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

[Guest grue]

 

earlier you mentioned how, when working in certain ways, it's "just nature telling us who's boss" and that sometimes you find after tweaking a track that it "was just totally meant to be that way and it couldn't tell us." do you think there is an interesting distinction beween discovering and creating when producing music, or art more generally? if so, how do you think of your own work, is it more uncovering something already there, or building something from scratch (or is ths a false dichotomy)? do you think of autechre's music as somehow autonomous or indepedent of you?

 

not really but i reckon what we call 'us' as in, 'conscious us', is just a little part of what makes autechre

 

 

what is the rest of what makes autechre? 'unconscious us' or something separate?

 

(thanks for the answers and the wonderful music)

[Rob Ae]

Hi Rob & Sean, thank you for doing this. Reading all these pages was truly interesting and cool.

 

You said that Rob "still" uses a G2. So I do have some G2 questions for Rob:

- Do you use the G2 mainly as a synthesizer and control it via MIDI or do you also do sequencing on it? Or even the occasional track / "noodle"?

- Are you creating your G2 patches from scratch or do you sometimes use parts from the great patches from users on electro-music.com (such as e.g. the awesome stuff Tim created)?

- Sean said you'd use reverbs on the G2: I assume they're home-cooked... Any nice tips/tricks on working with reverb on the G2?

 

Also, can you name my G2 keyboard?

yeah the engine, not the kbd.

 

not in use much recently, really more as a synth. there was some sequencing, sometimes whole tracks. all from scratch. its quite patch/voice intensive making home made verbs in there even with the voice double card, esp as the module sounds so good and metallic.

Edited November 5, 2013 by Rob Ae

[sheatheman]

What is your favorite mode? Ever dabble in Heptatonia Secunda?

[niversal]

 

Dope you’re doing this guys, thanks

 

Long time fan here, since listening to incunabula on a long drive to wales in 94 (my brother, who was driving as I was only 14 at the time, picked it up from Phunk Chunk records in Ipswich), and like most on here I've continued to be blown away on each release.

 

Do you have any memories of playing at the Golden Lion pub in Ipswich in 95, with freeform? I still have second bad vilbel ringing my ears from that night, a real life changer for me.

 

I’m not asking you to name my stuff or any future children (ffs) but I’d like to know how you guys feel about the relationship between your work and space/architecture/ infrastructure.

 

I’m an artist making sculptural installations and work with the environment of gallery spaces all the time, I find your work extremely sculptural and each album seems to compliment a specific environment or space in a unique way, its like each album is a kind of exhibition in my mind, very weighty, very visual.

 

Not sure how to make this sound clear or how to ask a direct question but simply I wonder if it’s something you consider an important element of your work? Either through the construction of an individual track or when compiling tracks for an album.

 

yeah we're both quite visual people i think

at least, when we met and we didn't really have much knowledge of how music was made we'd use a lot of visual metaphor to communicate about music

that and tactile things - which occur to me really frequently when i'm listening to stuff altho i rarely have actual words i can translate it into other than basic long-range words like rough/smooth which i hear everyone else using

not sure if other people hear all the detail or not cos text is probably limiting what people can actually say about it

 

and yeah it totally translates for us, i think brains have so much shared modal processing that it would make sense that it does for most people, but i might be wrong, maybe my brain didn't develop properly, or i listened too hard as a teenager or something - but i reckon we're prob not that unique really, given that rob shares a lot of this

 

 

Thanks for the reply

 

I agree text is really limiting in describing this but I guess you guys have developed your own type of vocab to translate types of textures/sounds/space you want.

For me the fact it’s really difficult to translate your tracks into spoken language makes them so strong. I mean reviewers go to lengths in their descriptions but don’t usually come close to adequate. For me, it’s this autonomy in your work that creates such a strong image of space and texture. I hear it, I see it, but can’t speak it. This seems to be also played out in your track naming, which appear more like images and abstract references, than words.

 

I remember closing my eyes at said Golden Lion gig back in the days and visioning all sorts of textures (btw no drugs) but can’t even try to explain it without sounding like a twat. Same thing happened at Herne st car park and bocking st, also regularly listening through cans. Each of your tracks, albums, gigs, has its own unique sculptural quality I’m really into and seems to be something completely unique to autechre, I’ve not experience it in the same way with other artists, at least not with such consistency.

 

I could probably go a on about this and many other elements a lot more but will keep it at that for now, anymore thoughts about it from you guys would be much appreciated.

[Blir]

Can I name one of your pieces of equipment?

 

Please name one piece of equipment "Hotdog Cheerleader"

[soma333]

Re: Tempest

 

Have you ever played Tempest 2000 for the Atari jaguar I believe it was?

[Sean Ae]

mouse it baby!

 

lel

drag that note length baby

[zaizai]

Hi !

Cheers for doing this !

I'm a director of photography, I do documentaries and fiction. I have to say, your Music has always influenced my work. I like sharp lights, and oblique shadows. :)

Have you ever been approched for the making of a documentary about Autechre ?

I see you like Bastardos, good one ! The First shot is brilliant, and the head explosion is lush.

[Guest jasondonervan]

Have you seen this alternate take on Alex Rutterford's video for Gantz before?

 

[Guest WNS000]

Sean, Rob do you know/enjoy Tool?

[Sean Ae]

Do you guys do any DJ sets? Under your own names or a pseudonym or something? Either live or on radio

not for a bit now

Have you seen this alternate take on Alex Rutterford's video for Gantz before?

 

 

yeah it's wicked

[soma333]

Lots o questions poppin in my head today for y'all,

 

I can't remember if y'all have touched on this yet,

What vocalists do y'all enjoy?

 

Vocalist in a broad sense...

Edited November 5, 2013 by soma

[Rob Ae]

Can I name one of your pieces of equipment?

 

Please name one piece of equipment "Hotdog Cheerleader"

that could probably work for our Lego Feet 4track

[mcbpete]

The first track on the Autechre/Hafler Trio DVD (ah3eo I think, though it might be the first track on the 2nd disk - I've mixed the two up in the case) which ends with the recording of what sounds like egg timer ticking and ringing makes me jump every single time. Was that McKenzie's doing - I know he likes to keep listeners on their toes !

[Sean Ae]

 

Can I name one of your pieces of equipment?

 

Please name one piece of equipment "Hotdog Cheerleader"

that could probably work for our Lego Feet 4track

 

 

the 244 is now called hotdog cheerleader

The first track on the Autechre/Hafler Trio DVD (ah3eo I think, though it might be the first track on the 2nd disk - I've mixed the two up in the case) which ends with the recording of what sounds like egg timer ticking and ringing makes me jump every single time. Was that McKenzie's doing - I know he likes to keep listeners on their toes !

i'm not at liberty to say

Re: Tempest

 

Have you ever played Tempest 2000 for the Atari jaguar I believe it was?

no

good?

[jules]

Sean, Rob do you know/enjoy Tool?

 

[Sean Ae]

Lots o questions poppin in my head today for y'all,

 

I can't remember if y'all have touched on this yet,

What vocalists do y'all enjoy?

 

Vocalist in a broad sense...

 

yeah loads, long as fuck list. you've almost def heard of them all tho

[Blir]

 

 

Can I name one of your pieces of equipment?

 

Please name one piece of equipment "Hotdog Cheerleader"

that could probably work for our Lego Feet 4track

 

 

the 244 is now called hotdog cheerleader

 

 

 

Thanks guys. I'd appreciate if you could mention it by name in an interview sometime so I have something to put on my cv

[Bertolt Brechtakt]

You mentioned that you are exclusively at Warp and that you can't release anywhere else even under different aliases or solo (except for Gescom). This sounds like a pretty tough record deal. This raises a few questions for me.

Are you happy with it and do you sometimes wish you had signed a different deal (less secure maybe but more freedom of exposure)?

When did you sign that deal & why was it the deal of choice at that time?

Would you do it differently nowadays?

[Sean Ae]

 

Sean, Rob do you know/enjoy Tool?

 

 

 

 

i never heard them

once i think at a glastonbury years ago but it was so far off my radar then i think i totally ignored it

[Rob Ae]

Lots o questions poppin in my head today for y'all,

 

I can't remember if y'all have touched on this yet,

What vocalists do y'all enjoy?

 

Vocalist in a broad sense...

donna summer, stina nordenstam, GZA, david sylvian, beefheart

[joshuatxuk]

 

yeah i love VHS and tape, always will, it has remarkable tolerance towards clipping or other misuses.

 

but as far as using it as a crutch or to wave a flag or pose in a fashionable type stance, mbe if i wasn't there first time.

 

as for DAT as obsolete digital format, it kills master tapes as it fails so badly that we won't go near it, no real need as the anomalies aren't as tasty as analog formats. old sequencers, yeah but problem is most don't work anymore, literally perishing as we speak most of them.

 

 

I've read good things before about VHS as a recording format, so that re-affirms those sentiments greatly. Music I've heard recorded using VHS in some manner has always been quite enjoyable to me. Also confirmed my skepticism of DAT.

 

 

 

it's slightly gimmicky cos the thing with tapes wasn't buying originals it was they they let you make your own, either compilations, taping stuff off mates, off the radio (v important) or doing your own edits if you had a decent (non servo) pause button

the radio thing is what no one seems to get when they do retro music. things just didn't sound anything like they do nowadays. everything was really brutally compressed and out of tune. you can't learn a thing about how music sounded in the 80s by listening to digi re-releases

 

nah i love tape, it allows you to make things louder (peak normalisation) and it actually sounds nice to my ears anyway, i like hiss sometimes (it was like our generation's version of dither)

 

i still use tape sometimes but not for a while

last thing we did that used it heavily was 'all tomorrow's linoleum'

 

mostly old radio tapes tbh, lee browne and stu allan are the ones i have the most of

 

 

That makes a lot of sense - my dad used to homedub tapes, both radio recordings and homedubs of vinyl or other tapes, and I always enjoyed the way those sounded more than the reissued CDs or digital copies of the same music.

 

I'm a tape fan myself but I feel that the format now is more of a DIY alternative to vinyl than anything else, and/or a revival of the format as it was used underground tape scenes (especially with drone, experimental, noise, etc). Or simply as a physical memento of music otherwise available digitally. A lot misinformation seems to be injected in it's recent hype.

 

Always liked that "All Tomorrow's Linoleum" track, that's cool to know tape was used heavily.

[Rob Ae]

You mentioned that you are exclusively at Warp and that you can't release anywhere else even under different aliases or solo (except for Gescom). This sounds like a pretty tough record deal. This raises a few questions for me.

Are you happy with it and do you sometimes wish you had signed a different deal (less secure maybe but more freedom of exposure)?

When did you sign that deal & why was it the deal of choice at that time?

Would you do it differently nowadays?

warp are super amenable despite this contractual situation, we signed that like 94 or something. don't worry we're cool.

[Sean Ae]

You mentioned that you are exclusively at Warp and that you can't release anywhere else even under different aliases or solo (except for Gescom). This sounds like a pretty tough record deal. This raises a few questions for me.

Are you happy with it and do you sometimes wish you had signed a different deal (less secure maybe but more freedom of exposure)?

When did you sign that deal & why was it the deal of choice at that time?

Would you do it differently nowadays?

 

yeah i mean it only ever was a problem a cpl times but its easy enough to write a diff name on things, considering what you can get for exclusivity it's worth it

credit's not a big deal is it, loyalty goes a lot further in my experience

[mcbpete]

Given the BBC Micro shenanigans, how did Warp take to this 'solo' collaboration (mmm, that's quite the oxymoron) -