Sean Booth quote about being surprised by how similar electronic musicians sound to one another..?

[sweepstakes]

 

 

 

 

So removing the idea that it's easier to sound like another electronic musician vs projecting a unique sonic fingerprint into the ether, why aren't more people inspired by AE's creative approach, rather than being inspired by AE's aesthetics and specific elements on their sound?

I see your point and I would really love to hear more bands that are influenced by the creative process, but I also think that there are plenty who are inspired but the very nature of that process means that it could end up sounding so different that you might never realise they were coming from the same process.

 

For myself, I reckon half the time I'm inspired by processes that are about trying to go in totally new directions and really push the limits (as far as I'm concerned). But the other half I'm wanting to make something that it hits me in a more straight ahead emotive way. Some of the time I think maybe I'll come across some nice hybrid of the two approaches that will be genuinely interesting but I suspect the reality is that I'm falling well short outside of my own head.

 

 

thanks for understanding my point, it's somewhat of a relief because almost no one in this thread did besides you.

And that's I think part of the fun of being inspired by the process/concept of AE's music, is that the results might end up sounding drastically different. On my own personal level 'experimental' music can result in many failures and re-approaches from different angles and paradigms to the essence of a concept you've tried before but with not great results. I think for a good number of musicians having this amount of failure leads to a sort of malaise, where you just want to have fun and enjoy from beginning to end to process with a clear goal of where the composition you started will lead.

On AE's music it sounds to me like a lot of the time there is no clear end-game established when they start composing tunes. It's especially evident on albums like Exai or Untilted. Maybe they start with a clear concept but eventually that takes them into totally new unexpected directions.

As for beat oriented electronic music i find that it's rare for musicians working within this context to take a similar approach. Even for people who are more on the experimental side like Vsnares, his music always feels very succinctly laid out as if he's repeating the same process every time and leaving the 'experimental' portion to the bits and pieces within that same process.

 

 

Is this what you meant by "AE's creative approach", just that they explore the possibilities with no specific musical goal in mind? Or that they don't have a paint-by-numbers process to follow? Or were you talking about something else?

[joseph]

I think social media have played a large role in the homogenization of ideas in music and elsewhere. This alone is a compelling reason not to use them.

 

ae's gratification comes from the music they make and not from their "fan base". I do not understand the attitude that they should have a more public presence in the slightest. To what end?

[Blir]

I think social media have played a large role in the homogenization of ideas in music and elsewhere. This alone is a compelling reason not to use them.

 

ae's gratification comes from the music they make and not from their "fan base". I do not understand the attitude that they should have a more public presence in the slightest. To what end?

 

Agreed completely.

 

I like not knowing about their process and finding what little they do divulge in interviews is interesting, but having little interaction with fans aside from talking to them at gigs is what keeps that mystique going. They just make great tunes, that's what AE do, to have one of them on Twitter soullessly promoting their works would be depressing.

 

Or even worse if one started his own twitter account and turned out to be a complete cock. Like some celebrities end up being when you get a look at their extremely jealousy and insecurity issues via Twitter.

 

In fact. Fuck twitter. Never change ae.

[awepittance]

it's been posted here a couple of times before, but i believe Sean Booth had an active interaction with fans in rec.music.idm (or maybe it was rec.music.ambient) back in the mid 90s around the time Chiastic Slide was out. People back then seemed more critical of Autechre in general (From what i remember), they didn't have the same cred then that they do now obviously but Sean seemed to either give really short elusive responses to people's questions and told a few people to fuck off so to speak. I don't have the posts in front of me right now, but they are somewhere in this forum and can probably also be searched using google groups usenet.

[coax]

they have posted on some familiar forums from 2003-2008-ish also but not many knew it was them.

 

Regarding the point about taking ae's creative approach, which I think they've said for a long time, is exploration of sound and using their equipment until they know every bit it can do, I think a lot of people do that. I think we have to be honest about how the name and reputation of ae can influence how we analyze their music compared to other artists. To say that ae is the only artist to use this approach is a bit silly imo and disregards so much music, both popular music, but also amateur music on soundcloud or wherever. I think ae are great at a lot of what they do, but there are other artists that follow their own paths, and have their own distinct skill leap beyond others in that 'part' of the music landscape. I mean, Burial is one example no? Boards of Canada another. Bola yet another. Ramadanman, hell even Funckarma have their own style that I haven't really heard that many, if any, copy successfully. The list is probably endless if we get down to it. And they evolve their styles too, it's just are we giving them their due, as we do ae? Are we as into and following their progression and mindstates? It doesn't always seem that way

[joseph]

it's been posted here a couple of times before, but i believe Sean Booth had an active interaction with fans in rec.music.idm (or maybe it was rec.music.ambient) back in the mid 90s around the time Chiastic Slide was out. People back then seemed more critical of Autechre in general (From what i remember), they didn't have the same cred then that they do now obviously but Sean seemed to either give really short elusive responses to people's questions and told a few people to fuck off so to speak. I don't have the posts in front of me right now, but they are somewhere in this forum and can probably also be searched using google groups usenet.

https://groups.google.com/groups/search?q=author%3Apeggy+author%3Ababcock+autechre&qt_s=Search+Groups

 

well this is from later, unless there's another alias I don't know about

[cichlisuite]

Sean and Rob have much to say about the music scene, the cultural standpoints of today's life, etc. I think they make some interesting remarks in their interviews on these subjects. This is some sort of reaching out isn't it? I've been able to extract some views they have through interviews, probably way more than the interviewer wanted. So, IMHO, it's not in place to say that they don't publicize their thoughts and opinions.

 

I find their live acts extremely outreaching. They are the only musicians I know that want lights out when playing. They want you to focus on their music. And the music is so overwhelming in their live acts! I get completely lost in it, forget about everything else in the world and just enjoy the enormous sonic mayhem that completely destroys conventions and expectations. It's contageous in a sense that I forget about everything and just completely enjoy the sound and dance my ass off. I specially like to dance to their live acts because it's so far out, it lets me to let out the most weird dance moves and grimaces I'd normally keep inside me. I've never been drunk or stoned on their live acts, just because the music goes directly to my head - it's like snorting ayahuasca with cocaine (I imagine)... so yeah... I think this is the most subjective outreach you can get from an artist. And I deeply appreciate their approach to everything.

[ZoeB]

I bet if it wouldn't depend on their income to survive, Sean and Rob would post tutorials on their websites and have blogs about their sound design.

 

I'm pretty sure that revealing their techniques wouldn't diminish their income, as the main thing required to make good music is being willing to put in a lot of effort, and knowing all the tips in the world won't get most people to actually do that.

[LimpyLoo]

 

I bet if it wouldn't depend on their income to survive, Sean and Rob would post tutorials on their websites and have blogs about their sound design.

 

I'm pretty sure that revealing their techniques wouldn't diminish their income, as the main thing required to make good music is being willing to put in a lot of effort, and knowing all the tips in the world won't get most people to actually do that.

 

Shit is the truth

[zleep]

It's the world we live in. I bet if it wouldn't depend on their income to survive, Sean and Rob would post tutorials on their websites and have blogs about their sound design.

 

Seriously, they should publish a book or somthing after they decided to quit music scene.

[xox]

 

It's the world we live in. I bet if it wouldn't depend on their income to survive, Sean and Rob would post tutorials on their websites and have blogs about their sound design.

 

Seriously, they should publish a book or somthing after they decided to quit music scene.

 

About they work-flow and sound design? Why? So people could copy them?! Where's fun in that? They wouldn't want that anyway. I wouldn't want to know either.

BUT...Something we could all really benefit from is more talk about their philosophy on music and creative process.

[LimpyLoo]

 

It's the world we live in. I bet if it wouldn't depend on their income to survive, Sean and Rob would post tutorials on their websites and have blogs about their sound design.

 

Seriously, they should publish a book or somthing after they decided to quit music scene.

 

Seriously, the magic is in the obsessive hard work.

[zleep]

 

 

It's the world we live in. I bet if it wouldn't depend on their income to survive, Sean and Rob would post tutorials on their websites and have blogs about their sound design.

 

Seriously, they should publish a book or somthing after they decided to quit music scene.

 

About they work-flow and sound design? Why? So people could copy them?! Where's fun in that? They wouldn't want that anyway. I wouldn't want to know either.

BUT...Something we could all really benefit from is more talk about their philosophy on music and creative process.

Yes, about their work flow and sound desgin, I am not saying to copy them (maybe some will) but it could save people lot of time to discover what they have discovered and make people think something on top of that. it is like, lets say, if I want to build an airplane, I don't need to start from discovering the universal gravitation.

 

Also I do think we can get better idea of their philosophy and creative thinking from their patch than just "talk"

 

 

 

It's the world we live in. I bet if it wouldn't depend on their income to survive, Sean and Rob would post tutorials on their websites and have blogs about their sound design.

 

Seriously, they should publish a book or somthing after they decided to quit music scene.

 

Seriously, the magic is in the obsessive hard work.

ok, you win