Autechre Haters

luka said:

I'm completely baffled. It is a completely smooth surface I can't get a hold on, no hooks

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that's an interesting accomplishment, in a way. there's music/art that we don't like but know what elements we dislike, why we don't like it. then there's music/art that we can't grasp, can't make a judgment about. not saying anyone should bang their heads against a wall to try and make sense of everything out there, but some art is interesting because it's impenetrable.

I've never really got into them

Matt Woebot did a really nice review of them in the Wire some years ago and it make them sound cool in a sort of abstract weirdo way - there was a line about one track evoking the image of break-dancing pipe-smokers, or something absurd like that

so i started to think "oh maybe i shouldn't have sold nearly all of their CDs then "

and did give the entire urrrv another 'go' - but it didn't really stick

thing is i can't remember any Autechre tunes, whereas there's dozens of Aphex or Luke Vibert that sing along in my heart

there's a place for abstract slabs of weirdly shaped sounds, the idea that music needs to be communicating some social energy or to speak of a specific life-world is a bit of a bind - it could be speaking or not-speaking of other worlds, alien mindscapes, deeply obtusely interior things

what AE often seem to be trying to do, is a non-academic version of the electronic / musique concrete thing

some of the stuff they were doing in the late 90s early 2000s was close to this guy Curtis Roads who is a proper electronic / computer music composer doing granular synthesis etc

what actually puts me off Autechre is the vestigial 'dance music' element, the drums - it's imposingly rhythmic, but resolutely ungroovy

i saw them live once, it went for hours and hours (it seemed anyway) it was quite undanceable but punishingly beat-oriented. grim!

Droid thinks they are in the top 3 all time electronic, unimpeachable

When the Criminal Justice Act came in in 1994 to outlaw "gatherings" that played music with a "succession of repetitive beats" Autechre took on the the forces of law and order by releasing the 'Anti-EP' which included 'Flutter' which had no successive repetitive beats.

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The problem was it had no gathering either, which is Barty's point.

I think Amber and LP5 are both gorgeous and memorable. But they hate the best music they made and stand by the worst, so I'm not going to fucking defend them.

blissblogger said:

what AE seem to be doing, or trying to do, is a non-academic version of the electronic / musique concrete thing

some of the stuff they were doing in the late 90s early 2000s was close to this guy Curtis Roads is a proper composer doing granular wossname

what actually puts me off is the drums element - it's imposingly rhythmic, but resolutely ungroovy

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those are the ideas about them that I've done a complete 180 on in the last few years. now I firmly disagree--which would really surprise 17yo me. a few of us are convinced that they're very much dance music once your ears adjust. very groove based.

mvuent said:

the one such effort I’ve seen is Woebot’s review of Exai, but I'd respectfully disagree with how he characterizes them. he suggests that they think they're too smart for good old stupid dance music--but then he quotes a completely different guy as "evidence" of this! from interviews (and from their music) it's clear that they don't think that. he also suggests that they've struggled to balance their "dialectic" of “street and avant garde aesthetics”. but a) they're very open about being create first, rationalize later types who don't think of their next album as their next rhetorical move and b) they see electro and electroacoustic as connected, not as opposites. and as thirdform always says, you can listen to them as dance music, it just takes a few (ok, an admittedly annoying number of) listens to hear how everything's working together. but they have an amazing sense of groove once your ears adjust.

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craner said:

When the Criminal Justice Act came in in 1994 to outlaw "gatherings" that played music with a "succession of repetitive beats" Autechre took on the the forces of law and order by releasing the 'Anti-EP' which included 'Flutter' which had no successive repetitive beats.

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a very privileged relationship with law enforcement. it's not something to either evade or be subservient to, but rather to be intellectualised and wrangled with. gina miller music

alright just so I don't get politely asked to leave the safe space here's what I personally think the "problem" with autechre is: just the totally lack of immediacy. literally everyone who likes them will admit that it takes dozens of listens to get your head around a track. before that as luka was saying they don't make much of an impression. I don't think they intend it to be that way but that's how it inevitably is with their recent (and best) stuff.

this relates to the cultural point. even with jungle or whatever the groove, what makes the tune interesting, etc. is immediately apparent to someone versed in the culture. so that's a way you could say that they've "misunderstood" dance music imo.

luka said:

I was saying to the lads trying to get into autechre is like trying to feel sexual attraction for a vacuum cleaner. So it's not that I hate them more that I'm completely baffled. It is a completely smooth surface I can't get a hold on, no hooks

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that's the thing, they're not polarising in the sense that some people love them and other people hate them. it's more some people love them and the rest thinks it's an audio-screensaver. muzak almost.

Craner I know I'm not exactly proving wrong the idea that autechre fans are pedantic nerds here... but they don't hate amber! this is IMPORTANT.

Why did they say they did then?

Rob Autechre said:

yeah that was me, i said it in a way that was easily misinterpreted. a classic case of assuming someone knows what your on about and them not at all.
it was in relation to incunabula i guess. lol no shame at all, i still rate these releases, i mean they're the first stuff to fully come out.
it meant a lot to us to actually have an album on a brilliant label. i think what i meant was (in the context of the original interview, as the journo was commenting on the striking differences between old and ((then)) newer work) i think i was trying to say how they were perhaps more simple, but not in a shit way.

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they also played a few tracks from amber in their dj sets around when they ostensibly trashed it.


edit: that quote's from their AMA on watmm.

sorry I should have left this thread alone. as you were.


I guess I'm missing the point by "nerding out" (hate that expression but still) in a thread about why nerds like this music right? or maybe proving it.

mvuent said:

sorry I should have left this thread alone. as you were.

I guess I'm missing the point by "nerding out" (hate that phrase but still) in a thread about why nerds like this music right?

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everyone's more than happy for you to contribute. the thread's a bit of dead end without autecher fans contributing.

if i was facetious (which of course i'm definitely not), i'd say your discomfort with asserting yourself and feelings of social disconnect in this thread are the exact phenomena which autecher capture in their music.

sadmanbarty said:

if i was facetious (which of course i'm definitely not), i'd say your discomfort with asserting yourself and feelings of social disconnect in this thread are the exact phenomena which autecher capture in their music.

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loool

the lack of posts isn't because of you but rather it's the end of the working day in the uk.

the interesting question here to me is very much connected to that. if certain music is "incel music", does that mean there's something deficient in the music that nerds gravitate to as relatable, or does it mean that there's something interesting about it that only they are picking up? of course it could be some of both but there is a difference.

sadmanbarty said:

the lack of posts isn't because of you but rather it's the end of the working day in the uk.

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don't see what the working day has to do with anyone on dissensus

luka said:

It was embarrassing at the time. It only ever appealed to school shooters on an aesthetic level. The leather trench coats and the wrap around shades. Cyber-Crusties. Now it's more endearing than cringe though. There's enough distance. Nerds creating nerd hacker boyfriends (Neo/Case) who somehow manage to pull sexy ninja assassin ladies. (Molly/Trinity)

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This sounds more like Source Direct than Autechre. Case in point: