AAA - Ask Autechre Anything - Sean and Rob on WATMM!

Have you ever checked out some of the electroacoustic/acousmatic concerts at the University of Manchester with their 24+ channel "MANTIS" sound system?

They do some pretty amazing things with aural images and spatial counterpoint. The music coming out of there is quite gestural, but still really taps into cross-modal perception in a meaningful way, if one's listening skills and attention span are up for it.

  On 11/5/2013 at 4:31 PM, bronchuseven said:

Well, guess I should check watmm more often - can't believe I'm so late to the thread!

 

RE:Valis, what Wilson & Dick experienced actually happened to me as well. I've told the story on here before, years ago, but when I was in the hospital receiving chemotherapy I used to practise self-hypnosis as a way of dealing with the crippling nausea. This would usually result in me falling asleep, but one time I left my body & found myself in what appeared to be a spaceship. There were 2 people there who conversed with me & explained what they were doing to me. Unfortunately I can't recall our entire conversation but I do remember them making me feel very welcome. After introductions they asked me if I wanted to meet their "pilot" - a sentient computer housed in a basketball-sized sphere. They told me to look into a laser aperture, which is how the computer would communicate with me. Once I did so, I got the image of a woman with the head of an eagle, which I believe was the computer's image of herself. She "downloaded" all of my thoughts instantaneously; I'm not sure if any information was sent my way, as all I remember of the experience is a blistering rush of imagery. I didn't see the people on the ship after that - I returned to my body & woke up shortly thereafter, feeling very convinced that it was not a dream.

 

I didn't tell anyone about the experience for years (except for one online friend) until I read The Cosmic Trigger by Robert Anton Wilson, where he mentions a spaceship piloted by a hawk-headed man (I still think it's a woman) who beams people with a red laser & calls itself SPECTRA. There's also mention of a robotic voice that called kids in the 50's and convinced them to become scientists. Naturally, I was excited to learn that other people have "met" the computer & started telling people what had happened to me.

 

So, my questions are: have you ever heard of this happening to anyone, besides reading about it in Valis & The Cosmic Trigger? Also, do you think the ship's passengers are humans from the future, or from another star system (I've heard people say they're from the Pleiades).

 

Thanks for reading, and Rob - I appreciate you tagging my Confield poster!

i don't know anyone in person who's experienced this, sounds brilliant. i've had friends experience UFOs thats about it really.

Hello Sean & Rob,

firstly thank you for the music (said in the ABBA way)!

Two questions and already thanks for giving answers, clues, ideas and thoughts.

1. I really like the Hafler Trio collabs you made. They show you at a tonal different scale and drone-related. I wonder what the exact idea was- who reprocessed the material in each step or were your side and the one by Andrew made indepent from each other?

Any light on that would be awesome if it does not destroy the magick of the releases itself.

2. I love your webcasts too, especially the 12h radio marathon you made. I only have a rip in shoddy 128kbps, is there a way to get a 320kbps copy of that? I am an audiophile so at least a decent copy would be highly welcome.

Thanks for the chance to ask you, closing with a little request for Rob: I have a SK-1 casio, using it oldstyle for rhythms and weird sounds, would you please name it?

  On 11/5/2013 at 4:34 PM, YELLOW said:

I stated in another thread spl9 was the hardest track you've done since gantz graf, would you agree or is there unreleased Ae that would prove me wrong?

 

What question from interviewers really gets under your skin?

 

What is your opinion on SAW 85-92?

 

Last video game you played?

yeah there are way harder tracks we didn't release

just been talking about one today funnily enough

i like most of 85-92 a lot

last game i played was tempest on atari anthology on iphone

still not sure about the controls but i wasn't near a computer so it'll do

edit: i wasn't avoiding that q2 my brain stopped me from reading it, hmm

well - i'm past the point where it actually bothers me but the whole 'how do you usually make a track?' thing got old pretty fast

  On 11/5/2013 at 4:44 PM, Rob Ae said:

 

  On 11/5/2013 at 4:31 PM, bronchuseven said:

Well, guess I should check watmm more often - can't believe I'm so late to the thread!

 

RE:Valis, what Wilson & Dick experienced actually happened to me as well. I've told the story on here before, years ago, but when I was in the hospital receiving chemotherapy I used to practise self-hypnosis as a way of dealing with the crippling nausea. This would usually result in me falling asleep, but one time I left my body & found myself in what appeared to be a spaceship. There were 2 people there who conversed with me & explained what they were doing to me. Unfortunately I can't recall our entire conversation but I do remember them making me feel very welcome. After introductions they asked me if I wanted to meet their "pilot" - a sentient computer housed in a basketball-sized sphere. They told me to look into a laser aperture, which is how the computer would communicate with me. Once I did so, I got the image of a woman with the head of an eagle, which I believe was the computer's image of herself. She "downloaded" all of my thoughts instantaneously; I'm not sure if any information was sent my way, as all I remember of the experience is a blistering rush of imagery. I didn't see the people on the ship after that - I returned to my body & woke up shortly thereafter, feeling very convinced that it was not a dream.

 

I didn't tell anyone about the experience for years (except for one online friend) until I read The Cosmic Trigger by Robert Anton Wilson, where he mentions a spaceship piloted by a hawk-headed man (I still think it's a woman) who beams people with a red laser & calls itself SPECTRA. There's also mention of a robotic voice that called kids in the 50's and convinced them to become scientists. Naturally, I was excited to learn that other people have "met" the computer & started telling people what had happened to me.

 

So, my questions are: have you ever heard of this happening to anyone, besides reading about it in Valis & The Cosmic Trigger? Also, do you think the ship's passengers are humans from the future, or from another star system (I've heard people say they're from the Pleiades).

 

Thanks for reading, and Rob - I appreciate you tagging my Confield poster!

i don't know anyone in person who's experienced this, sounds brilliant. i've had friends experience UFOs thats about it really.

 

Yeah, I've yet to meet anyone else who's had this happen.. I keep hoping to though! It definitely changed my life for the better, & I believe it gave me motivation to beat cancer. Cheers for the reply!

Re the 07 sets............... LOVE the "au-te-chre" rising vocal near the start. It's so perfect................. How did it come about? an Improv moment by one of you or a conscious banging way to start a gig?

Its no secret Aphex and Squrepusher are rated similarily with yourselves ......and they have done the same thing, sort of. Coincidence? A nod to that?

Favourite keyboard demo? (mine is this) -

It's pretty clear that compact cassettes played an essential part in your early work.

- I was wondering how you felt about the slow but steady revival of cassette tapes recently, both as a release format and as a recording aesthetic...do you find it interesting or intriguing or perhaps just a bit gimmicky?

- Has digital technology completely superseded your interest in tape as a recording format...is it a "good riddance" sort of perspective for either of you?

I ask because many producers have used magnetic tape to very deliberately shape the sound of their work recently, or completely gone with lo-fi and cheap analog equipment to make their music:

Couple examples:

http://youtu.be/d6mq_FJYfEk

- Do either of you return to analog or obsolete digital formats (DAT, old sequencers) very often anymore? Or is something you've moved on from?

- Finally, any particularly beloved mixtapes or prerecorded cassettes in your collection, particularly from the 1980s when you both started making music?

Last set of questions from me, thanks again for doing this!

Can you put out this Christmas EP next month?

  On 11/5/2013 at 4:38 PM, phudoshin said:

The hembsy pontins set sounds like the Glasgow arts-chool set (2007) but put through an "autechreizor"........I mean its more twisted and glitchier.

 

Was this a sound system thing. hardware thing or both?

 

..............and do you listen to your past live shows like "we do"?

 

I drive an hour to work each way every day and your sets are bloody perfect especially on a cold winters evening!

hardware was essentially the same - slightly newer incarnations, and the set rewritten to some extent. also i remember the hems by being one of the first few of that later kind - more unknown quantity vs tests, whereas the glasgow was deeper within the earlier tour - more experience vs more recklessness mbe

  On 11/5/2013 at 4:39 PM, azatoth said:

 

  On 11/5/2013 at 4:33 PM, Rob Ae said:

- zest bar (deodorized soap)

Was it good? I haven't taken the plunge yet, but some of these scented/deodorized non-edible items smell so good I am tempted to take a bite thinking it would taste as good. Which it probably doesn't. :(

 

no it doesn't but you'll never forget it !

  On 11/5/2013 at 4:16 PM, Root5 said:

How do you rate Die Antwoord? They had a video interview, in which Ninja made a big deal about buying Oversteps which was at the time your latest album (he also made a big deal about buying every single Aphex Twin CD). What do you make of that? Do you think he's just a fan?

 

Do you like any Christmas music? If so, name a few tunes?

 

The development in os veix at around 1:41 is really nice, and sounds a bit more classical than your tracks are usually. Any memories about how that happened? It kinda reminds me of Amber, specifically Further.

 

st epreo kind of sounds like when you're chewing a really chewy piece of meat and it just don't break apart (someone on here mentioned that and I cannot unhear it). Did you intend st epreo to call forward any particular experiences or emotions?

i dunno i like watching their videos but i don't think i'd ever sit there and play a track by them

i thought it was the producer guy who bought oversteps, maybe i just remembered it wrong

that mcartney one with the synths on, i mean it's fucking terrible but it's kind of sonically pleasing somehow

was just an accident

not really, altho it was slightly inspired by some of daim's stuff (i dunno what they're called but they look like explosions or like the sea)

  On 11/5/2013 at 4:52 PM, cult fiction said:

Can you put out this Christmas EP next month?

 

flol @ this with the casio demo playing

  On 11/5/2013 at 4:47 PM, Sean Ae said:

 

well - i'm past the point where it actually bothers me but the whole 'how do you usually make a track?' thing got old pretty fast

 

here's a high ball then. what comedians do you rate?

OK, hope I'm not abusing my question count but here's a somewhat more banal one.

When you work with FM with a sine carrier, at lower modulator levels there's some juicy stuff going on but the carrier sine is very audible, which can be annoying. I've tried adding an inverted sine to this and it doesn't seem to work, probably something to do with the relative amplitude chaning. Of course you could use a skinny/steep (e.g. Butterworth) notch filter and just carve it out, but that can remove some nice harmonics close to the carrier frequency. It seems like there's a more elegant solution. Any ideas you're willing to share?

What's the oldest thing you own?

  On 11/5/2013 at 4:49 PM, mcbpete said:

Favourite keyboard demo? (mine is this) -

 

i really want george michael to do a gig with this

i don't have any faves the only casios we had were an sk1 and an sk5 and i can only rem the demo on the sk1

it was shit

  On 11/5/2013 at 4:46 PM, MarinaStewart said:

Hello Sean & Rob,

 

firstly thank you for the music (said in the ABBA way)!

 

Two questions and already thanks for giving answers, clues, ideas and thoughts.

 

1. I really like the Hafler Trio collabs you made. They show you at a tonal different scale and drone-related. I wonder what the exact idea was- who reprocessed the material in each step or were your side and the one by Andrew made indepent from each other?

Any light on that would be awesome if it does not destroy the magick of the releases itself.

 

2. I love your webcasts too, especially the 12h radio marathon you made. I only have a rip in shoddy 128kbps, is there a way to get a 320kbps copy of that? I am an audiophile so at least a decent copy would be highly welcome.

 

Thanks for the chance to ask you, closing with a little request for Rob: I have a SK-1 casio, using it oldstyle for rhythms and weird sounds, would you please name it?

Bezel

  On 11/5/2013 at 4:58 PM, soma said:

What's the oldest thing you own?

ooh good question

but I'm not telling

edit: actually i can tell u cos i just realised it's not what i thought it was

a first edition of 'the power of sound' by edmund gurney

Thank you- as well for keeping it short ;)

  On 11/5/2013 at 5:00 PM, Sean Ae said:

 

  On 11/5/2013 at 4:58 PM, soma said:

 

What's the oldest thing you own?

ooh good question

but I'm not telling

Oh come on Sean, pls!

  On 11/5/2013 at 4:59 PM, Sean Ae said:

i don't have any faves the only casios we had were an sk1 and an sk5 and i can only rem the demo on the sk1

it was shit

The Gasman ( Christopher Reeves ) seems to use them lots back in his early stuff...

Can you make my girlfriends name into an AE track title?

Julie

  On 11/5/2013 at 4:59 PM, Sean Ae said:

 

  On 11/5/2013 at 4:49 PM, mcbpete said:

Favourite keyboard demo? (mine is this) -

 

i really want george michael to do a gig with this

 

If that happened, you would need to do a remix.

  On 11/5/2013 at 4:57 PM, 21B said:

 

  On 11/5/2013 at 4:47 PM, Sean Ae said:

 

well - i'm past the point where it actually bothers me but the whole 'how do you usually make a track?' thing got old pretty fast

 

 

here's a high ball then. what comedians do you rate?

 

stew lee, louis ck

daniel kitson sometimes

Today is my birthday. What should I do?