Autechre Article about current tour in the New York Times

Somebody at the Times did a writeup of the Brooklyn show, which was great. Pretty good review and great coverage, was happy to see this in this week's paper!

  Quote

Autechre pumped out colossal dance beats throughout its set at the Music Hall of Williamsburg on Tuesday night. It didn’t have to.

 

Over its 15-year recording career, Autechre, the electronica duo of Rob Brown and Sean Booth, has moved from steady, propulsive techno toward more abstract rhythms and textures, building an audience of fans who don’t mind standing still (or wearing earphones) as they listen.

 

Most of Autechre’s latest album, “Quaristice” (Warp), is far too cerebral for a typical club D.J. set; the music often splinters the beat or omits it entirely. But Autechre hasn’t forgotten how to make a crowd move and shout, and it does that on its own terms.

 

Its hourlong set — performed on a darkened stage, with barely enough light for Mr. Brown and Mr. Booth to work their few pieces of equipment — was crammed with ideas. For a few moments there were just hovering, sustained tones. Then the beat started, and so did the brilliant musical overload.

 

Autechre’s music was constantly multitasking. Where much dance music is stripped down, Autechre’s set bristled with extras. If typical techno wears blinders, Autechre’s music was awash in peripheral vision. Alongside the foreground of beat and riff, there was a constantly changing counterpoint of hisses; sputters; indecipherable sampled voices; long, low throbs; unpatterned synthesizer lines and looming, implacable dissonances.

 

Autechre is familiar with club music; it alluded to the blips of electro, the reggae undercurrent of drum and bass, the boom-bap of hip-hop, the African-tinged rhythms of tribal house and the headbanging acceleration of rave techno. None of it escaped Autechre’s own rigorous approach.

 

There were bits of melody and a few hummable bass lines, yet Autechre has little use for tunes. Riffs were just as likely to be scattered notes, atonal clusters or stray swoops. Meanwhile, the beats often used drum sounds that had been reversed — with their attack arriving at the end of the impact rather than the beginning — to disorienting effect.

 

Although the beat rarely subsided, Autechre never settled into a groove. It was rare for a passage to last more than two minutes before something else supplanted it. The duo barely established one pattern before mixing in suspenseful harbingers of the next one, which was likely to turn what preceded it inside out: midrange instead of sub-bass, sustained instead of staccato, ratchety instead of pulsating, bell tones following up thuds.

 

The music stayed foreboding, even menacing. Autechre’s soundscape is crowded and discordant, determinedly antipop. But before and after Autechre, a D.J. playing more typical techno sounded drab and repetitive. Autechre’s drive, variety and relentless inventiveness were pleasures of their own.

  six said:

Somebody at the Times did a writeup of the Brooklyn show, which was great. Pretty good review and great coverage, was happy to see this in this week's paper!

 

  Quote

Autechre pumped out colossal dance beats throughout its set at the Music Hall of Williamsburg on Tuesday night. It didn’t have to.

 

Over its 15-year recording career, Autechre, the electronica duo of Rob Brown and Sean Booth, has moved from steady, propulsive techno toward more abstract rhythms and textures, building an audience of fans who don’t mind standing still (or wearing earphones) as they listen.

 

Most of Autechre’s latest album, “Quaristice” (Warp), is far too cerebral for a typical club D.J. set; the music often splinters the beat or omits it entirely. But Autechre hasn’t forgotten how to make a crowd move and shout, and it does that on its own terms.

 

Its hourlong set — performed on a darkened stage, with barely enough light for Mr. Brown and Mr. Booth to work their few pieces of equipment — was crammed with ideas. For a few moments there were just hovering, sustained tones. Then the beat started, and so did the brilliant musical overload.

 

Autechre’s music was constantly multitasking. Where much dance music is stripped down, Autechre’s set bristled with extras. If typical techno wears blinders, Autechre’s music was awash in peripheral vision. Alongside the foreground of beat and riff, there was a constantly changing counterpoint of hisses; sputters; indecipherable sampled voices; long, low throbs; unpatterned synthesizer lines and looming, implacable dissonances.

 

Autechre is familiar with club music; it alluded to the blips of electro, the reggae undercurrent of drum and bass, the boom-bap of hip-hop, the African-tinged rhythms of tribal house and the headbanging acceleration of rave techno. None of it escaped Autechre’s own rigorous approach.

 

There were bits of melody and a few hummable bass lines, yet Autechre has little use for tunes. Riffs were just as likely to be scattered notes, atonal clusters or stray swoops. Meanwhile, the beats often used drum sounds that had been reversed — with their attack arriving at the end of the impact rather than the beginning — to disorienting effect.

 

Although the beat rarely subsided, Autechre never settled into a groove. It was rare for a passage to last more than two minutes before something else supplanted it. The duo barely established one pattern before mixing in suspenseful harbingers of the next one, which was likely to turn what preceded it inside out: midrange instead of sub-bass, sustained instead of staccato, ratchety instead of pulsating, bell tones following up thuds.

 

The music stayed foreboding, even menacing. Autechre’s soundscape is crowded and discordant, determinedly antipop. But before and after Autechre, a D.J. playing more typical techno sounded drab and repetitive. Autechre’s drive, variety and relentless inventiveness were pleasures of their own.

wow one of first media outlets of any kind to recognize that the live show was a lot more dance friendly. Unlike the guy in the guardian who acted like it was experimental chaotic nonsense.

Which part was the reggae part?

obv the live ae cover of 'because i got high'

  Rook said:

Which part was the reggae part?

I always thought the end of Augmatic Disport was pretty reggae. So maybe they were using some of those elements. Haven't heard that show yet, though.

the reggae undercurrent of drum and bass

reviewing a show of this sort seems rather asinine. it's not really practical like reviewing a movie or recorded album. it's just plain masturbatory, really.

it's like "oh, i was there and i agree" or "i was there and i disagree" or "i wish i went" or "what's this crap? where's the sports section?"

  Rook said:

Which part was the reggae part?

When Sean wore a jamaican hat. What, he didn't wear it in Washington DC? :undecided:

i hate the way he refers to Autechre as 'it'. Aside from that, quite perceptive.

  vodor said:

reviewing a show of this sort seems rather asinine. it's not really practical like reviewing a movie or recorded album. it's just plain masturbatory, really.

 

it's like "oh, i was there and i agree" or "i was there and i disagree" or "i wish i went" or "what's this crap? where's the sports section?"

lol in a major publication like the New York Times, reviews like these have the potential of exposing a lot of people to Autechre's music, while also talking about local happenings in the city. I don't see how this is in any way negative or pointless. Perhaps if you've been exposed to their music before it's not going to offer much, but if I had never heard Ae and read that, I might be keen to check them out.

yeah that wasn't asinine at all

  playbynumbers said:

yeah that wasn't asinine at all

*bursts through sarcasm*

it actually wasn't

the pic was kinda tight (before I scanned it)