Autechre Haters

[luka]

A safe space to hate or be nonplussed by autechre

 

[sadmanbarty]

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)

.

 

[yyaldrin]

i went to see them once and it was incredible. i don't see the point in listening to it at home or anywhere else though.

 

[sadmanbarty]

to be fair i've never actually heard autecher.

 

[yyaldrin]

to be fair i've never actually heard autecher.

i made a guide to autechre video the other day for people not familiär with them so it's your lucky day today:

 

[sadmanbarty]

before i begin my autecher journey, the first thing to note is that the two blokes on a visual level look acultural which fits into the wider narrative surrounding them (headphone listening, etc.).

to what degree is musical potency coupled with the ability to distill and project a culture outwards?

pharoah sanders is godly and that may in some respect be because he's the purest distillation of pattycakes people.

drill perfectly encapsulates going to school in the 2010's.

jungle's like in power rangers when they all come together to make one massive power ranger. it's all these culture's combining to make a mega culture.

maybe all the best music is brimming with culture.

 

[sadmanbarty]

this aculturism speaks to a particularly middle-class beta male aversion to emotional sincerity, commitment and aspiration. the adam buxton mentality.

 

[sadmanbarty]

the album titles too speak to this cultural aversion. they work so as to disguise it's cultural alignment rather than to signify it.

'on the corner' explicitly says this is about being hip, young and black on urban streets.

'here come the warm jets' says this is wry, middle class and playful.

'pon di gaza 2.0' says this is jamaican and futuristic.

'Incunabula', 'Tri Repetae', etc. say nothing.

 

[sadmanbarty]

maybe this cultural obliviousness (absolutely rejecting hardcore, jungle, etc. and offering no alternative) is a bit of a nostalgic thing. for the most part the stuff on their 90's albums seems to be electro+vangelis or it's crunchy downtempo. it's music solely built to tickle children of the 80's.

 

[luka]

The titles are a great illustration of their parasitical relationship with aphex. Aphex titles have a strange corporate scientific alchemical poetry. An aura, to put it succinctly. Autchre use the same format but with the aura drained away. A negative charisma. An unhappy void.

 

[sadmanbarty]

in the same way monty python irreparably destroyed the british middle-class' sense of humour, vangelis' lasting impact on british electronic producers has been nothing but a fatal hindrance.

 

[sadmanbarty]

The titles are a great illustration of their parasitical relationship with aphex. Aphex titles have a strange corporate scientific alchemical poetry. An aura, to put it succinctly. Autchre use the same format but with the aura drained away. A negative charisma. An unhappy void.

i was going to say. i first heard aphex twin at yours having vowed never to listen to it and actually thought the first couple of tracks on that famous album of his were stunningly gorgeous. 5 albums in with autechre and i haven't had any pleasant surprises.

 

[sadmanbarty]

it's music for people who've been coddled by their mum and had an impotent, empty shell of a dad.

 

[sadmanbarty]

music for people who've never had a kick about up the park with their dad. never done a cheeky slide tackle on their mates.

it's cushioning music. violence and velocity are only presented as abstracted. flickering far away in the distance.

 

[sadmanbarty]

it signifies the vacuum that the alt right has stepped in to replace.

directionless, powerless, socially and sexually isolated white men.

 

[sadmanbarty]

3:07 is shocking:

 

[sadmanbarty]

the 90's is really a year zero for the new white psychology. craner had that brilliant thing about the 90's ushering the first bnp councillors, morrissey waving the union jack, brit pop. you have fight club and autecher too.

'straight out of compton' was presumably the anticedent to all this. that was the point cool whiteness became untenable.

 

[craner]

The Vangelis bits are the best bits of Autechre, not the arrhythmic banging dustbin lids bits.

 

[sadmanbarty]

violence and velocity are only presented as abstracted. flickering far away in the distance.

jordan peterson DESTROYS feminist snow flake.

violence, conflict, sexual dominance all abstracted to the point where they're expressed as watching youtube clips of a middle aged bloke in a tweed jacket berating some ditsy feminist student.

 

[luka]

Corpse sent me a DM saying "it's impossible to ignore the aut prefix here isn't it? Tactless to point it out perhaps but clearly the music is both hyper-analytic and meticulous in its avoidance of any emotional resonance. Offering a very complex surface and a complete absence of depth."

I agree with corpse, this is a minefield but if we prune these observations of any value judgements it's potentially interesting.