Autechre article on Autechre

[jeremymacgregor87]

Autechre - the Manchester-based duo of Sean Booth and Rob Brown - followed a typical trajectory for English techno artists. Having grown up on electro, graffiti, and Mantronix, they were dislodged from their B-boy path by the phuture shock of acid house. On albums like Incunabula, Amber, and Tri Repetae, and EPs like Garbage and Anvil Vapre, they constructed unlovely but oddly compelling sonic glyphs, blocks of distortion, and mutilated sample tones. Autechre's music is most redolent of wildstyle graffiti, where typography is convoluted and abstracted to the point of illegibility. The graffiti parallel fits because their music is basically avant-garde electro: Man Parrish meets Pierre Henry, or the Art of Noise meets Luigi Russolo's "The Art of Noises." The cryptographic opacity carried through to the song titles: "c/pach," "gnit," "rsdio," "secend scepe," "vletrmx21."

 

Although Artificial Intelligence's sleeve notes had insisted that the new electronica "cannot be described as soulless or machine made," what's most interesting about Autechre's work is the absence of heart and humanity, the way that the listener's impulse to forge an emotional connection simply ricochets off the impenetrable, gnomic surfaces of their sound. At times you can't help wonder if the "aut" in their name stands for autism; listening, the mind's eye conjures up a vision of two small boys surrounded by techno toys, lost in a proverbal world of chromatics, texture, and contour.

Simon Reynolds, "Generation Ecstasy: Into the World of Techno and Rave Culture" p184-85

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well said

[sneaksta303]

i had this book before i was born. no, but the pic with richie holding the gun is in there. his little blurb was (understandably) better. I think i read this in a Barnes & Noble in one sitting about 8 years ago.

[oscillik]

i don't agree that autechre music is soulless

[sneaksta303]

i don't agree that autechre music is soulless

 

yeah that was stupid. compared to some artists, maybe, but still, no.

[Suffocate Peon]

I think of the 'au' in their name to stand for austere.

[Blir]

I snapped a plastic knife I'm so angry!

[thehauntingsoul]

i don't agree that autechre music is soulless

Yeah same here, I would say its a soul that is very different than most but definitely not soulless

[Guest Alban Arthuan]

i read somewhere that autechre stands for audio technology research....probably not tho

[kirm]

sure i read somewhere that autechre was from a sound from an early track they did toghther. like there was noise that went awwwe-tech-urrrrr and thats were the name came from. Anyhow autechre got bags of soul its just werid alien robot soul

[thehauntingsoul]

i read somewhere that autechre stands for audio technology research....probably not tho

yeah I think I read that too but I also read that it was for Audio Architechture... actually I think they specifically said that in one of the interviews on youtube. It makes more sense too....

[Capsaicin]

what's most interesting about Autechre's work is the absence of heart and humanity, the way that the listener's impulse to forge an emotional connection simply ricochets off the impenetrable, gnomic surfaces of their sound.

 

[Guest spraaaa]

I got curious what reynolds thought of newer music after reading this book and checked out his blog, I think he said liked confield somewhere. cool book especially if you youtube all the tracks while you read it.

[oscillik]

I got curious what reynolds thought of newer music after reading this book and checked out his blog, I think he said liked confield somewhere. cool book especially if you youtube all the tracks while you read it.

 

yep, i totally agree. youtube is the best way to partake of teh autechre pipe of crack

[thehauntingsoul]

I got curious what reynolds thought of newer music after reading this book and checked out his blog, I think he said liked confield somewhere. cool book especially if you youtube all the tracks while you read it.

 

yep, i totally agree. youtube is the best way to partake of teh autechre pipe of crack

you should really buy at least some of their stuff if that's all your doing for Ae listening. The mp3's are cheap as shit at bleep. The albums are pretty cheap too and overseas shipping is only like $2.50 per cd

[Guest spraaaa]

lol, I meant the oldskool hardcore tracks which is what most of reynolds' book is about. it's really cool to look that stuff up on youtube because most of the labels don't exist any more, so it doesn't get taken down and you can really explore artists and labels and people's tastes.

 

the only ae I've ripped off youtube is all tomorrow's linoleum. and is bleep dead right now?

[Guest Super lurker ultra V12]

abstract music doesn't have to be soulless

[oscillik]

I got curious what reynolds thought of newer music after reading this book and checked out his blog, I think he said liked confield somewhere. cool book especially if you youtube all the tracks while you read it.

 

yep, i totally agree. youtube is the best way to partake of teh autechre pipe of crack

you should really buy at least some of their stuff if that's all your doing for Ae listening. The mp3's are cheap as shit at bleep. The albums are pretty cheap too and overseas shipping is only like $2.50 per cd

 

i guess the sarcasm in my post overshot the LZ

[thehauntingsoul]

word, i was wasted so I misunderstood

[rst]

you don't have no soul until you start to listen to autechre.

[dr lopez]

I'm have an autism. can I like autechre?

[Guest theSun]

i hope you like electric shock

[jeremymacgregor87]

1. Reynolds was more interested in illustrating a shade in the huge spread of dance music since original acid house and hardkore rather than getting into a thesis of the finer points of Autechre.

 

2. That book was published around '97-'98 which predates when shit got real sterile i.e. Raster-Noton, Ryoji Ikeda, etc. By now, Reynolds would have a whole new conception of how things fit I would imagine.

 

Anyway, Jeeth Chrith, it's a really good book and a unifying text that chronicles the dance music we all listen to no matter what genre snobbing you want to do about it.

 

 

 

Fuck me.

 

yeah If he updated the book it would be fucking epic, but I agree when you say it'd probably get a little sterile in the 00's

 

btw it is an awesome read, recommended

[kaini]

reynolds is a good journalist. xxx, an updated version of this book with extra chapters was released last year.

his 'rip it up and start again', about post punk shit, is another good read.

[Guest Greg Reason]

i don't agree that autechre music is soulless

 

By no means is it soulless... Just less obvious than most dumb shit people seem to go for these days.