Autechre Are Autechre a very lucky band?

[Lianne]

With other bands or artists I listen to, new albums or EPs can be harshly criticized on even the most dedicated fan messageboards and forums and so on. Though there is talk of the work "growing" on these fans and opinions sometimes change, generally these folk are firm in their convictions about the bands' latest musical splurges, even if they are negative.

 

However, Autechre seem to be a unique case, in that people will excuse negative responses or express them apologetically, or think of ways to avoid not liking the music. Perhaps they hope to enjoy the melodies in Oversteps by "memorizing the tracks' melodic patterns", or by waiting till they can play it on that system, or by getting those higher than high quality files. They speak of re-thinking how they listen to music and what they should or shouldn't expect from music when dealing with the issue of not liking an Autechre track, and every attempt is made to enjoy the music, even if normally elements of it would seem disagreeable or disappointing. I'm not pulling this from my imagination: I've seen it time and time again on various "IDM" forums, including this one.

 

Nor am saying this is even a negative thing... I'm guilty of it, too. It might well be a good thing. But I don't think it should just be Autechre or Aphex Twin who enjoy this privilege.

[Guest Greg Reason]

Actually I think a lot of people are pretty damning about their dislike of certain ae releases. Quadrange in particular has been singled out for a lotta extreme hatin

[Guest bigs]

i'd say its likely because on so many occasions i've disliked or only moderately enjoyed a piece by autechre, then have had it hit me later on and fall in love with it. it's just hedging your bets.

 

edit: that a band would, in the minds of many, warrant such an approach seems to vouch for them deserving it!

[Guest JohnTqs]

this is the way i listen to all music, i give almost everything a second chance

[Guest ataraxy2]

this is the way i listen to all music, i give almost everything a second chance

 

Autechre I am no more generous towards - they just happen to have some fans who refuse to dislike their music out of a misplaced sense of perfection: "If they made it it must be good!" "You're not listening hard enough!" "You haven't got it yet!" <- nonsense like that.

[Guest kelvanE]

this is the way i listen to all music, i give almost everything a second chance

 

i don't give every artist a second chance, especially more mainstream/indie stuff I don't dig. it's true I give autechre several chances, but honestly i think it's more the type of music. it demands to be lived in.

[Zephyr_Nova]

Well, aside from the sound design just being generally really fucking cool, there's always an originality there that I value very highly. No one can make music like Autechre other than Autechre (or at least do so convincingly). Their music does consistently challenge the listener weather they love it or hate it. And that's why they'll always be so highly revered to so many people who have a genuine appreciation for unique forward thinking music. There's not much out there that compares to it. Trying to follow and understand the composition of each track is half the fun, but I also just love letting the experience wash over me (ie. having each beat and melody memorized isn't really that crucial to the appreciation of their work. The fact that it's not that easy to predict is partly what makes it so much fun to go back to time and time again. There's always a curiosity present when I listen back to any Ae release, whereas with most other music I listen to I end up getting to know it really well very early on, so successive listens become a bit less intriguing.)

[Guest Hanratty]

this is the way i listen to all music, i give almost everything a second chance

 

Autechre I am no more generous towards - they just happen to have some fans who refuse to dislike their music out of a misplaced sense of perfection: "If they made it it must be good!" "You're not listening hard enough!" "You haven't got it yet!" <- nonsense like that.

 

 

it's not nonsense. they are ahead of the pack most of the time and the fans have to catch up to them. not always. but often enough.

[Guest theSun]

i think you come across this a lot with experimental music. i think it's just evidence that music is totally subjective. with popular genres i feel like you can always compare bands and say band x can do that better than band y. but with autechre i feel it's more creative and more indicative of what music could be. it's certainly not the endall of music but i think it's far more inspiring and creative than hearing the same 1-4-5 riff with a confident sounding teenager yapping about their poor life.

[soundwave]

Autechre have always been out of the box and got there first with this attitude especially with embracing atonal harsh digital sounds into rhythmic dance culture music which has been a fundamental inspiration of most other experimental electronic music for over 15 years and is very akin to the early experimental avant guard electronic music of the 50's ect so naturally this will also get the academics chin wagging whether the music is pushing boundaries or a load of random shite made to make people consider what is music and what is aimed at flying over peoples heads who can't tell shit for shot anyway.

 

On the other hand once our an Autechre fan you tend to stay that way as you can always rely on the boys doing something a little different every time even if it takes you a fair while after a release to appreciate the subtleties which the loyal fans should be fully aware of by now. Their fan base has also had a good while to mature and they have a good decade on artist like Arovane, Brownout, Fennesz, Alvo Noto ect who are all certainly up to scratch although you could argue if these artists would exist if wasn't for Autechre in the first place?

 

In terms of sound it's very surprising that Autechre's work can sound totally different on different sound sources more than any other artists I can think of maybe this is due to the usual timberal rhythmic nature of their music (now say Oversteps)however I'm not sure I would call it all technically visionary but rather the art of pushing certain technology to the extremes, having an ear for something different then picking out the best together and polishing it up a bit(or even fuck it up some more) which is how most modern electronic artists work these days but then again I'd expect them to be doing things a little different next time round.

[Lianne]

Thanks, there's some really great responses in this thread. I have to agree, Autechre are worth it, and the impact of their music seems to be more dependent on loudness, sound systems etc. than other bands I know. Especially loudness - Untilted was on loud the other day, and it suddenly hit me that it's a work of genius. I can enjoy other music quietly, but Autechre always needs to be LOUD.

[Guest theSun]

i can enjoy autechre quietly, but only the songs i know well enough to fill in the blanks. in order to appreciate or discover it, it needs to be loud.

 

this is true with pro radii more than any other track imo. heard it quietly a few times, i had already warmed up to ipacial section. then after i cranked ipacial early on of course pro radii followed and i was like "fuck me i've never even heard this track!"

[Guest victorian sewer rituals]

Autechre are and have always been light years ahead of anything else. They have a magic touch. I've listened to anything and everything (a lot of which had to do with being an emusic subscriber way back before they put a limit on # of downloads [mille plateaux label, raster-noton label, 12k label and planet mu to name some]) and even artists that 'sound like' autechre don't tend to produce nearly as deep or unique of an experience as they do. Autechre's music is completely alive and active, which makes most other electronic music seem like observing something that is dead in comparison. They just know how to bring music to the next level via expert use of technology, intuition, instinct and a willingness to just let themselves be a channel for something much larger than themselves. At least thats my guess All of this means that ,in general, fans of their music have passed the threshold of open-minded listening necessary to allow themselves entrance into the spaces that autechre open up. Passing this threshold is tantamount to changing the way you hear sounds and the configuration of what you previously thought was 'imaginiation and creativity'. Autechre fans are therefor different from other fans

 

'No one can do the voodoo that you do when you do the voodoo that you do.' - Salt-N-Pepa

[Guest Sprigg]

fans of their music have passed the threshold of open-minded listening necessary to allow themselves entrance into the spaces that autechre open up. Passing this threshold is tantamount to changing the way you hear sounds and the configuration of what you previously thought was 'imaginiation and creativity'. Autechre fans are therefor different from other fans

 

'No one can do the voodoo that you do when you do the voodoo that you do.' - Salt-N-Pepa

 

 

Or, perhaps Autechre fans just like the music a lot?

[sysyphus]

and on the seventh day, Autechre created Arch Carrier and everyone danced

[Guest ~ism]

Autechre always needs to be LOUD.

 

this is true. more than any other artist i can think of.

 

it can almost always do with one more nudge of the volume.

[Guest victorian sewer rituals]

fans of their music have passed the threshold of open-minded listening necessary to allow themselves entrance into the spaces that autechre open up. Passing this threshold is tantamount to changing the way you hear sounds and the configuration of what you previously thought was 'imaginiation and creativity'. Autechre fans are therefor different from other fans

 

'No one can do the voodoo that you do when you do the voodoo that you do.' - Salt-N-Pepa

 

 

Or, perhaps Autechre fans just like the music a lot?

 

Goes without saying, one doesn't exclude the other and in fact having an open mind actively helps you enjoy their music (along with everything else). And yeah lemonade is pretty awesome!