Autechre - Geniuses or just garbage...

[warrj]

... I can never decide. Sometimes I think they're fantastic, other times in just sounds like random noise.

Anyone formed an opinion?

Regards,

Jules.

[Rambo John J]

I stopped buying their stuff a couple of albums back. I used to worship the ground they walked on, but now..... they seem to have taken up residence in their own bottoms, which is a shame as their live shows used to be a lot of fun. Even though the music was always off-kilter, they could still throw together a very good live experience that'd have you shaking your booty, which was always quite bizarre given the type of music they do. These days though, it all seems too random. I just don't have 6 months to dedicate to listening to each new album just to wait for the moment it "clicks" and all comes together in my head as being anything more than random noise, clicks and whirrs.
Amber and Tri Repetae are still works of genius, and their Gescom stuff was always awesome. Key Nell used to inject more than a little life into the chill out rooms when I was out and about DJing. I can't help feeling they've lost it now, though. Just like Aphex Twin.

I spend more time listening to stuff by Thomas Koner, Iron Halo Device, Stone Glass Steel, Megaptera, Negru Voda, Caul, and a million other "never heard of them" dark, industrial ambient creators these days. Far better than the guff Autechre are throwing together these days

[KILLA]

Geniuses.
I went through a horrible period of not liking any new music at all, so I looked to the past and discovered Autechre.
At first it was baffling random noises, I didn't understand why people loved them, I was tempted to put it down to "Emperors new clothes".
Then during one of their tracks I had an epiphany, and everyything clicked.
Autechre saved me from a musical hell, where everything sounded formulaic, similar and dull.
It's not that complicated once you understand it, I prefer their later albums but love the older stuff as well.

[J1mbo]

Used to be geniuses, now fricking appalling. They were great back in the day when I saw them supporting Orbital.

I've got countless stuff by them, but so much of the newer material is almost unlistenable, and certainly un-danceable. There is one track who's title I forget which you can replicate by rubbing a microphone across a jumper. I've done it. Took seconds. The fact that Autechre took forever with a sampler and keyboards to achieve the same is NOT to be admired...

Originally Posted by KILLA

Geniuses.
I went through a horrible period of not liking any new music at all, so I looked to the past and discovered Autechre.
At first it was baffling random noises, I didn't understand why people loved them, I was tempted to put it down to "Emperors new clothes".
Then during one of their tracks I had an epiphany, and everyything clicked.
Autechre saved me from a musical hell, where everything sounded formulaic, similar and dull.
It's not that complicated once you understand it, I prefer their later albums but love the older stuff as well.

I have to take issue with this kind of thinking...are you aware how pseud that sounds?

[GuestOfHonour]

Got to agree with J1mbo.

Amber and Tri repetae = their best work, their lastest album, Quaristice sounds like they've instructed the PC to create some random ***** with none of the "intelligent" noise-evolving-into-a-beautiful-soundscape moments as heard in their earlier work.

Maybe they've just run out of ideas, or maybe it's just laziness/complacency.

[KILLA]

I don't like Quaristice either, but Confield, Draft and Untilted are the best stuff they've ever done.
It did take a few listens to appreciate them, but I don't think there's anything wrong with that.
I can think of lots of things that I didn't like at first, and grew to love, and I don't think we were ever meant to "dance" to Autechre anyay.

I love their earlier stuff like Amber as well, but they've evolved with every album, which is great and to call it unlistenable and lazy, is lazy itself imo.

[-Ad-]

Originally Posted by GuestOfHonour

Got to agree with J1mbo.

Amber and Tri repetae = their best work, their lastest album, Quaristice sounds like they've instructed the PC to create some random ***** with none of the "intelligent" noise-evolving-into-a-beautiful-soundscape moments as heard in their earlier work.

Maybe they've just run out of ideas, or maybe it's just laziness/complacency.

I could not agree more. I bought most of their albums in a binge at HMV, where I'm sure they were all mispriced at around £5 each

Amber and tri-repetae are stunning, but I had quaristice on whilst cooking and had to go and turn it off before I self mutilated myself with a sharp meat knife. I had not really listened to it before, but had been told it was more listenable than the others

I think it will be the first cd album I ever sell, it sounds like a BBC computer was used to compose the tracks.