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To be the most respected electronica act on Warped Records is a little bit like being the most respected soul singer on Stax, or the most respected metal band on Nuclear Blast. It means you are the best of the best, the musician’s musician. It means that a label populated by people who know your genre better than most ever will think you’re as good as it gets and when it comes to Autechre, the folks at Warped Records definitely found one of the true icons of the genre.
The duo are made up of Rochdale, Manchester natives Sean Booth and Rob Brown, who met as faces in the Manchester graffiti scene in 1987. Both of them were huge fans of electro and hip-hop so they hit it off right away, and soon they decided to make music together. At first they were simply trading homemade mixtapes with each other; however, it wasn’t long before they graduated to creating their own compositions together on nothing more than a Casio SK-1 sampler and a Roland TR-606 drum machine.
Soon the duo, who at first went by the name Lego Feet, had cooked up their first 12” single, which was named after their short-lived moniker. However, by the time they’d been signed to Hardcore Records for another single release, they did so under the name Autechre. Their first two singles got them attention from the fledgling Warp Records, who put two original tracks of theirs on their compilation CD “Artificial Intelligence”.
The label was so impressed with the two tracks that they signed them for a full length album, which is where Autechre truly began to take off. “Incunabula” was released in November 1993, and despite the fact that it was a debut album released from an unknown techno act, it topped the UK independent album charts, astonishing everyone involved. However, Autechre weren’t ones to rest on their laurels, and their second effort “Amber” was put out the year after, to similar commercial and critical success.
Since then, Autechre have been one of the most respected bands in electronica, able to keep up a consistent level of quality even when releasing music at a rate of knots, even when releasing two E.P’s and an album of original material in the same year a few times. They’re one of those artists truly unafraid of their own vision, and with 11 albums and 14 E.P’s to their name they still show no sign of slowing up. They’re here to stay, and thank god for that. Highly recommended.
Seeing Autechre live was quite an impressive experience. Part of its impressiveness, to me, at least, stemmed from the fact that bandmates Rob Brown and Sean Booth are both totally in sync together as performers and musicians throughout the entirety of their set.
Additionally, it's impressive to witness that the entrancing, melodic music surounding your body is coming from only two musicians, clicking and flipping away at electronic equipment center stage. The range of sounds, beats, and tempos in Autechre's music alone is worth witnessing live, as I'm sure that many are more used to hearing electronic music come from speakers than from two humans twenty or thirty yards away from you.
At the same time, seeing that there are two people, dressed casually, calmly producing the ambient electronic and experimental tracks that float around you and the audience makes you appreciate that type of music more. The amount of brainpower and skill that goes into creating and composing these songs and then performing them live in front of an audience is surely quite immense, and I often find that many dismiss this genre of music only because of its reliance of patterns.
Yet, Autechre performing live shows you the artistry, skill, and beauty in producing such music, and totally wins over audiences willing to experience and cheer for such an extraordinary performance.
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