Autechre
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| Autechre
<tr style="text-align: center;"><td colspan="3">Image:Autechre.jpg (L-R) Booth and Brown </td></tr>
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| Background information
<tr><td>Origin</td><td colspan="2">Image:Flag of England.svg Rochdale, Greater Manchester, England</td></tr><tr><td>Genre(s)</td><td colspan="2">Experimental, Electronic |
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.
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[edit] History
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,<ref name="Peel">Peel Session artists profile</ref> while collecting a handful of cheap equipment, most notably a Casio SK-1 sampler and a Roland TR606 drum machine.<ref name="SOS97">"TECHNO-LOGICAL", Nov 1997 - Sound on Sound</ref> Since then they have employed a wide variety of electronic instruments to boost their evolving style.
Booth and Brown pronounce the name Autechre with a Rochdale accent (IPA [ɔˈtɛk.ə] — approximately "awe-teh-ker").<ref>Disquiet.com interview</ref> However, they have explained that the name Autechre can be pronounced in any way anyone sees fit.<ref name="Peel" /> Booth explains: "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."<ref name="SOS04">"Autechre", Apr 2004 - Sound on Sound</ref> They are also commonly referred to by the moniker "Ae."
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.
[edit] Music
- "Slip" (file info) — play in browser (beta)
- from the 1994 album, Amber
- Problems listening to the file? See media help.
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Many 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, driving percussion, and meticulous sequencing. Often unusual rhythmic loops repeat and change incrementally, with the music constantly in transition. Sometimes patterns are set against one another, implying several time signatures at once. Later work has been notably experimental and abstract, in contrast to the more club-friendly and conventional early 1990s releases.
Reactions to their music have varied. Many of their tracks contain complex or chaotic rhythms and close harmonies which some hear 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 recurring element in Autechre's work is the use of extremely short snippets of sound to create a fragmented, grainy effect.
[edit] Methods
True to their early techno roots, Autechre utilizes a wide array of analog synths in their production,<ref name="SOS97" /> as well as analog and digital drum machines, mixers, effects units 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,<ref name="SOS04" /> Symbolic Composer,[citation needed] SuperCollider,<ref>Alex Reynolds interview, Feb 2003</ref> and Kyma<ref name="SOS04" /> development environments from 1997 onwards, though it is unclear which are still in use.
In 2005, the Akai MPC1000, Nord Modular G2, and Elektron Machinedrum and Monomachine were used to perform live.[citation needed] Autechre have also said that their current methods involve using "new techniques on old equipment and old techniques on new equipment".[citation needed]
Sean Booth once stated that Autechre disassemble and reassemble their studio for every track. They emphasize that their sound comes from combinations of tools and techniques, and "creative routing", more than any single magical machine, although many of their tools possess unusual capabilities.[citation needed] This has been the case since their early days, when, for example, they used a Boss delay that had a pitch/trigger input, allowing it to be used as a realtime sampler.[citation needed] When the square wave input it received for determining pitch had resonance added, the pitch would drift between notes in a special way. If the output was mixed back in as a control pitch, it could produce unusual fractal patterns, something that can not be recreated easily with software, or on an embedded system. Other machines that Autechre have repeatedly mentioned in interviews are appreciated for their interface as much as their sound, including the Roland TR-606 and MC-202, and the Nord Lead.
Autechre sometimes use generative techniques, most notably on Confield and EP7. 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.
[edit] Discography
[edit] Albums
[edit] Notes
Tri Repetae was released in the US as Tri Repetae++, adding the Garbage and Anvil Vapre EPs on a bonus second disc. The Japanese edition issued by Sony also included an exclusive bonus track, Medrey. Also, the title LP5 is a conventional one, as there is no given title appearing on that particular album. It is sometimes referred to as Autechre.
[edit] EPs
| 1994 | Anti EP | – |
| 1995 | Garbage | Combined with Anvil Vapre for Tri Repetae++. |
| 1995 | Anvil Vapre | Combined with Garbage for Tri Repetae++. |
| 1997 | Envane | – |
| 1997 | Cichlisuite | Sometimes Cichli Suite. |
| 1999 | Peel Session | 1995 recordings for John Peel. |
| 1999 | EP7 | CD combining vinyls EP 7.1 and EP 7.2. |
| 2001 | Peel Session 2 | 1999 recordings for John Peel. |
| 2002 | Gantz Graf | Also released as a DVD. |
[edit] Singles, promos and remixes
| 1991 | Cavity Job | 12" vinyl single limited to 1,000 copies. |
| 1994 | Basscadet | Five remixes (six on vinyl) of "Basscadet" from Incunabula; sometimes Basscad. |
| 1996 | We R Are Why | 12" vinyl promo. |
| 1997 | Radio Mix | Hour-long DJ remixes of other artists. |
| 1999 | Splitrmx12 | 12" vinyl promo limited to 3,000 copies. |
Also: upwards of 40 remixes, including Tortoise, Merzbow, Saint Etienne and Squarepusher.
[edit] References
[edit] See also
[edit] External links
- Complete Autechre discography at Musicbrainz
- An Autechre visual discography
- WATMM fan-site - free downloads of live Autechre and Gescom performances, interviews, and radio appearances
- Rob Brown interview with BBC Collective
- Sean Booth interview with Cyclic Defrost
- Words of Autechre - title theoriesde:Autechre
et:Autechre fr:Autechre it:Autechre hu:Autechre nl:Autechre ja:オウテカ no:Autechre pt:Autechre ru:Autechre fi:Autechre
