything that followed but just as good.

Tri Repetae is darker, colder and this is where everyone reaches for machine and factory metaphors to describe the sound because comparisons with other artists start to break down. Clipper and Eutow are obvious highlights but some of the other, more subtle tracks like Rsdio repay repeated listens.

Chiastic Slide is different again. Together with Envane, Autechreā€™s hip hop roots are more obvious here, but subjected to radioactive decay. They also started to decay their rhythms within tracks here, with the effect that tunes like Cipater completely evolve. Cichli and Nuane are my picks here.

LP5 was cleaner, almost sterile in places, but I donā€™t mean that in a bad way. I can never get enough of the thin synth tones on Acroyear2ā€¦ and no Arch Carrier, no Kid A, eh?

EP7 marked a transition out to Confield and Draft 7.30. This whole period was very difficult to get into as a fair bit of the music feels alienating and is incredibly subtle. VI Scose Poise from Confield, for example, doesnā€™t sound like it is doing anything at first but - just like most of their later period work - thereā€™s always an ā€œoh yeah!ā€ moment after a few listens. The twisted hip hop of Pen Expers is my fave from Confield, maybe Surripere from Draft. Untilted is a rhythmic assault and the most fascinating Ae album, I reckon.

Quaristice felt like a reboot. 20 tracks, most very short by Autechre standards, it was interesting but the real gold is in the companion (Versions) album and the Quadrange EP. I liked what they were doing here by remixing and rearranging the sketches.

Oversteps is a wonderful album, their warmest since Amber and with some surprising flourishes, such as the harpsichord sound on known(1). see on see has these wonderful tumbling synth melodies and d-sho qub has swagger.

Exai and elseq 1-5 have some major highlights but are generally harder to get into due to their length (2 and 4 hours, respectively). Donā€™t get me wrong, Iā€™d rather have a 4 hour Ae album to dig into than a 60 minute one, but it takes a bit of breaking up to digest. acdwn2 from elseq 4 blows my mind every time.

When the NTS sessions came along I decided to completely immerse myself in it and listened to it pretty much exclusively for 6 weeks. The release of each of the 4 volumes over 4 weeks helped. Despite some very long track lengths, I think this is my favourite Ae album (if you even consider it to be a unified release). There is variety and playfulness here that I wasnā€™t hearing so much on the other post-Oversteps albums. Highlights are xflood, e0, tt1pd and glos ceramic.

Finally, there are Sign and Plus. I still cannot get into either of these two like the other albums but then, like I said before, sometimes that only happens when they release something different againā€¦ and, letā€™s be honest, itā€™s still Autechre and therefore streets ahead of most of music.

Theyā€™ve always kept moving on (at great pace in the 90s) and have never failed to impress. I just hope they keep making music into their old age.

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If pushed itā€™s probably my favourite track of theirs. Maybe. A great example of their dense stuff that initially sounds like about 4 different songs played over each other, but over time resolves itself in to a weirdly beautiful glitchy, droney, beaty thing that could only be autechre. They totally nail amorphous and coherent.

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Autechre are probably #1 on my ā€œI should enjoy this much more than I seem toā€ list. Not going to vote yet but looking forward to checking out some of the recommended tracks from the thread and digging deeper.

Moretechre > Lesstechre

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*Fewertechre

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One of those artists I wanted to like a fair bit more than I actually did.

I was into the first 3 albums at the time (I did listen to Chiastic Slide but it didnā€™t really make much of an impression and checked out after that) but Tri Repetae has ended up being the only one that really stuck. Might give that a listen today. Also liked Incunabula a fair bit at the time.

3/5

Beatstechre is the best, but ambientechre is pretty amazing too

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2 hours sounds optimal, double-techre.

Not familiar with their work but reading @Twinkletoes post has made me wish I was.

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:heart:

Gonna make an intro playlist here

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As a ā€˜listening experienceā€™, an hour or maybe two of Autechre end-to-end is enough for my ears.
They challenged the idea what an album (or release, or whatever) could be from Exai through elseq to NTS, though. I started dining on their music rather than listening to it in one big chunk.
I think a reason Sign/Plus arenā€™t sticking yet is because Iā€™ve got used to doing that, and here are two more traditionally formed albums.

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  1. They never got over the retirement of Guy Roux.

thanks! I will listen to this.

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Thanks. Iā€™ve got Amber on at the moment. I think Further has been the highlight for me so far. Really nice track.

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Ace, tried to cover the range of what they do and how itā€™s evolved over time

Made me learn max/MSP : 1/5.

j/k itā€™s a 5.

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