Autechre

Autechre
Autechre performing at Princeton
Autechre performing at Princeton
Background information
Origin Rochdale, Greater Manchester, England
Genre(s) IDM
Glitch
Isolationist ambient
Experimental
Industrial
Years active 1987–present
Label(s) Warp
Skam
Wax Trax!
TVT
Associated acts Gescom
Website Autechre at Warp Records
Members
Sean Booth
Rob Brown

Autechre are an English electronic music group consisting of Rob Brown and Sean Booth, both natives of Rochdale, England. The group is one of the most prominent acts signed with Warp Records, a label known for its pioneering electronic music artists. Some journalists consider Autechre to be a paragon of IDM and one of the driving forces behind its development,[1] though Booth and Brown are ambivalent in relating their sound to established genres.[2]

Contents

History

Brown and Booth formed the group in 1987 when they both lived in Rochdale. They began their career making and trading mixtapes between each other, and gradually moved on to their own compositions[3] while collecting a handful of cheap equipment, most notably a Casio SK-1 sampler and a Roland TR-606 drum machine.[4] Since then they have employed a wide variety of electronic instruments to create an evolving style.

Booth and Brown pronounce the name Autechre with a Rochdale accent (IPA: /ɔːˈtɛkɚ/ — approximately "awe-teh-ker").[5] However, they have explained that the name can be pronounced in any way one sees fit.[3] 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."[6] They are also commonly referred to by the abbreviation "Ae" or "æ".

Autechre have also recorded under various pseudonyms. One of the duo's earliest recordings was a 12" under the alias "Lego Feet", released in 1991 on Skam Records. The majority of Gescom releases, most of them on Skam, have been attributed to Booth and Brown, among other artists. Autechre helped initiate the All Tomorrow's Parties music festival in 2000, and were responsible for curating the 2003 festival.

On two occasions Autechre have streamed webcasts from their website. The first was on 10 April 2005, and lasted a little over 7 and a half hours. The most recent took place on 23 February 2008, and was exactly 12 hours long. Both began at 8pm GMT, and featured an eclectic range of music.

Music

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 enharmonic 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.

Methods

True to their early techno roots, Autechre use a wide array of analog synths in their production,[4] 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 experimented in depth with development environments such as Max/MSP (invented by software pioneer Miller Puckette),[6] SuperCollider[7] and Kyma[6] – amongst others – from 1997 onwards, though it is unclear which are still in use. In 2005, they used the Elektron Machinedrum and Monomachine in their live performances.[8] In 2008, Sean Booth reported that if he were locked in a cell for a year with only one piece of software and one piece of hardware, he'd "probably take a copy of Digital Performer and an AKG C-1000 mic."[9]

Autechre have emphasized that their music-making involves using new techniques on old equipment and old techniques on new equipment, and that their sound comes from combinations of tools and techniques, and "creative routing", more than any single magical machine. 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. 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 cannot be recreated easily with software, or on an embedded system. Other machines that Autechre have repeatedly mentioned in interviews are appreciated for their interface and aesthetics as much as their sound, including the Roland TR-606 and MC-202, and the Nord Lead.

Autechre sometimes use generative sequences,[6] most notably on Confield and EP7.

Discography

Albums

EPs

Singles, promos, and remixes

See also

References

  1. ↑ Confield reviews, c. 2001 — Metacritic
  2. ↑ Drew Daniel interview, November 2005 — Pitchfork Media
  3. ↑ 3.0 3.1 Peel Session artist profile
  4. ↑ 4.0 4.1 "TECHNO-LOGICAL", November 1997 — Sound on Sound
  5. ↑ Marc Weidenbaum interview, c. 1997 — Disquiet.com
  6. ↑ 6.0 6.1 6.2 6.3 "Autechre", April 2004 — Sound on Sound
  7. ↑ Alex Reynolds interview, February 2003 — Grooves (excerpted)
  8. ↑ "New Machinedrum Percussion Synth", April 2005 — CreateDigitalMusic.com
  9. ↑ Interview with Sean Booth, Jan 2008 — Reverb Magazine

External links

Autechre
Sean Booth | Rob Brown
Albums
Incunabula (1993) – Amber (1994) – Tri Repetae (1995) – Chiastic Slide (1997) – LP5 (1998) – Confield (2001) – Draft 7.30 (2003) – Untilted (2005) – Quaristice (2008)
EPs
Lego Feet (1991) – Anti EP (1994) – Garbage (1995) – Anvil Vapre (1995) – Envane (1997) – Cichlisuite (1997) – Peel Session (1999) – EP7 (1999) – Peel Session 2 (2001) – Gantz Graf (2002) – Quaristice.Quadrange.ep.ae (2008)
Singles, promos,
and remixes
"Cavity Job" (1991) – Basscadet (1994) – "We R Are Why" (1996) – Radio Mix (1997) – "Splitrmx12" (1999)
Related articles
Gescom | Warp Records – Skam Records | IDM