Gig #162: Autechre

‘From their name—the intentional ‘au’ sound with the rest mashed in a jumble on a keyboard—to the music that Sean Booth and Rob Brown create, the music of Autechre can leave you alternately baffled, rebuffed, and astonished. Ever since their inclusion in the genre-defining Artificial Intelligence compilation from 1992, the Manchester duo’s sound remains singular in the canon—not just of cutting-edge electronic music, but in a section of outer space that few other artists ever venture towards, much less wholly inhabit.

‘Some 30 years on, Autechre remains peerless. Yes, you can pick out thrilling bits of dance music’s heritage in their productions: electro, hip-hop, ambient, drum & bass, video game music, experimental, trip-hop, industrial; but the only true constant is change. Where you enter an Autechre track is never where you exit it. To listen is to wander into a wormhole. Like a dancefloor set atop a mudslide Autechre makes music that feels visceral and cerebral, concussive and ethereal. That dynamic fluidity makes for a catalog that feels deliciously paradoxical: It can feel cryogenic one moment, whimsical the next. Your first few times diving into their music might be frustrating, but then it suddenly opens up, a hermetic world rendered warm and welcoming.’ — Andy Beta

Autechre Site
Autechre @ bandcamp
Autechre @ Warp
Autechre @ Spotify
Autechre @ Soundcloud
Autechre @ Discogs

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freulaeux (2016)
‘freulaeux evokes images of cold cityscapes bathed in neon, of driving aimlessly through a jungle of skyscrapers, of sitting in the backseat as a little kid with your head against the glass, feeling the cold on your skin, watching the droplets of rain cascade down the window, seeing the buildings flash by anonymously. It evokes in me a profound sense of emotional nostalgia and comfort, but with also an inescapable tinge of unease. There is a tension here between those feelings, the former evoked by the pads and the latter by the beats, that works perfectly in translating to song that feeling of experiencing wistfulness, nostalgic longing, the comfort of the familiar but also the cruelty of its distance from the present.’ — Ryley Atkinson

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Cipater (1997)
‘Cipater opens with and is driven by a beat that has an incredibly tactile feel, specifically evoking the splintering wood of the crank on some medieval device, a clunk and a push forward with each iteration. Though quickly joined by a bouncing, bass-y melodic counterpoint and washes of ambience hanging, layering overtop, it is the development of this beat that is the core focus of this track. The beat eventually catches up with itself, eats itself, and then re-emerges in a new form in the track’s second half, with these staggering melodic tones brushing atop it and pushing it into some new, wondrous place. It’s as purely exciting and surprising as any moment in the duo’s entire 90s output, and as such it represents the zenith of that era, and really of everything they would do up until the mid-2010s.’ — Ryley Atkinson

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VI Scose Poise (2001)
‘I often like to think of Confield as IDM’s Kid A moment, where the sonic toolkit of a band that had been consistently pushing themselves to more progressive, ambitious arrangements was almost entirely upended for something altogether more unfriendly, even volatile, but breathtaking in its beauty and somehow also feeling, retrospectively, like the most logical next step and the best possible one.’ — Ryley Atkinson

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Surripere (Draft 7.30 (2003)
‘Surripere lingers in a calm but vaguely tense mode for three minutes, lulling you into a false sense of security before the malfunctions begin, at first subtle with the intrusion of cut-up metallic sounds, before suddenly the track halts and these violent punches of squelching sound enter to break up the progression, tearing at it, pulling it apart by the seams, somehow managing to disrupt it entirely without losing the core rhythmic focus.’ — Ryley Atkinson

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foldfree casual (2016)
‘foldfree casual feels, in the most plain and direct of visual terms, like witnessing the birth of the universe. These rich, luxurious pads that stretch and sing are one of the most purely emotive and captivating textures in any piece by Autechre. Eventually, these crinkling, distorted warbles that sound like robotic birdsong join them: a new universe that began with light now features matter, solid objects forming, dotting the space that the light fills, complicating the simple, anchoring the space. And then, the most dramatic shift, the beginning of the formation of worlds: these objects collide, smashing into each other, fracturing and breaking apart. Gravity collides them repeatedly, again and again, til gigantic masses begin to form, masses that one day will support life. The intrusion of the shuttering sounds that represent these collisions, and the way that they juxtapose against the soft, serene beauty of the central shimmering chords, is among the most beautiful combinations of sound that Rob and Sean have ever crafted.’ — Ryley Atkinson

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Garbagemx (1995)
‘Across 14 minutes, the Garbage EP opener spins an increasingly manifold web of sounds that, like the best tracks on Tri Rep, eventually develop a symphonic feeling as they all dance across each other and interlock in unison. It even teaches you how to listen to it, if you pay attention, starting from one simple looping element and gradually introducing more, some percussive, some ambient, and some purely textural, across its lengthy but never less than fascinating runtime.’ — Ryley Atkinson

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r cazt (2020)
‘SIGN’s closing track sees the particularly dazzling pads that decorate the album in full focus here, rippling across the track as they have across many of its songs, but with a notable difference. Here, they have a distorted, longing quality that makes them feel like they are fighting to exist. They emerge from a deep, bassy bedrock like they are thrashing for air in the mix, and they continue to do so throughout the track; the lack of conventional development from that template is what makes it so affecting.’ — Ryley Atkinson

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e0 (2018)
‘This is a circling, repetitive, but constantly gripping piece that is among the most straightforwardly breathtaking in the history of electronic music.’ — Ryley Atkinson

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latentcall (2016)
‘Its heaviness, its shifting rhythmic textures, its propulsive grooving, its propensity to include walls of deafening but crisp noise, and washes of enormously beautiful, resonant ambience … all of these are out in full form on latentcall, which clatters, bangs, and pulses forward with a danceable, abrasive groove, before suddenly, halfway through, completely disintegrating into near silence.’ — Ryley Atkinson

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bladelores (2013)
‘The most majestic, richly huge Autechre track up to this point in their career (but not beyond it…), the staggering bladelores manages to balance being a stunning achievement in seasoned sound design and also one of the more conventionally accessible tracks of this period of the duo’s career, consisting of a straightforward, heavily reverbed but gripping beat that does not undergo any subversive deconstruction but blissfully progresses skyward, searching toward the heavens in concert with a slowly building wall of ambience and sympathetic echoes of itself. It’s an absolute feast for the senses, a true “holy FUCK” moment the first time that you hear it.’ — Ryley Atkinson

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Cichli (1997)
‘If you were to ask me to name the best track to play to someone who has never heard Autechre but wants to get a sense of what their music does without being too overwhelmed, this would be one of two that I recommend. It is the early centrepiece of the stunning Chiastic Slide, their best album of the 90s era despite what anyone else might tell you.’ — Ryley Atkinson

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X4 (2020)
‘X4 immediately stands out as one of the most propulsive, even fun pieces the duo have released in years. It opens with this propulsive kick beat, gripping melodic tones, and absolutely serrating noise bursts that slice through the track like a robot surgeon’s arm gripping a hundred scalpels and going berserk. Around four minutes in some of the backing textures and the scraping fall away and the track gets heavier, darker, moodier, though no less propulsive. The constant forward motion evokes a chase scene through a darkened night, and around five minutes in, quite dramatically, a lot of the heaviness just falls away, but the floor is still there, so it’s like looking down and seeing the stars instead of a road.’ — Ryley Atkinson

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elyc6 0nset (2016)
‘If you asked me to highlight the single most difficult piece of music that Autechre have made to date, despite that being a relative question that is kind of meaningless the more you interrogate it, I’d nevertheless point you pretty quickly to elyc6 0nset. This is the 27-minute behemoth of Elseq, the longest track on that record and one of the most texturally unfriendly, unwieldy mammoths of the duo’s entire catalogue.’ — Ryley Atkinson

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Bine (2001)
‘More than almost any other song Autechre have released, this feels random, frighteningly so — foreboding ambience hangs in the backdrop but modulates wildly throughout in tone, and the central ‘beat’, if you could call it that, sounds panicked, frightened, but totally erratic, winding and sprinting around the mix and searching for a way to ground itself, except with each step it puts forward suddenly three more feet are sprouting from each toe and wriggling in different directions.’ — Ryley Atkinson

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violvoic (2018)
‘It is one of the most texturally singular and idiosyncratic tracks in Autechre’s entire catalogue, consisting of sounds that clearly evoke a thick, purring pool of oil or tar, some kind of viscous and dense fluid from which there is absolutely no escape once it has you in its grasp. For much of its first half, the fifteen-minute track lingers in a straightforward rhythm filled with these sounds, but then the real fun begins. In one of the most satisfying builds of any Autechre track, the entire piece collapses to near silence five-minutes in, and then slowly, gradually rebuilds itself, piece by piece, slowly eking up the tension moment by moment, adding a new percussive thum and gently easing the tempo upward, in a tense and thrilling build that had my heart skipping beats, sweating with anticipation, until finally, in the track’s glorious closing minutes, the building monstrosity falls into this utterly disgusting, crunching groove, a staggering release of tension that represents Rob and Sean at the absolute height of their creative powers.’ — Ryley Atkinson

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all end (2018)
‘As the capstone finale of the eight-hour NTS Sessions project, it feels as though it is the thing the entire release had been building towards. Frankly, it feels like the thing their entire career arc had been working towards. Sure, it foregoes the complex, shuddering, ever-shifting rhythms for walls of thick, pillowing drone, but even in this respect it is the most nuanced, detailed, and rich creation they have ever released. As any fan will be quick to tell you, beneath what initially appears to be a singular wall of noise is endless melodic variation, buried detail eking its way toward the surface and then receding into the chasm. It is like listening to every piece of music ever made at the same time.’ — Ryley Atkinson

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p.s. Hey. ** David Ehrenstein, Oh, David, you’re a huge person, vast in so many respects. It’s going to be very hard for a while necessarily, but keep in mind your importance not only to people who love and value you like me and others here, but to the world that seriously needs your mind and personal input and presence. Deep down, I know you know that. Love, me. ** Tosh Berman, Hi, Tosh. Look forward to your Substack thoughts. Jeff gets all the credit for you being in there, and for me being in there too. ** Bill, Hi. My understanding is that the thematic of the Bookworm book is that all the people interviewed are dead. My understanding is also that there will be further volumes. Fog, sigh, how sweet. Nothing but blazing sun and mug here. ** T. J., Script for an audio project. That’s interesting. What is it? My next project after the film is finished is an audio-only novel that’s already written and that I’ll be making with Zac. My friend Joel works on/with Midjourney 24/7 these days and speaks of almost nothing else. He puts his work up on social media too. I can totally understand the fascination. Another reason I wish I had instagram, but I just don’t want to start because I’m too busy already. But drat. I sure would love to see those pez dispensers. You don’t launch them anywhere else? I do like Diane Williams. I just read her upcoming book ‘I Hear You’re Rich’, and I loved it. She’s terrific. ** Charalampos, Hi. I don’t think I did a Bookworm for every book of mine, but I’m pretty sure I was on the show more often than any other author, very lucky me. I think reading ‘The Marbled Swarm’ in Paris would be ideal. But read the English language version. The French translation apparently doesn’t quite work right. Clementi is one of my greatest heroes. I’m restoring the blog’s Pierre Clementi Day, coming up. Don’t worry about the rejections. When I used to submit poems to journals, my rejections to acceptances ratio was about 100 to 1. ** Mark, Hi, Mark. Cool. I will let you know when I’m in LA. Current plan its to go in October to show Zac’s and my film to the cast and crew and do as many Halloween haunted houses as humanly possible. I’ll check out ‘Twilight Man’. Looks fascinating. The ‘Frisk’ movie is just dreadful. That movie made me not want to have my novels adapted into feature films ever again. It’s dumbass. Your chapbook is still in my immediate future aka as soon as I get some pressing work/shit done. Great about the new collection! You sound excellent. ** Kettering, Hi. If we weren’t legally tethered to said guy, we would not be working with him for absolute sure. I think I feel the pink vibes, but it’s very hot here, so everything feels kind of pink. I’m pretty ruthless privately in my own head when I read, but I’m also hugely aware that I have particular tastes and interests, so I try not to think my ‘high standards’ have wisdom or authority outside my own search for what I want. I don’t ever think of myself as a substantial person. Ghost is closer. Iow, I know what you mean, of course, but I guess I think what makes great writing great involves much more than hard work. It’s very mysterious shit. I mostly just feel lucky that the stars aligned in my case to a degree. What you’re saying and the way you’re thinking is very valuable to you, and it’s nothing but interesting to read and think about. If that makes sense? I think I actually aspire to write noise, but of a very particular kind maybe. Anyway, write on, it’s a pleasure. My toes are taking their ‘sweet’ time returning to nonentity status, like toes tend to do, I guess. Bon, loveable day. ** l@rst, Hi, buddy. Sweet, man, about all the great stuff you’re doing. Respect galore. And that lake, needless to say. I hung out with Richard Meltzer a couple of times when I did readings in Portland. He was so extremely sweet. I was surprised. Sure, 5 tiny questions, absolutely, thank you, man! Keep on! ** Cody Goodnight, Hi. I’m suffering in hot weather, but ok otherwise. Same old. Supposed to cool down in a couple of days. Your taste in film, and in music too, has an amazing and exciting range. ‘Baby Jane’ -> ‘Cross and Whispers’ = psychedelic. Day and night of days and nights to you. ** _Black_Acrylic, Hey, Ben. Okay. ‘The Cleaning Lady’ is locked into my imminent schedule. Thank you for the tip, pal. ** Dominik, Hi!!! Yes, Ges Gesch’s globes, lest we forget. Happy for your ultimately great weekend. Mine? Not too much, mostly working and dealing with film-related crises. Zac gets back from out of town tonight, so editing will start eating my days again. Foot fetish is so huge these days, at least in the S&M set. Bigger than Puppy, bigger than ABDL. I can’t say that I totally understand that, but why not. Love giving dogs the ability to eat chocolate, G. ** Misanthrope, Yay about your mom. She’s 80, that’s so up there. Not a huge ton happening over here at the moment either. ** chas, I’m happy your nose or, I guess, sinuses were reasonable. What a beautiful thunderstorm description. And ace on your short story. Anime is so rich. Writers should let it tip their balances a lot more often, I think. Oh, hm. In, like, 1981, the artist Don Bachardy, who was Christopher Isherwood’s boyfriend, asked me to sit for him and painted my portrait. He made me look like a cute teen idol, which I didn’t, you know, look like. He said afterwards he didn’t like it, and I think he must have trashed it because it’s never shown up anywhere. I can’t say that I liked the painting but I liked looking like a teen idol. And this painter Larry Stanton painted a couple of paintings of me and a couple of my poet friends in the early 80s. Those still exist. Unless I’m blanking out, I think those are the only times I was ‘immortalised’ by an artist. You ever been painted or sculpted? I will endeavour to do my very best today knowing you will too, and … how did we do? ** Bernard Welt, B-ster. That’s right, you went to school with Michael, I don’t why I always forget that. It’s not such an odd, unimaginable thing. You’re in London! The poet Colin Self lives in Edinburgh. I can’t think of anyone else there you might know. Diarmuid’s wedding sounds both kind of wonderful and kind of horrifying in a kind of ‘Midsommar’ way. He’s such a hippie! But at least he namechecked you. Nice. Of course, to me a Brokeback Mountain musical sounds like just about the most horrible thing one could possibly imagine. But hey. Was it? These baby pigeons who were recently brought to life in a nest near my window are drowning out the boon and novelty of hearing my name in your voice. Drat. I’ll try saying ‘Bernard’ really loudly in about 1 1/2 minutes, so perk your ears. ** Steve Erickson, Hi. I’ve been given to understand there will be more volumes in the Bookworm book series, how many, I don’t know. Probably depends on if this one earns its keep. I haven’t seen ‘Coma’. I’m not even sure it was released here. It must’ve been. I think there is more possibility that our new film could get some kind of limited release, but very limited, if so, and, yes, given the state of American film theaters there that you’ve described, it seems doubtful. Hope springs eternal, though. The film theater/release situation in Paris is still relatively nirvana-like. The Greta van Fleet ‘singer’ dude came out as queer recently, didn’t he? ** Jeff J, Hi, Jeff! Thank you again so, so much. Two of the books’ endings are vexing now? That is a tough situation. Uh, hm. I’m sure I have had a torturous time with novel endings, but I’m blanking on when and which at the moment. Still haven’t seen ‘Asteroid City’. It’s getting ridiculous. ** Nasir, Hi, N! Oh, sure, I know that feeling. Hm, if there’s some level of excitement in you that causes you to power through the questionable piece and finish it, I guess go for it. It might just a mood that’s the problem? I will share thoughts on the TDP track, which I haven’t managed to cue up yet. Ideally today. I keep going back and back for years to this track ‘Rome Plows’ by Drive Like Jehu because it’s like audio crystal meth to me. Maybe it’s something similar. I may be villainous, although I don’t really think so, but I’m pretty sure I’m not evil. Pretty sure you aren’t either. I have good instincts. ** Darbzaroni🐳, Your new name makes me hungry. I’m ok. It’s hot, but I’m ok. Oh, I picked up this hitchhiker guy, he pulled a knife on me and demanded to drive my car, and he drove around with me as a hostage for about 11 hours picking up his friends and doing drugs and smashing my car into things, and then he stopped to buy drugs, and one of his friends who didn’t realise I was a hostage asked me how I knew the guy, and I told I didn’t and that I was kidnapped, and he said, ‘Fuck him. Give us rides home, and you can go’. It depends on the flight, the route, and what time of day you fly. I mean, flights aren’t cheap, but they’re not always insane. Daniel sounds like a serious trip. Well, if nothing else, this stint in your life is certainly giving you colourful stories you can tell people forever. That wasn’t a crazy rant or even a rant, I don’t think, although I don’t know the dictionary definition of ‘rant’. It’s true I have no idea what you look like. It’s kind of nice becoming friends with someone knowing it’s not possibly influenced by how the person looks. Not to say I wouldn’t be interested to see your face, of course. Now we’re already friends, so why not. ** A, Hi. Karaoke? What’d you sing. I’ve never done that. Never will. I don’t get drunk, so it doesn’t seem possible. Nulick still has that ‘plastic teen son’? I guess he’s a good ‘dad’. Beautiful week to you too, buster. ** Okay. Today I made you a gig featuring some of my favorite tracks by the amazing and seriously fucking genius duo Autechre. Accept it as a gift please. See you tomorrow.