Why is Autechre so difficult for people to like?

  On 11/3/2021 at 6:27 PM, Shimon_Shimon said:

^ I worked with one guy that said Autechre sounded like a trainer stuck in a washing machine. He also said it was clearly "drug music". 

maybe he was actually listening to matmos

Don’t understand all these people in the year 2021 who you read about who hate everything Autechre have done since Amber in 1994. Funnily enough I read one today on RYM on NTS it said something like ‘awful music made by men who once made Slip’. Why do they still care? Odd. 

I think it’s a bit of a weird myth that Autechre just make impenetrable walls of sound. If they actually listened to Quaristice, Oversteps, Elseq and Sign will hear plenty of beautiful music that could happily be on Amber II. 
 

Maybe some are Radiohead fans. You know indie kids who were impressed with themselves because they rode the fairly easy 180 degree wave of Kid A and through that went and bought Amber. And then Confield. And got their brain properly squished in the process.

I think OP's question should be phrased the other way round.

Why is people so difficult for Autechre to like.

Some people like puzzles, some folks like crosswords, some like chess and some like suduko. I listen to Autechre. It’s actually almost the same thing. At least in my eyes. Or ears. You know trying to work it all out, unscrambling all the sounds and patterns. I know this because the last few days I’ve finally attempted to scale the imposing wall that is NTS. Finally.

  On 11/3/2021 at 9:10 PM, toaoaoad said:

Really? 

Yes lol.

Here's another one for you.  At the international students orientation they were giving us a welfare lecture and what to look out for if we thought one of our peers was a drug user.  They started talking about lack of care over personal hygiene and appearance.  At which point I shouted, "look, all the germans have been smoking marijuana". 

Are you going to let him get away with this filth, toaoaoad?

They have a very high bar of entry. I'm glad I got into them when I did, cos if I looked at them now I would be overwhelmed and that would just be by the size of the discography, let alone the relatively impenetrable music. Generally if I talk to people about them, I'll be like they're incredible/incomparable to anyone else/etc, maybe I'll talk about "the autechre effect"/click that I'm p sure everyone here can relate to, then I'll be like, but seriously, don't bother - by all means check them out, but I won't be offended if you are like wtf is this shit.

Autechre's music is too pure? I mean, if their recent stuff is just machine algorithms generating tones, then it's really just an sonification of mathematics, a pure universal language, where maths is too dense for a good number of people. Maybe Autechre should stick to y=mx+c if they want to produce sanitised pop music.

obviously most people lack the analytical listening skills to properly interpret the intricacies of FM bleep-bloops

What I think I was trying to say was:

They're just not for everyone, and that's fine. Not in an elitist or clever clever way, they just aren't.

And, i think they are also pretty far ahead of their time. When Miles Davis released On The Corner, it was widely hated, even (especially?) by people who were into jazz. Now, nearly 50 years later it's generally regarded as classic by people who are into music. But still the vast majority of people, probably even the majority of music fans, won't have heard it or like it - even though it's great, it's still not for everyone.

They simply

Are not

Pick any avant-garde or experimental act you dont get/you dont like.

The reason people dont like AE are probably similar to why you dont like this act.

For example can you go through the full length of this? ( i cant)

I think it's easy to take for granted the "intuitive music vocabulary" we get from listening to this stuff over time that makes us like certain kinds of music even more than we used to as time goes on. We can listen and go "look wasn't that so cool that rhythm motif right there? Controlled Chaos that shows itself the more you listen!" and someone who hasn't listened to much of this kind of music will go "I dunno it's just random noises with. Sound Design is cool but Aphex Twin makes these same sounds but knows what to do with them." (an actual conversation I had once more or less)

So it can be helpful to someone who wants to check this kind of music out, maybe they like the 'easier to get into tracks'. Tell them what you hear, why track x is appealing to you even if first few listens it seems random when it isn't at all.

I mean most people start out just liking straightforward catchy music since it's very obvious 'musical vocabulary' and will go on looking for solely catchy music unless they have a desire to expand what they think of as music. Sometimes they can be kickstarted by showing them what you look for.

  On 11/4/2021 at 1:58 AM, EXTRASUPER81 said:

They're just not for everyone, and that's fine.

not for dum dums. thats for sure

  On 11/4/2021 at 2:35 AM, Brisbot said:

I think it's easy to take for granted the "intuitive music vocabulary" we get from listening to this stuff over time that makes us like certain kinds of music even more than we used to as time goes on. We can listen and go "look wasn't that so cool that rhythm motif right there? Controlled Chaos that shows itself the more you listen!" and someone who hasn't listened to much of this kind of music will go "I dunno it's just random noises with. Sound Design is cool but Aphex Twin makes these same sounds but knows what to do with them." (an actual conversation I had once more or less)

So it can be helpful to someone who wants to check this kind of music out, maybe they like the 'easier to get into tracks'. Tell them what you hear, why track x is appealing to you even if first few listens it seems random when it isn't at all.

I mean most people start out just liking straightforward catchy music since it's very obvious 'musical vocabulary' and will go on looking for solely catchy music unless they have a desire to expand what they think of as music. Sometimes they can be kickstarted by showing them what you look for.

Expand  

only kidding

strange textures, rhythmic patterns, repetition, subtle modulations across repitition cycles, literal lack of lyrics, lack of traditional instruments, all make it hard for the uninitiated to think there's anything there.  i think it's cultural and psychological too, they want to not like it and they want to make fun of it and change the topic.  in the right context they actually would sit and try to appreciate it, but such a context rarely exists

  On 11/4/2021 at 3:30 AM, ilqx hermolia xpli said:

strange textures, rhythmic patterns, repetition, subtle modulations across repitition cycles, literal lack of lyrics, lack of traditional instruments, all make it hard for the uninitiated to think there's anything there.  i think it's cultural and psychological too, they want to not like it and they want to make fun of it and change the topic.  in the right context they actually would sit and try to appreciate it, but such a context rarely exists

This is a good answer.. Of course we keep in mind that people who not listen to electronic at all gonna have extremely difficult time to feel something with Ae.. My father is like "Where is the real drums? Not machine programed shit and where is the lyrics?" lol.  The lack of stuff makes people frustrated. 

But Im looking after the people who likes electronic music like this and I quote him here: 

 

  Quote

listened a lot to Autechre. However, I am mostly in the previous albums where the warm, flowing, electronic feeling was. Here it can be seen that Rob & Sean adore: zoviet * france: (just like me). After Tri Repetae, I gradually lost interest when the fast, fragmented rhythms began to take over and the records felt too programmed and digital. The exception is Confield which I feel a lot of sympathy for with the more experimental approach they used there, with musique concrete elements and such.

I have no Idea what he ment by Rob and Sean adore Zoviet - France. 

  On 11/4/2021 at 4:06 AM, cern said:

This is a good answer.. Of course we keep in mind that people who not listen to electronic at all gonna have extremely difficult time to feel something with Ae.. My father is like "Where is the real drums? Not machine programed shit and where is the lyrics?" lol.  The lack of stuff makes people frustrated. 

But Im looking after the people who likes electronic music like this and I quote him here: 

 

I have no Idea what he ment by Rob and Sean adore Zoviet - France. 

Expand  

https://pitchfork.com/features/interview/6012-autechre/

>We've done stuff with Zoviet France as well, a load of live sets back in 1994.

Probably something to do with the 8 hour long albums of atonal clangs and gargles.

I remember one of them brushing off the notion that their music was for 'the initiated only' or something, but it seems theres some truth to it. Not that you need to be especially smart to enjoy it, on the contrary I feel it speaks to something childlike or primal in us. And of course, there is an excitement about one's favourite band being quite unknown, like being in a special club xD

  On 11/4/2021 at 3:10 AM, nikisoko said:

not for dum dums. thats for sure

Mate I am nothing special that's for sure

  On 11/4/2021 at 2:14 AM, thefxbip said:

Pick any avant-garde or experimental act you dont get/you dont like.

The reason people dont like AE are probably similar to why you dont like this act.

For example can you go through the full length of this? ( i cant)

 

Expand  

Yeah that's a good point, tbf doesn't even have to be Avant Garde. I mean Opera isn't necessarily avant garde but it sure ain't for everyone.

I bet there's Opera forums where they're like "Why is Opera so difficult to like?"

OperAE album when