What Ae era was your favourite?

Now I have made the ultimate AE playlist with almost everything released. Not gonna listen to youtube-quality bad recordings of live shows ofc but around 100 hours of Autechre material.. From Lego Feet MC-202 TR-606 patterns to their first big hit Incunabula straight into ambience with Amber, ANTI EP and the beast TRI REP and end everything with SIGN-PLUS. 

This gonna take a long time but I while sleep in between ofc. 

My goal is to find the sweet spot of their era! I want to find the ultimate golden sound sculptures they manage to do. 

But first: WHAT AE ERA WAS YOUR FAVOURITE AND WHY? Im asking this questions because i want to pay more attention to your thoughts. 

CHEERS WATMM! 

From elseq, and that includes AE_LIVE (can’t remember the release chronology) and onwards. Can’t really explain why as it’s more of a gut feeling than something I could rationalize, ever since these release I just instantly click with their vision (while I didn’t before).

bronze aege

94-99. I discovered Ae in 99. This was before file sharing, but I worked at a small indie radio, with (at that time) a massive record archive. I bought myself a MiniDisc-player and copied as much as I could, including whatever warp/rephlex I found. Although I'd gradually moved more and more frm pop and rock into more experimental electronic music, I still remember the feeling walking around in my own bubble listening to what seemed like something genuinely new. I can't remember that feeling ever since. Although I appreciate almost everything they've done, the period from Amber (wasn't much into Incunabula) to EP7 has that sweet aura of nostalgia added to the fact that it was some excellent albums/eps.

Tough question...

94 to 98 + Untilted + Elseq  

LP5 to gantz graf was a fuckin' run. i almost want to include tri repetae in that because i think it was the beginning of an aesthetic they carried throughout, just increasing in complexity etc. however it wouldnt be fair. no one could top my list.

after some careful thought my fave AE era is probably their 1991 through 2020 stretch. 

I've a soft spot for Amber -> LP5 but still very much enjoy everything else also

Can someone repost that mosaic of cat images, you know where the images progressing visually not unlike the way the 'chre have progressed aurally?

Confield onwards. So new millennium era I guess. Exai -> NTS Sessions is the soft spot.

98-03 / 14-18 + live sets 05-08... i think.

  On 2/2/2021 at 4:25 PM, jaderpansen said:

98-03 / 14-18 + live sets 05-08... i think.

Not a fan of Exai? If I had to choose Exai would be the number one for me.

sure am, contains some all time favs like 1 1 is, nodezh and spl9... but overall i prefer AE_LIVE and elseq.

edit: SIGN too, thinking about it.

1993-now

Following along with their creative journey has been the most rewarding for me of any of my favorite artists. I jumped on around 98 after I discovered Tri Rep and it totally blew my mind. I have been a fan ever since.

This is a tough one.

If I had to pick one year, I'd say 1997. Envane, Chiastic Slide, and Cichlisuite were all released that year. I hate to use the term paradigm shift because it sounds pretentious and cliché, but in these releases it's evident that this point in time marked an evolutionary step in their career. At this point they go beyond merely changing up loop layers throughout tracks and take a more "surgical" approach in their sequencing. It's the point in time where precision editing really begins to manifest, and would carry on indefinitely from that point onward.

(Hope that made sense)

92-95

  On 2/2/2021 at 5:07 PM, ambermonke said:

(Hope that made sense)

it do

Confield to Quaristice

Since then I've probably preferred their live work.

93-96. Incunabula and Anti are my favorites. Love Trip Repetae, Chiastic Slide, Envane. They really lost me when Confield hit, and haven't been much into them since. Outside a couple amazing tracks like "Pen Expers" and "V-Proc", it hasn't been interesting to me.

incunabula and especially amber.....tri repetae as well

i love all the complexity of the new stuff, but i just love the sound of the early 90s gear.

  On 2/2/2021 at 4:59 PM, jules said:

1993-now

Following along with their creative journey has been the most rewarding for me of any of my favorite artists. I jumped on around 98 after I discovered Tri Rep and it totally blew my mind. I have been a fan ever since.

this.

But if i had to pick one that really stands out to me, i love the sound pallette they were using 95-98.  and its a wormhole to explore, all the remixes from that era are ace

  On 2/2/2021 at 5:49 PM, mister miller said:

but i just love the sound of the early 90s gear.

in a nutshell

M4 Lema-r cazt

2003 - 2015. Draft for me is a step forward in terms of sequencing, a perfection of what begun around 98. From Untilted to Quaristice (with support from their live sets, which have a lot in common) there is a def change of approach in sound, and i think the drums start getting more synthetical (where Draft was more analytical). Quari live set brings the nords which are the base to Oversteps, pure bliss.

Then Exai for me is a sort of bringing all of it together,very rich and dense sound-wise, rhythm-wise, sort of a all-arounder. and AE_LIVE cause it is ridiculously compelling, when I think 'AE' i think these two last ones.

To sum it up imho these is the material that doesnt sound 'dated' in any sense (don't get me wrong i love the early stuff but frankly i think the sound is very specific to the time) but feels richer than elseq-onwards (there is a lot of gold on elseq for me tho, it is still in 2015 so)

2001 (Confield) to now (PLUS/SIGN), maybe excluding Oversteps and Move of Ten. Anything earlier I listen to pretty rarely anymore, with an exception of some remixes like the Keynell stuff.