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

[Rob Ae]

Ok I've got one.

 

Been listening to l-event loads recently. 'Osla for n' for example went through a familiar autechre-style evolution for me - the first couple of listens were really jarring, but after a while it opened up and the sounds and rhythms started to connect. By now listening to it seems to actually put shapes and textures in my brain (best way i can describe it). I don't know any other music that has quite this effect on me. Anyway, it's a massive track.

 

Thing is, almost everyone I know finds this sort of listening experience is not for them. Some people seem to have an almost visceral distaste for it, and i've had people get almost angry, or genuinely worry about my mental health, when i play them an autechre track. A lot of the stuff that makes it awesome also makes it very difficult for a lot of people.

 

As the guys who actually make this music, do you get this reaction a lot? Having a discography like yours must be enough to give you a fair bit of self-belief, but does it ever get to you when people react like this?

no, i can't imagine everyone liking it, i know we can make more normal music if we wanted to. but theres a sense that it would turn out to be a futile kind of competition. i mean everyone doing the same things more or less. no real gains and we wouldn't be at all entertained

[Sean Ae]

Ok I've got one.

 

Been listening to l-event loads recently. 'Osla for n' for example went through a familiar autechre-style evolution for me - the first couple of listens were really jarring, but after a while it opened up and the sounds and rhythms started to connect. By now listening to it seems to actually put shapes and textures in my brain (best way i can describe it). I don't know any other music that has quite this effect on me. Anyway, it's a massive track.

 

Thing is, almost everyone I know finds this sort of listening experience is not for them. Some people seem to have an almost visceral distaste for it, and i've had people get almost angry, or genuinely worry about my mental health, when i play them an autechre track. A lot of the stuff that makes it awesome also makes it very difficult for a lot of people.

 

As the guys who actually make this music, do you get this reaction a lot? Having a discography like yours must be enough to give you a fair bit of self-belief, but does it ever get to you when people react like this?

 

course not, everyone's different

i used to think that maybe some people just had different brains or something, but a lot of it is cultural i reckon, as are attitudes to mental health a lot of the time

[jules]

sean and rob, i just wanted to say that i think this is the dopest fucking thing i have ever seen an artist do for its fans. truly epic. i hope you can read this (and i hope it is not cheesy) but...

 

 

[hijexx]

I know you said gesture control systems are weird, but have you considered the implications of a weaponized version?

 

[Guest trdlx]

I hope I'm not to late on the reply ( and maybe my question was already asked ) but anyway:

 

I wanted to know how you dealt with producing music in duo . Now that you don't live in the same city I know you mostly exchange ideas and material and stuff .
But back in the days how was a typical day of work together ? With the experience I find it hard sometime to be two working on the same thing , specially when it comes to build a track , taking time to work on each samples, eq , comp etc ... Usually one of the two as nothing to work on except listening. I hope you see what I mean.

Thanks Rob and Sean for your time !

[Rob Ae]

 

 

cant think of a smarter question, but pretty curious about that one : there is a 30min recording of Gescom, live in manchester in 2002.

are you involved in that ?

u got a link?

 

just to be clear, theres a few geswackers

Did you really smash buttons into your keyboard randomly and come up with the name "Autechre"

mbe not random, but i had no idea after AU' of the outcome.

 

Was AU meant for Gold, or Astronomical Units, or something else

 

the AU was a reference to a sample on the FZ10, a list of samples we named 'au[insert descriptive]' for sounds that were a like low vocal choir voices sustaining a single note. phonetically speaking it was the sound u would get saying 'or', 'awe' 'au'kland and so on

[Sean Ae]

sean and rob, i just wanted to say that i think this is the dopest fucking thing i have ever seen an artist do for its fans. truly epic. i hope you can read this (and i hope it is not cheesy) but...

 

 

 

ha, you're welcome

[triachus]

1) Aphex likes to say (or bullshit?) there's stuff out there that nobody would ever find out it's done by him.

 

Did you guys ever do that, sneakily doing tracks or productions behind everyone's back, very hush hush, mum's the word, that nobody will ever find out?

 

 

(aphex was bullshitting, right?)

 

 

 

2) You guys seems to listen to a lot of music. Roughly speaking, how many hours of music do you guys listen to daily/weekly?

 

 

 

3) You both seem to share the same taste in music, but is that always the case? Are there any genres/bands/musicians that one really likes, but the other really hates? (kind of like how Beavis loves Metallica, but Butt-head hates them and calls Beavis a dork)

 

hypothetical example:

 

sean: *loudly sings with the chorus to Biz Markie's Just A Friend*

rob: sean pls

Edited November 7, 2013 by triachus

[Sean Ae]

 

 

 

cant think of a smarter question, but pretty curious about that one : there is a 30min recording of Gescom, live in manchester in 2002.

are you involved in that ?

u got a link?

 

just to be clear, theres a few geswackers

Did you really smash buttons into your keyboard randomly and come up with the name "Autechre"

mbe not random, but i had no idea after AU' of the outcome.

 

Was AU meant for Gold, or Astronomical Units, or something else

 

the AU was a reference to a sample on the FZ10, a list of samples we named 'au[insert descriptive]' for sounds that were a like low vocal choir voices sustaining a single note. phonetically speaking it was the sound u would get saying 'or', 'awe' 'au'kland and so on

 

 

funny/weird how we never released that track

not for any reason or anything, just falls in that nether zone

[xfxf]

dear autechre, you guys have been awesome. if you've got all of these unreleased tracks, how about one for us here before you leave? ;)

(now i'm really pushing it...)

[Rob Ae]

 

sean and rob, i just wanted to say that i think this is the dopest fucking thing i have ever seen an artist do for its fans. truly epic. i hope you can read this (and i hope it is not cheesy) but...

 

 

 

ha, you're welcome

 

yeah ace

 

 

 

 

cant think of a smarter question, but pretty curious about that one : there is a 30min recording of Gescom, live in manchester in 2002.

are you involved in that ?

u got a link?

 

just to be clear, theres a few geswackers

Did you really smash buttons into your keyboard randomly and come up with the name "Autechre"

mbe not random, but i had no idea after AU' of the outcome.

 

Was AU meant for Gold, or Astronomical Units, or something else

 

the AU was a reference to a sample on the FZ10, a list of samples we named 'au[insert descriptive]' for sounds that were a like low vocal choir voices sustaining a single note. phonetically speaking it was the sound u would get saying 'or', 'awe' 'au'kland and so on

 

 

funny/weird how we never released that track

not for any reason or anything, just falls in that nether zone

 

was good. defining actually, i mean thats why we robbed our own name off ourselves. grabbing our new us.

[Sean Ae]

1) Aphex likes to say (or bullshit?) there's stuff out there that nobody would ever find out it's done by him.

 

Did you guys ever do that, sneakily doing tracks or productions behind everyone's back, very hush hush, mum's the word, that nobody will ever find out?

 

 

(aphex was bullshitting, right?)

 

 

 

2) You guys seems to listen to a lot of music. Roughly speaking, how many hours of music do you guys listen to daily/weekly?

 

 

 

3) You both seem to share the same taste in music, but is that always the case? Are there any genres/bands/musicians that one really likes, but the other really hates? (kind of like how Beavis loves Metallica, but Butt-head hates them and calls Beavis a dork)

 

hypothetical example:

 

sean: *loudly sings with the chorus to Biz Markie's Just A Friend*

rob: sean pls

 

1) well it wouldn't really be a good idea to say so here if it was true, but even if it were true, how much time do you think we have? it wouldn't be that many would it

 

no idea about richard on that - i mean he does so much stuff i wouldn't put it past him, he's stupidly prolific

 

2) depends i mean there's usually something on most of the time i'm awake unless i'm watching a film or something. sometimes actively listening but not always

 

3) yeah there are slight differences, rob prob listens to more soul than me, he's a couple of years older (that's my excuse)

 

that example lolol

[Guest Roksen Creek]

Please could you describe each of your albums in one word and one word only.

 

For instance, Quaristice: succulent; Oversteps: haunting etc...

 

I'll even type out all the albums to save you time:

 

Incunabula:

Amber:

Tri Repetae:

Chiastic Slide:

LP5:

Confield:

Draft 7.30:

Untilted:

Quaristice:

Oversteps:

Exai:

 

Cheers in advance guys!

[Soloman Tump]

So do you guys fancy doing WATMM Secret Santa this year?

PM me your addresses* and i'll stick you in the mix!

 

 

_{*obv will not divulge addresses to anyone. Or send me a forwarding address or PO box or whatever. Would be cool for everyone involved though and you might even get something wicked back!}

 

The thread is now open in genban if you wanna get involved

 

 

Thanks for doing this, probably won't get a chance to add any more questions this evening. You guys rule so hard (lol)

[Rob Ae]

1) Aphex likes to say (or bullshit?) there's stuff out there that nobody would ever find out it's done by him.

 

Did you guys ever do that, sneakily doing tracks or productions behind everyone's back, very hush hush, mum's the word, that nobody will ever find out?

 

 

(aphex was bullshitting, right?)

 

 

 

2) You guys seems to listen to a lot of music. Roughly speaking, how many hours of music do you guys listen to daily/weekly?

 

 

 

3) You both seem to share the same taste in music, but is that always the case? Are there any genres/bands/musicians that one really likes, but the other really hates? (kind of like how Beavis loves Metallica, but Butt-head hates them and calls Beavis a dork)

 

hypothetical example:

 

sean: *loudly sings with the chorus to Biz Markie's Just A Friend*

rob: sean pls

3 hahha yeah, i think so kinda, for example i'd be tuned into stu allan's souled out for 4 hrs : hiphop 1 hour then soul 2 hours, then house/acid last 1 hour. sean would switch off for 2 hours in the middle, then take the piss the next day about all the wet perms all the singers had

Edited November 7, 2013 by Rob Ae

[khov]

regarding karaoke, what's your weapon of choice ?

[Rob Ae]

Please could you describe each of your albums in one word and one word only.

 

For instance, Quaristice: succulent; Oversteps: haunting etc...

 

I'll even type out all the albums to save you time:

 

Incunabula:

Amber:

Tri Repetae:

Chiastic Slide:

LP5:

Confield:

Draft 7.30:

Untilted:

Quaristice:

Oversteps:

Exai:

 

Cheers in advance guys!

no - i can't - they're collections of tracks to me - inside a long 'track as a whole' piece - id like to try to finger print each album, but its hard.

regarding karaoke, what's your weapon of choice ?

no karaoke, 'back in black' by ACDC if pushed

[Sean Ae]

regarding karaoke, what's your weapon of choice ?

 

if wigs are available it would have to be fools gold really

[Rob Ae]

 

So do you guys fancy doing WATMM Secret Santa this year?

PM me your addresses* and i'll stick you in the mix!

 

 

_{*obv will not divulge addresses to anyone. Or send me a forwarding address or PO box or whatever. Would be cool for everyone involved though and you might even get something wicked back!}

 

The thread is now open in genban if you wanna get involved

 

 

Thanks for doing this, probably won't get a chance to add any more questions this evening. You guys rule so hard (lol)

 

we might sneak one in, do a fake watmmer track as opposed to u guys doing fake ae. if thats not too upsetting.

 

nice one feltcher

[Sean Ae]

shit these wizard mixes are solid gold

i like mills about 100 times more now

[Guest Roksen Creek]

no - i can't - they're collections of tracks to me - inside a long 'track as a whole' piece - id like to try to finger print each album, but its hard.

That's understandable. No worries.

[Rob Ae]

 

 

Leafs posted that it is the opening track on Flieg', Vogel, Fliege, which makes sense as that album is supposed to be one of his "selfportrait" albums...

Ace, you're right - When I googled 'Hans-Joachim Roedelius; Über berg und tal' it point to this which credits the track:

 

 

u sure, i can't play this for some reason, but my copy sounds nothing like the track in the OP

 

cool u found it - its incredible - theres also a track on the album 'auf leisen sohlen' by the same name, lol patchy bastard.

[daed]

I noticed a lot of Exai's titles ("jatevee C" = JTVC (Jet Controlled Thrust Vector), "T ess xi" = TS11 (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/PZL_TS-11_Iskra)) seem to have something to do with flight/jets...

Were you often thinking of planes when writing it, or were these findings just fumbling speculation and complete coincidence?

[Sean Ae]

What is your favourite breakfast cereals? I like cinnamon toast crunch myself.

 

wow i've not had that stuff for ages but you're right it's lush

think i'll get some on next shop

 

i've been eating porridge loads over the last few weeks. dunno why, winter childhood association

I noticed a lot of Exai's titles ("jatevee C" = JTVC (Jet Controlled Thrust Vector), "T ess xi" = TS11 (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/PZL_TS-11_Iskra)) seem to have something to do with flight/jets...

Were you often thinking of planes when writing it, or were these findings just fumbling speculation and complete coincidence?

 

coincidence

altho there are other refs to aero-things in our stuff

[Adamovich]

 

 

Can you identify this track please?

 

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=voZU5CwHD9Y

no ID on that, not sure, is it in a gescom mix? - or u asking if its gescom track, cos its not.

 

According to video info "this was played on there Electronica / Ambient Kiss FM show Manchester in 1995" but the guy isn't sure is it Ae or Gescom and for me it doesn't really matter, was curious if you know something about it, cuz i want it so badly!!

 

 

 

Sean pls, maybe you know something