BOC versus Autechre

[Cupz]

...guess what songs I used and win a pencil chewed on by me!

Turquoise Hexagon Sun

Not bad :O

[NorthcutTAmnestY]

At 0:48, do you hear that, that subtle melody in the background - keep listening. That's why Autechre are amazing: they make you work for the candy, but is it sweet. The way that harsh and grainy percussion dances with the melody is wonderful.

[Distant Nebulus]

Put some headphones on.......

and check this track out. Get lost in the bizarre yet beautiful melody, beginning around 0:41

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=1qkMYxt4XYs

[The Telepathic Kid]

Also, guess what songs I used and win a pencil chewed on by me!

is the AE track LCC?

[FernieCanto]

Damn, I really wanted that pencil...

Now, I have to say, I don't think that one can really be "convinced" that Autechre is really that good. The process of opening up to that kind of music is so intimate and introspective that I even dare say that any of these attempts only work against it, by creating resistance. But then again, in the end, I think that any musical exploration is much more about self-discovery than anything else.

The thing is, Autechre isn't even all that extreme and unlistenable when you consider what the pioneers of the 50's and 60's were doing. Most Stockhausen stuff will make Autechre sound like Daft Punk (not a derisive analogy!). Autechre only sounds so incredibly complex because the "laws" they are breaking still have such a despotic, tyrannical influence on music. Any attempt at plugging into a different approach to music inevitably sounds capricious, random, pretentious.

[electroworks]

Ae are Rolling Stones and BOC are The Beatles. Same roots, but careers turning in different directions. Ae is Rock'roll, BOC is psychedelic pop.

[mono]

Damn, I really wanted that pencil...

Now, I have to say, I don't think that one can really be "convinced" that Autechre is really that good. The process of opening up to that kind of music is so intimate and introspective that I even dare say that any of these attempts only work against it, by creating resistance. But then again, in the end, I think that any musical exploration is much more about self-discovery than anything else.

The thing is, Autechre isn't even all that extreme and unlistenable when you consider what the pioneers of the 50's and 60's were doing. Most Stockhausen stuff will make Autechre sound like Daft Punk (not a derisive analogy!). Autechre only sounds so incredibly complex because the "laws" they are breaking still have such a despotic, tyrannical influence on music. Any attempt at plugging into a different approach to music inevitably sounds capricious, random, pretentious.

I'm not sure about that. Stockhausen broke different rules - Autechre sound more familiar because there are hip-hop and techno rhythms in their stuff, but as for tonality and texture they are pretty out there (sometimes). And to be honest, there might be hip-hop and techno rhythms in their stuff, but the beats and the dynamics in some of their tracks are completely new.

But Ae are a bit of an exception. "IDM" as a genre, and by IDM I mean Aphex Twin, mu-ziq, etc., is fairly conventional.

[FernieCanto]

But Ae are a bit of an exception. "IDM" as a genre, and by IDM I mean Aphex Twin, mu-ziq, etc., is fairly conventional.

Yeah, definitely. But I actually think that Autechre in tonal and harmonic terms are rather conservative. Very often, among the broken rhythms and patterns, you'll find chord progressions, minor/major harmonies and so on. They use Western harmonies as a familiar ground on which to lay their rhythmic and textural experimentation. In fact, when they go completely atonal, it sounds pretty jarring.

On the other hand, when you listen to stuff from Xenakis (just to mention one name), everything is violated. Everything. In fact, Xenakis was one of the first to use mathematics and statistics to make some of his music rigorously random. Guys like him were making conscious, academic efforts in finding new languages. Autechre's approach is far more intuitive and emotional, which is what makes them so great in my opinion.

[mono]

That's true - Autechre aren't methodical about creating new possibilities. Honestly I think you just can't compare them to modernist music simply because especially in the examples you give you find very little in the way of rhythm, not so much dynamics, which is of course creating a new music but not innovating in already existing fields. The extent to which Ae's contributions are important is debatable I guess, but to me they do open possibilities for music which didn't exist before. (Of course there are a lot of modernist composers and different modernist "musics" which might have gone further.)

Anyway, I'm just overreaching - my interest in serialism comes mainly because I'm an architect and I'd rather turn everything into lines and circles than work through the impressionistic, the picturesque or the phenomenological - this means I've read Leibowitz's book and I don't know shit about music

(I might point out that Xenakis' work with Le Corbusier is very at odds with throwing all rules out - in the end it's all fractured pattern, and maybe more similar to Ae's beats - check out the glass in la Tourette.)

As for tonality, maybe I was just thinking of the handful of weird tracks. You are right.

edit: i'm sorry, i'm a #1 shit talker

[EnforcedNo]

Ae are Rolling Stones and BOC are The Beatles. Same roots, but careers turning in different directions. Ae is Rock'roll, BOC is psychedelic pop.

kinda this, they have the same roots but ended up on seperate sides of the tree
love em both

[rainier]

I've always thought autechre is lsd and boc is mushrooms. Not really sure where I'm going with that.

[EnforcedNo]

I've always thought autechre is lsd and boc is mushrooms. Not really sure where I'm going with that.

ermmmm
if we're making analogies let's call autechre robotussin

[euue]

i keep hoping this is gonna be about some sort of ae/boc mashup

[FernieCanto]

edit: i'm sorry, i'm a #1 shit talker

Me too. In discussions like these, I'm less concerned with being right and more concerned with finding interesting facts to go after. Talking shit without trying to pass it off as absolute truth is one of the best kinds of conversation in my opinion.

[gjieck]

I started chronologically too. At the beginning I was not really convinced, it sounded cold to me...but I think I got into them with Tri Repetae. You can feel that they're shifting towards a more complex sound, but still mantaining a familiar structure, and in that record they reached for me the perfect balance. Eutow is one of my favourites and one of their warmest tracks for me, it gives me chills every time.

My best advice to any of you is to listen to the Garbage ep. If you don't like that then you can safely say Autechre aren't for you. Such a classic record.

I presume you know about this ambient leviathan?



the other 3 tracks are just as astounding

That was really nice, it's this sorta stuff I don't find appealing at all:

I find it hard to get into their more recent stuff too, although I admit I've not listened to it as much as their first albums...I find them, I don't know, too schizophrenic just for the sake of it.

Nevertheless Untilted is an exception. There's so much progression, every song evolves into something very different...it's very fragmented and with crazy rhythms, but with the right amount of melody and steady beats, just on the edge. I love it. Maybe the most accessible track there is Fermium:
Official video but poor quality