Autechre Next Autechre tangent. . .

I've been musing over the 'history' of Autechre and looking at how their sound changes album-per-album (yes, sad and yes, geeky). Obviously they've been in the very dense glitch phase since Confield and I feel that with Untilted that sound has reached its logical conclusion.

Do you guys think they'll plod away at the glitch-storm sound or try something unexpected? The way I see it is that hundreds, nay thousands, of people with laptops and music software are churning out heaps of Autchre style electronica except without the same quality of programming and sound and these imitators are in danger of eroding the style -if you see what I mean? I sort of hope that Ae distance themselves from their copycats.

Obviously i'm not expecting them to turn out a rock-rap-cum-folk album, but seeing what TLS did when they thought their style was stagnating was genius -who could've honestly expected that? It'd be like Kraftwerk doing Metallica (shudder).

Any thoughts on 'where next?'

i predict the return of seductive melodic tendrils in trax de autechre

I wouldn't like to say that Ae have been in a 'dense glitch phase' since Confield. I kind of see Confield as their take on musique concrete, you can hear the influence of people like Bernard Parmegiani heavily in that album. In the same way Untilted is influenced by 80s hip hop, lots of hardware drum machines and stuttering rhythms. I wouldn't like to say Untilted is the logical conclusion of this sound, it just contains a higher level of technical ability due to the bands increasing experience and skills. Of course Ae's take on these genres are completely fucked sideways and 'Autecherized' but thats just their sound.

In a way Ae 'are' glitch, its the way they work, I don't think it is possible for them to be distanced from this word. Of course there have been many big names working in that style since then (Funkstörung and Brothomostates to name a couple) but that has never stopped Ae from continuing down this path. And I don't think they are about to do an about turn on us on the next album, they will probably just continue their method of working, and create an album according to what they are listening to at the time and the gear they are into. I hope they don't change anyway because I though the Double Gone Chapel was absolute gash.

Autechre are not glitch! Their songs are just unconventionally structured and the sounds pounded into oblivion. Just because something doesn't sound perfect and crisp doesn't mean it's glitch.

But yeah. Who can predict where they're going next.

confield doesn't sound very glitch to me, except for Bine.

Doom music's next

apparently they've always talked about a really, almost pure, hip hop album. i'd like to hear that.

  ishishiba said:

apparently they've always talked about a really, almost pure, hip hop album. i'd like to hear that.

Yeah that would be sweet. Theyve been working more towards during in the last two albums [but still nowhere near].

I just hope we hear something from them in the next few months.

Ae are Ae no one sonds like them, and that in itself is AMAZING!

  amni said:

Ae are Ae no one sonds like them, and that in itself is AMAZING!

very true, sir. there's always that unmistakable Ae twist on their sound...whether it's ultra rythmic are totally beatless. i'd like an EP soon, something to keep us ticking over.

I think when one is immersed in a particular genre/band it does become difficult to see the bigger picture -a lot of underground artists DO sound like Autechre, or rather, they strive to do so and do so badly because no one is able to replicate or even come close to matching ae. I try to sample a wide range of electronica but have become disillusioned by the scene because so many acts are offering up eroded versions of the style; all skittering, pin-prick percussive sounds, disorientating rhythms and mangled samples that aspire to be the absorbing emotional soundscapes of AE but just sound like tired imitations.

As for them being glitch, i use that as a blanket term -obviously Untilted had hip-hop elements but was not a hip-hop album, broadly speaking it was glitchy. Nor have Autechre always been in this style as Incunabula, Amber and even EP7 were were much less dense in comparison to Confield and recent offerings.

The point I was trying to make, but ended up provoking a lot of anal observations, was that I see Autechre as a force for good in music -especially electronic music -as they are uncompromising, dedicated and consistently produce material of a high quality and I hoped that they continue this.

Ask the casual listener would she/he would expect should a new EP land on the table tomorrow morning? I doubt Autechre would challenge that expectation and I want to them to surprise me, to challenge and provoke me. Basically, i'm worried they're becomming too 'safe'.

I see TLS's 'From the Double Gone Chapel' as challenging expectations and a two-finger salute to the army of electronic fans who want 'more of the same, please'. I don't ever feel that a band should find a sound, or two, and ply on relentlessly for nearly two decades. Autechre have perfected their sound -they can continue releasing album after album and I will, gladly, buy them everytime and pour over the details but as an act that I feel passionately about (and therefore feel comfortable criticising) I hope for something provocative -not an about face -but a wake up call.

Sorry to inspire vitriol from y'all but I do think discussion of this type is healthy. . .don't cha?

i feel something unexpected is next. my autechre-ian fantasy is more spare and spacious pulse-scapes, with brimming frictions going on underneath, with the more pronounced sounds having substantial weight as they are less frequent. but def. more colourful and "autechre-like" than something like pole music (monochrome). i like what they're doing with melody on the last two records; gaseousness, indefinite (ambiguous), decrepit-sounding, and wafting atmospheres. but they're too minimal? or just kinda weak. i dunno, i want to hear something like the dawn of stars framed in sound.

what i meant with my marginally silly post earlier is, still autechre, but nice hooks and more laid-back level of intensity (and listener challenge).

  Dr. Elemeno von Hat X: PhD said:

what i meant with my marginally silly post earlier is, still autechre, but nice hooks and more laid-back level of intensity (and listener challenge).

your 1st post made more sense

this pretzel will compuete even even fewer, further zigs

  pachubatinath said:

As for them being glitch, i use that as a blanket term -obviously Untilted had hip-hop elements but was not a hip-hop album, broadly speaking it was glitchy. Nor have Autechre always been in this style as Incunabula, Amber and even EP7 were were much less dense in comparison to Confield and recent offerings.

 

The point I was trying to make, but ended up provoking a lot of anal observations, was that I see Autechre as a force for good in music -especially electronic music -as they are uncompromising, dedicated and consistently produce material of a high quality and I hoped that they continue this.

 

Ask the casual listener would she/he would expect should a new EP land on the table tomorrow morning? I doubt Autechre would challenge that expectation and I want to them to surprise me, to challenge and provoke me. Basically, i'm worried they're becomming too 'safe'.

Good post and apologies for the anality.

Ive only been an Autechre fan since 2001 so Draft and Untilted were the only two records Ive anticipated, I must say both albums surprised me on first listen, Draft sounded more complex and dirty compared to Confield but didn't particularly shock me, it just felt like an extension of Confield's ideas. Untilted did surprise me a lot more, especially LCC which sounded way too simple and stripped back on first listen, but I finally got into what the album was about after a few listens and got to love it. However both albums have felt like a step sideways rather than backwards. I like what they are doing at the moment, but the first 4 or so albums felt like increasing building blocks of technical ability and complexity, they have almost reached a stage now where the music is so convoluted and abstract that any more so and it would turn into a Merzbow-esque thing.

The hardware aproach to Untilted and the 2005 live shows suggest that they have grown tired of testing processing power and software to its limits, but who knows if they'll continue down this path. Personally I'd love something with the immediate melodies and chords of the mid-90s Autechre with the textures and production finese of the recent stuff. Either way as you said, they seem to do exactly what they want and it works in their favour.

  pry buddigs said:

  Dr. Elemeno von Hat X: PhD said:

what i meant with my marginally silly post earlier is, still autechre, but nice hooks and more laid-back level of intensity (and listener challenge).

 

your 1st post made more sense

okay, i waited a bit and i can put it better, now.

i'm listening to amon tobin's out from out where, for the first time now. it's gonna sound like that, if autechre did it. listen to 'rosies'

Like The CIA said, immediate melodies

the thing about immediate melodies is that they grow old quicker than undefined or suggestive melodies. i think it's why i have a hard time returning to tri repetae, it's too melodically defined

True, but some melodies never get old, think Clipper or Piezo. Love dem choons.

i gotta get a copy of tri rep

I'd like them to go off on a tangent but I don't think they ever have, except Confield arguably, so I would'nt expect them to do anything too musically shocking. I'd expect another variation on where they currently are technically, which seems to be static, so I think a return to some of their earlier melodicism is the most musically interesting thing they could do . Not that they've completely abandoned melody, but I just don't hear on their last two albums the distictive exquisite things they would often do with melody in their earlier music.

And about tri rep and their early albums even then there was enough happening sonically and otherwise within the tracks to keep me from ever getting bored, despite some of the simple straightfoward melodies.

yeah. it takes a particular kind of balls to to have melody and maintain a level of complexity where you don't immediately penetrate it, or even penetrate it on repeat listenings...

Im sick of all this other SHIT! All I want right now is some NEW AUTECHRE!!!!!!

  Bubba69 said:

Im sick of all this other SHIT! All I want right now is some NEW AUTECHRE!!!!!!

seriouslty!

I like draft very much, but it's harder to chew than

older ae so I listen to it every once in a while. love the video.

I prefer more avantgard sound, like form sqp go plastic and ultravisitor

most mind-fucked tracks. I like melodic Ae, but just to hear

their sound...They make great ambient tracks, that for sure.

sounds that get close to real sounds, like, twisting metal,

metal balls, brass, wood, that's my thing.

If they go there, that would be quite something.