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Autechre

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Autechre is an English electronic music group consisting of Rob Brown (born c. 1971) and Sean Booth (born c. 1973), both natives of Rochdale. The group is one of the most prominent acts signed with Warp Records, a label known for its pioneering electronic music artists. Some journalists and fans consider Autechre to be a paragon of IDM, though Brown and Booth themselves do not consider their sound to belong to any genre.

Contents

History

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The two members formed the group in 1987 when they both lived in Rochdale. They began their career making and trading mixtapes between each other, but gradually moved on to their own compositions while collecting a handful of cheap equipment; most notably a Casio SK-1 sampler. Indeed, by the time their albums on Warp appeared, they were employing a variety of electronic instruments to create their evolving style.

Booth and Brown pronounce the name Autechre with a Rochdale accent (IPA [ɔˈtɛk.ə]).[[Citing sources citation needed]] However, they have explained that the name Autechre can be pronounced in any way anyone sees fit.[[Citing sources citation needed]] They are also often referred to by the moniker "Ae." According to an April 2004 interview in Sound on Sound magazine, the name came about accidentally: "The first two letters were intentional, because there was an 'au' sound in the track, and the rest of the letters were bashed randomly on the keyboard. We had this track title for ages, and we had written it on a cassette, with some graphics. It looked good, and we began using it as our name."

Autechre has also recorded under various pseudonyms, possibly as a way of escaping from the attentions of the media and the obsessive Autechre fanbase. One of the duo's earliest recordings was a 12" under the Lego Feet moniker released in 1991 on Skam Records. Various Gescom releases, most on Skam, have been attributed to Booth and Brown, among other artists. Autechre helped initiate the music festival All Tomorrow's Parties in 2000 and was responsible for curating the 2003 festival.

Music

Some describe Autechre's music as cold and austere, whereas others perceive a warmth and sentimentality that touches even the most cerebral pieces. Much of Autechre's music has a strong focus on complex rhythm and driving percussion, and more recently, on meticulous sequencing. Later work has been notably experimental and abstract, in contrast to the more club-friendly and conventional early 1990s releases. Due to the inaccessibility of their sound, reactions to their music have varied. Many of their tracks contain complex or chaotic rhythmic figures and close harmonies which some have criticized as random and noisy. Fans of their recent work tend to find the value of their music to lie in its unique fusion of rhythmic and melodic elements, percussive noises being tweaked to sound like they have pitches, and clustered, often inharmonic synthesizer patches implying numerous melodic lines and chord structures simultaneously. A signature of the Autechre sound is the use of extremely short snippets of sound to create a buzzing, percolating, grainy effect.

Methods

True to their early techno roots, Autechre utilize a wide array of analog synths in their production [link] as well as analog and digital drum machines and samplers. They have also made extensive use of a variety of computer based sequencers, softsynths, and other applications as a means of controlling those synths and processing the synthesized sounds. Autechre have also used the Max/MSP development environment for some time in their music, patches designed by them can be found on various websites [link]. There have been claims that Autechre employ random sequence generation techniques, but Sean Booth has disputed these claims [link]. Many listeners hear clear patterns where others hear chaos. In response to comments about their unique sound, Autechre argue that given the incredible range of tools available to modern composers, especially in the electronic genres, it is incomprehensible that any band should "sound like" any other band.

Discography

Albums

  1. (1993) Incunabula
  2. (1994) Amber
  3. (1995) Tri Repetae
  4. (1997) Chiastic Slide
  5. (1998) LP5 (sometimes referred to as Autechre)
  6. (2001) Confield
  7. (2003) Draft 7.30
  8. (2005) Untilted
Note: Tri Repetae++ is the US release, adding the Garbage and Anvil Vapre EPs on a bonus second disc. Japanese edition of Tri Repetae (issued by Sony) includes Japan-only bonus track Medrey.

EPs

  1. (1994) Anti EP
  2. (1995) Garbage
  3. (1995) Anvil Vapre
  4. (1996) We R Are Why
  5. (1997) Envane
  6. (1997) Cichlisuite (sometimes Cichli Suite)
  7. (1998) Peel Sessions (1995 recordings for John Peel)
  8. (1999) EP7 (CD combining vinyls EP 7.1 and EP 7.2)
  9. (2000) Peel Sessions 2 (1999 recordings for John Peel)
  10. (2002) Gantz Graf (also released as a DVD)

Singles, promo, remixes

Also:

See also

External links

 

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