Autechre | |
|---|---|
.jpg) Rob Brown (left) and Sean Booth (right) performing live as Autechre in 2007 | |
| Background information | |
| Also known as | Lego Feet |
| Origin | Rochdale,Greater Manchester, England |
| Genres | |
| Years active | 1987–present |
| Labels | |
| Members | Sean Booth Robert Brown |
| Website | autechre |
Autechre (/ɔːˈtɛkər/aw-TEK-ər)[1] are an Englishelectronic music duo consisting of Rob Brown and Sean Booth, both fromRochdale,Greater Manchester. Formed in 1987, they are among the best known acts signed to UK electronic labelWarp Records, through which all of Autechre's full-length albums have been released beginning with their 1993 debutIncunabula. They gained initial recognition when they were featured on Warp's 1992 compilationArtificial Intelligence.[2]
Influenced by styles such as 1980selectro andhip-hop, the music of Autechre has evolved throughout their career from early, melodictechno recordings to later works often considered abstract and experimental, featuring complex composition and few stylistic conventions.[2] Their work has been associated with the 1990s electronic genre known asintelligent dance music (IDM),[3] though Booth has dismissed the label as "silly."[4]
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Brown and Booth met throughManchester'sgraffiti scene in 1987 when they both lived inRochdale.[5] Heavily influenced byelectro-funk,hip-hop andacid house,[6] they began tradingmixtapes and then creating their owncompositions[7] while collecting a handful of cheap equipment, most notably aCasio SK-1sampler and aRoland TR-606drum machine.[8] Their first release wasLego Feet, a 12" recorded under an alias of the same name brought out by Manchester'sSkam Records.
Their first release as Autechre was the single "Cavity Job" in 1991, released on Hardcore Records. Booth and Brown pronounce the name Autechre with aRochdale accent (/ɔːˈtɛkər/aw-TEK-ər).[9] However, they have explained that the name can be pronounced in any way one sees fit.[7] Booth said: "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."[10]
Two more tracks appeared in 1992 under the now finalised Autechre name, on the Warp Records compilationArtificial Intelligence, part of theseries of the same name. The compilation contained "The Egg", later reworked for their first full-length release under the title "Eggshell".
Two hours of early material was broadcast live on NTS Radio during Warp's 30th-anniversary weekend, calledWarp Tapes 89-93. It is distributed for free on Autechre's Bleep Store in digital audio format.
In 1993 Warp released their debut album,Incunabula, which became a surprise success, reaching the top of the UK Indie Chart.[11] The album had a cool, calculated feel, with clear techno and electro roots, but also showed hints of the rhythmic flourishes and tuned percussion that would later become an important feature of their work. An EP of remixes ofIncunabula's "Basscadet" was released in 1994, with animated computer graphics for the Bcdtmx version created by Jess Scott-Hunter. This music video featured onMTV Europe's Party Zone when Autechre were interviewed during the show in September that year.[12] 1994 also saw the release ofAmber, an album featuring a moreambient, less percussive approach than their debut.[13]
TheAnti EP was released shortly beforeAmber and is, as of yet, the only Autechre release to have an explicit purpose: it was a protest against theCriminal Justice and Public Order Act 1994, which would prohibit raves, defined as any gathering of nine or more people where rave music is played. Rave music was defined as music which "includes sounds wholly or predominantly characterized by the emission of a succession of repetitive beats".[14] The record came wrapped in a seal, on which was printed a legal warning: "Flutter has been programmed in such a way that no bars contain identical beats and can therefore be played at both forty-five and thirty-three revolutions under the proposed new law. However, we advise DJs to have a lawyer and musicologist present at all times to confirm the non-repetitive nature of the music in the event of police harassment."[15]
In a 2008 interview withPitchfork Media, Rob Brown mentioned thatIncunabula andAmber, retrospectively, sounded "cheesy".[16] Brown later clarified that "they were perhaps more simple, but not in a shit way."[17]
1995 saw the release ofTri Repetae, their third album, as well as the EPsAnvil Vapre andGarbage, featuring a monochrome cover designed byThe Designers Republic, with whom Autechre have long held a close association.Tri Repetae and its associated EPs were combined into a two disc set entitledTri Repetae++, which was released in the United States. An official promotional video was created for "Second Bad Vilbel" fromAnvil Vapre by English visual artistChris Cunningham (his first). The "Second Bad Vilbel" video featured rapidly cut shots of industrial machinery and robotic movement, synchronised with the music. Cunningham later re-edited the video in 2002, following his disappointment with the original: "It was intended to be completely abstract but it didn't quite work out that way".[18] A two track vinyl-only EP entitledWe R Are Why, was available to buy during certain concerts and via mail order during 1996. Also in 1995, Autechre's track "Nonima" was featured onMind The Gap Volume 5, a Belgian compilation of electronic music.[19]
Autechre released three records in 1997: the full-lengthChiastic Slide, and the EPsEnvane andCichlisuite (pronounced "sickly sweet"). The latter EP consists of five remixed versions of "Cichli" fromChiastic Slide.Radio Mix was also released in 1997; a rare CD-only promotional recording, it contains an hour-long DJ mix of other artists' tracks, some of them remixed by Autechre, as well as a short interview edited sometimes to the point of incomprehensibility.
An untitled record (typically known asLP5 or simplyAutechre) followed in 1998. It has been seen as a transitional work, with Brown commenting in 2005 that "a lot of people have cited it as a classic Autechre album because it bridges the gap between the guys who liked our old stuff and the guys who got propelled on to our new stuff."[20]
1999 saw the release oftheir first Peel session EP, consisting of three tracks broadcast onJohn Peel's show forBBC Radio 1 in October 1995, as well as a vinyl-only limited edition promotional EP entitledSplitrmx12. 1999 also sawEP7, which is classed by the group as an EP despite the CD version being over an hour in length.
The new millennium brought about a drastic change in Autechre's style, demonstrated byConfield (2001) andDraft 7.30 (2003), as well as theGantz Graf EP (2002). The title track fromGantz Graf inspired an iconic video by British designerAlex Rutterford, featuring an object (or an agglomeration of objects) synchronised to the music as it morphs, pulsates, shakes and finally dissolves. Rutterford, who had previously created an unofficial video for theTri Repetae track "Eutow" as part of theChannel 4 music programmeLo-Fi in 2001, claimed the idea for the "Gantz Graf" video came during one of hisLSD trips.[21] Thesecond Autechre Peel session EP was also released in 2002, containing four tracks broadcast in 1999, named by John Peel himself. Autechre released three collaborative albums with Andrew M. McKenzie'sHafler Trio collective during the following five years (seecollaborations).
Metacritic rated the critical reviews toConfield as "universal acclaim".[22] According to Sean Booth, "most ofConfield came out of experiments withMax that weren't really applicable in a club environment."[23] In contrast, 2003'sDraft 7.30 was seen by some[24] as an easier record to grasp. Booth stated in an interview around the release ofDraft 7.30 that "[rhythm] doesn't seem to limit us in the way it did when we first started. Now I think we just get it, we're totally fluent in it and can be more expressive."[25]
Untilted (a play on the word "untitled"), the duo's eighth album, was released in 2005. It roughly continued the sound of their previous two LPs, though featured compositions that mutated greatly during their duration, typically alternating between passages of ambience and heavily processed, precise beats, such as on "Ipacial Section". Its final track, "Sublimit", is at almost sixteen minutes; Autechre's longest composition to feature on any of their albums until 2016'selseq 1–5. The release ofUntilted was followed by a two-month tour that took the group around Europe, America and Japan, but withdrew them from studio work for an unusual length of time.[16] The outcome of this, coupled with a forced change in studio setup, was a gap of three years between releases, longer than ever before.
Their ninth album,Quaristice, was released in early 2008. In contrast toUntilted, it is made up of twenty tracks, more than any other Autechre release, each typically around 2 to 5 minutes in length. The download-onlyQuaristice.Quadrange.ep.ae EP that accompanies it (as well as theVersions bonus disc and three tracks released exclusively through the JapaneseiTunes Store) brings the total length of music released during theirQuaristice era to over five hours. Among this is the hour-long "Perlence subrange 6-36" that closes the EP. Each track onQuaristice was edited down from lengthy improvised sessions between Booth and Brown,[16] some of which were released in longer versions onQuaristice.Quadrange.ep.ae. Although Sean Booth has stated that theFLAC release ofQuaristice is the actual product,[26] the album was also released by Warp Records as a double LP and a single CD as well as an elaborate two CD edition by Warp Records. Limited to only 1,000 copies,[27] and containing both the regular album andQuaristice (Versions), this special edition was packaged in a photo-etched steel case. It sold out within 12 hours of being announced.[28]
On 13 January 2010, Warp Records announcedOversteps, Autechre's tenth album. Originally slated to be released in March, it was released a month early in digital form on Bleep.com to those who preordered it; the CD and deluxe vinyl editions were released on 22 March 2010. A two-month European tour occurred in support of the album, followed by limited shows in Japan and Australia, the latter breaking a 15-year absence. Autechre then compiled a mix for the magazineFACT, released in February of the same year, that consisted of tracks by artists such asJ Dilla andNecrophagist.[29] On 25 May 2010, Warp Records announced the ten trackMove of Ten, an EP by the duo in conjunction with the release ofOversteps. The digipack CD and the two 12" vinyl version, as well as a digital download, was released on 12 July 2010.
In April 2011 a boxset of EPs entitledEPs 1991 – 2002 (excludingMove of Ten) was released, with artwork from the Designers Republic. It includes a CD copy of their debut EP,Cavity Job, the first time it has been released on the format.[30] In 2011 as part of Warp's 'Made in Japan' relief concert for the victims of the2011 Sendai earthquake, an eleven-minute piece was released entitled "6852", possibly part of a previous live recording.[31]
The eleventh studio album entitledExai was released on 5 March 2013, having been available for download from the official website as of 14 February 2013.[32] The duo announced their 14th EPL-Event on 17 September 2013, which was released on 28 October 2013.[33]
During 2015, the duo embarked on a tour across North America, marketed as AENA. The tour was officially announced on the Warp Records website on 25 May 2015 but promotional material (specifically the logos for the upcoming tour) can be found that was released on 13 August 2014.[34][35][36] On 29 October 2015 members of the Autechre mailing list were given invite-only permission to download a live recording from the duo titledAE_LIVE, a collection of four one-hour-longsoundboard recordings of a series of concerts that took place in 2014.[37] On 1 November 2015 a Bleep.com substore opened up giving the public the ability to purchase and download the collection.[38][39]
On 13 May 2016 a new Autechre track by the title of "feed1" was played onTom Ravenscroft's late evening show onBBC 6 Music after an announcement made on the Warp Records Twitter feed which was accompanied by a piece of geometric album art.[40][41] On 18 May 2016 a second new track was played on KSUA, an Alaskan student radio station, again announced in a tweet by Warp. Afterwards, Warp released the snippet of the Autechre song on theirSoundcloud account under the title "c16 deep tread".[42][43] On 19 May 2016, their twelfth studio album,elseq 1-5, on Autechre's AE_STORE_ page. Warp Records have stated that there are no plans to release the album on a physical medium, making the album Autechre's first digital-only studio album release.
On 6 April 2018, a livestream of new material was broadcast onNTS Radio, marking the first of four live streams released every week of the month. On 9 April 2018, it was unveiled that the sessions, totalling eight hours of material, would be packaged and released asNTS Sessions 1–4 with a listing on the AE_STORE, including 12xLP and 8xCD boxsets. The livestreams coincided with the announcement of live sets in Japan and Australia, including their first-ever performance inTasmania at theDark Mofo Festival.
In November 2018,Richard Devine joined the user chat room of the electronic music forum We Are The Music Makers and hinted at aneaster egg on the AE_STORE website.[44] Following a partially hidden link, the user could download instrument parameter files forElektron's hardware which Autechre used for the 2008 Quaristice tour. When loaded into aMonomachine or Machinedrum these files allowed the user to create their own Quaristice tour soundboard.
In April 2020, Autechre releasedAE LIVE 2016/2018, a set of tour recordings from those respective years. On 1 September 2020, Warp Records announced that fans should sign up to the Autechre mailing list. Shortly after, Autechre announced their next album,Sign, which was released on 16 October 2020.[45]
In 2020 interviews, the duo stated that they had been recording material forSign since the summer of 2018, after their Australian tour, up to February that year. Booth remarked that the songs were more emotional than other works, and that this was the first album recorded with their revamped systems.[46][47]
Another album titledPlus was surprise released digitally on 28 October, with physical and streaming releases planned on 20 November.[48]
On 10 August 2023, the duo released a compilation of livesoundboard recordings titledAE_LIVE 2022–, which consisted of 7 recordings, all between 60 and 80 minutes in length.[49] On 4 November 2024, the release was renamed toAE_2022– and included a new batch of 12 new recordings from their 2023 and 2024 performances.[50] The "live" label was dropped from the new release; in an interview withMetal, Booth stated that he is "honestly not that interested in records anymore. The concept of what a studio album is seems outdated."[51]
On 9 December 2024 Autechre were announced to becomeBBC Radio 6'sartists in residence.[52] The duo were confirmed to be playing a 1 hour long set every night from 9 December through to 12 December.[53]
A wide variety of influences have been noted as discernible in Autechre's music. The duo's roots intagging, earlyhip-hop andelectro music, andb-boy culture in general are still evident, with many reviews noting hip-hop rhythms—sometimes heavily obscured or processed, and sometimes explicit even in later work. All of Autechre's live webcasts have featured large amounts of early hip-hop and electro. In a review ofOversteps,The Wire noted "Treale" as being "a reminder of Booth and Brown's musical apprenticeship as teenage B-boys".[54]
As Autechre's music and studio setup evolved, reviews started to note influences from farther afield; experiments ingenerative synthesis,musique concrète andFM synthesis drew comparisons withIannis Xenakis,Karlheinz Stockhausen andBernard Parmegiani from critics such asPaul Morley.[55] The group have mentioned musique concrète composersTod Dockstader andEdgard Varèse as influences.[6] Autechre also citeCoil as a major influence, with an unfinished collaboration of unknown completeness occurring around the release ofLP5 andEP7.[56] Chris Richards ofThe Washington Post stated in 2015 that Autechre create "some of the most complicated music you could ever hope to drown in" and are "recognized as pioneers inexperimental music".[57] Autechre's work has been described as "music that sounds like it designed itself, with audio fractals that change constantly like living organisms."[58]
While accepting herBritish Dance Act award at theBrit Awards 2025,Charli XCX shouted Autechre out in her speech, among other dance acts she had been influenced by.[59]
Booth and Brown record tracks collaboratively, but in separate studios with identical software and equipment. The process, as Booth describes in a 2020 interview withThe New York Times, involves one sending a track to another, which is sent back with revisions before it is deemed finished. Brown remarks that, although they "behave differently, we sometimes try to achieve the same goal, but with greatly differing approaches (as) we really do get off on the fact that we're on the same page most of the time."[46]
Autechre use many differentdigital synths and a fewanalogue synths in their production,[8] as well as analogue and digitaldrum machines, such as theRoland R-8,mixers,effects units andsamplers. They have also made extensive use of a variety of computer basedsequencers,software synthesisers, and other applications as a means of controlling those synths and processing the synthesised sounds. Much of the hardware and software they use has been customised by the band themselves.[8] Autechre have also experimented in depth with development environments such asMax/MSP,[10] andKyma,[10] amongst others, from 1997 onwards. From 2005 until 2009, they have used theElektron Machinedrum andMonomachine, alongsideAkai MPC andNord Modular in their live performances.[60] It has also been rumoured that Autechre have used military equipment in their work.[61] 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 ofDigital Performer and anAKG C1000 microphone."[62]
Other machines that Autechre have repeatedly mentioned in interviews are appreciated for theirinterface and aesthetics as much as their sound, including theRolandTR-606 andMC-202, and theNord Lead. According to the 2016 interview toResident Advisor, both members haven't bought a piece of equipment "in the last 5 years", making Max/MSP a primary production method, with Sean Booth stating that "in Max I can generally build the thing I need, and if I don't know how to do that it'll generally be worthwhile learning." Booth said that they use MAX as MIDI "only handles a limited set of information" and that instruments like the piano "separates the artist from the string."[47]
Both Booth and Brown are known to have been heavily involved with the majority of releases by the mysteriousGescom collective, although Booth admitted in an interview that around 20 to 30 musicians overall are connected with what he describes as an "umbrella project". Three elaborately packaged albums (æ³o & h³æ,æo³ & ³hæ, andha³oe & ah³eo) have been made by Autechre in collaboration with Andrew M. McKenzie's ongoingHafler Trio project. These albums are significantly more minimal than any other Autechre release, featuring dense, claustrophobic and noisydrones. A track called "Elephant Gear", credited to both Autechre and Canadianbreakcore musicianVenetian Snares under the alias AEVSVS, was released on a compilation in tribute toElektron co-founder Daniel Hansson, who died in a car accident. Autechre have collaborated with several artists for live performances, includingZoviet France,[61]Fennesz andRoedelius.[63]3. Telepathics Meh In-Sect Connection, an album by Sean Booth in collaboration withMika Vainio ofPan Sonic and Kouhei Matsunaga, was released in early 2010.
In 2009 they contributed a cover of anLFO song to theWarp20 compilation, as well as having their song "Tilapia" covered byJohn Callaghan.
The compilation CDThe Only Blip Hop Record You Will Ever Need, Vol. 1, issued in 2002 by David Byrne's Luaka Bop Records, contains a cover version of "Gnit" performed by Marie + Scratch. It is performed using only human voice samples.
The bandPink Freud has performed covers of several Autechre numbers, including "Basscadet", "Cichli" and "Bike". These live performances are available onYouTube.
Autechre helped initiate theAll Tomorrow's Parties music festival in 2000, and curated the 2003 festival.
Autechre have been involved with radio since their early days, originally spinning for IBC Radio, aManchesterpirate radio station in 1991, where they had their own show playing Belgian techno alongside their own demos.[64] Later they would appear as part ofGescom for their weekly "Disengage" show on Manchester's Kiss FM.[61]
Booth and Brown are also known to have contributed (anonymously) to a weekly pirate radio show which aired live at midnight Saturday night in Sheffield from 1994–95, hosted by DJ Jez Potter (who went on to found the noted 'Fear of a Crap Planet' club night in Brighton) alongside fellow Sheffield residents Robert E. Baker, Mark Fell and Mat Steel. No official recordings of these sometimes particularly lengthy broadcasts, often extending to many hours—which featured the above named artists performing using vinyl, tape, CDs, MiniDisc, as well as various hard-and-software—are known to exist.[citation needed]
Autechre have streamed exceptionally long live DJ mixes aswebcasts to coincide with the release of four albums so far:
Studio albums
Autechre pronounce their name as 'autecker'.
Mainstream references
Interviews and other
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