*The Official Autechre Thread* (albums, show, quote, band, songs)

[GravitySlips]

Originally Posted by sidewinder

Yeah Autechre is pretty cold, calculated and clinical for the most part. Some of it becomes more lush and warm with repeat listens...some of it does not. They're a hard listen. I live for the moments of beauty and melody in the mess of broken computer parts.

To an extent I agree, with regards to the fact it's brilliant to sometimes hear moments of melodic genius underneath the chaos that's going on. A lot of the appeal of Autechre for me though is the fact that they are so cold and sometimes emotionless, and that their songs are seemingly devoid of any form or rhythm at times... it sounds like music from a totally different planet. I find it fascinating to imagine how they make it. They're one of my favourite artists because of this, their music is so varied throughout their discography and there's always a progression between the albums - but you always know it's still Autechre. I think that's quite unusual for electronic music, certainly for the electronic music I've heard, anyway. A lot of dubstep artists, for example, I have trouble distinguishing between... same with electro and drum and bass, etc. Autechre really stand out in this genre for me.

[P A N]

Originally Posted by GravitySlips

To an extent I agree, with regards to the fact it's brilliant to sometimes hear moments of melodic genius underneath the chaos that's going on. A lot of the appeal of Autechre for me though is the fact that they are so cold and sometimes emotionless, and that their songs are seemingly devoid of any form or rhythm at times... it sounds like music from a totally different planet. I find it fascinating to imagine how they make it. They're one of my favourite artists because of this, their music is so varied throughout their discography and there's always a progression between the albums - but you always know it's still Autechre. I think that's quite unusual for electronic music, certainly for the electronic music I've heard, anyway. A lot of dubstep artists, for example, I have trouble distinguishing between... same with electro and drum and bass, etc. Autechre really stand out in this genre for me.

i know this guy who is kind of obsessed with electronic music of all kinds and its origins. he lives in montreal, and i respect his opinion and knowledge-base on a deep level. i was having a chat with him back when aphex twin's Druqks (sp) came out, and i remember saying there were aspects of it that reminded me of confield. we then launched into a convo about how confield was made... mostly because i'd always been curious. apparently when they made that album, they did a lot of speed and stayed up days at a time recording sounds onto tape - yes, tape - and re-recording and slowing and quickening all those little bits and duplicating them and stitching them and re-recording some more and stitching then stringing it all together, essentially amounting to the idea that every single little sound you hear on that album is actually a sliver of tape.

now, as much as i respect said friend's opinion, i didn't see an autechre interview where they described this themselves, and being that there are so many slivers of sound on that album and it's so bloody clean, i am of course a little skeptical. nonetheless, great artists will go to great lengths to push the envelope of possibility, and confield certainly sounds like that type of mastery, so i certainly don't put it past them.