AUTECHRE
Oversteps
WARP210
Warp Records 2010
14 Tracks. 71mins11secs

Amazon UK: CD | LP US: CD | LP Boomkat: CD | LP

A new Autechre album is always a step into the unknown, so different have each of their records been. Evolving totally outside of any trend or fashion, Sean Booth and Rob Brown have, in the nineteen years since their first EP, Cavity Job, was published, followed a path all of their own and established a language which is tweaked and developed to suit their own evolution. Yet, far from being totally random, their sound is the fruit of a relatively linear evolution, from classic electronica textures to fractured soundscapes and arid rhythmic forms. In 2008, Quaristice denoted a clear step away from the beat-driven structures of the Confield-Draft 7.30-Untilted triptych, where melodies existed mostly in withered state, as once again vibrant musical forms and warm electronic sounds took prominence over rhythms. Continue Reading »

The noughties have seen probably the most radical changes in the music industries since the advent of the record. Consumption habits have dramatically moved from traditional to digital formats, music has been increasingly seen as something to steal rather than to buy, and listening habits means that nowadays, the album is becoming increasingly redundant. Or is it? Whereas it had, at least in some circles, become totally acceptable to fill records with substandard music, it is now essential for artists to create consistent pieces of work if they want to retain the attention of their audience. The last ten years have delivered their fair share of hits and misses, and this list doesn’t pretend to be in any way shape or form exhaustive. This is just, in no particular order, the definitive list of the 20 albums that have defined the noughties at themilkfactory.

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VARIOUS ARTISTS
Warp20 (Box Set) / Warp20 (Recreated) / Warp20 (Chosen)
WARP20.0 / WARP201 / WARP 202
Warp Records 2009
– / 21 Tracks / 24 Tracks. – / 99mins13secs / 127mins18secs

Warp20 (Box Set)
Boomkat: BX

Warp20 (Recreated)
Amazon UK: CD Amazon US: CD Boomkat: CD iTunes: DLD

Warp20 (Chosen)
Amazon UK: CD Amazon US: CD Boomkat: CD iTunes: DLD

LFO. Three metallic blue letters, straddled by a ghostly shape, set on a black background. Three letters that changed things forever. The year was 1991, I was browsing through the new arrivals in my local records store, and the Designers Republic artwork of LFO’s Frequencies was standing out from the blur, calling out for my attention. An hour or so later, I was left baffled by a record which I was struggling to understand. On one side, the lush flow and shattering bass of LFO or Simon From Sydney irresistibly titillated my appetite for crisp evocative electronics, on the other, I had never experienced anything quite as bare as Mentok 1 or We Are Back. This album bore its influences on its sleeve, literally, and it took a few listens to ‘get it’. But ‘get it’ I did. More than I could have ever wished for. I was hooked. Not only on LFO, but also on Warp.

The brainchild of Steve Beckett and the late Rob Mitchell, who founded the label twenty years ago in the former metallurgic city of Sheffield, Warp found itself at a crossroad between the dying acid scene and the nascent UK techno/electronica movements Continue Reading »

AUTECHRE
Quaristice (Versions)
WARPCD333X0
Warp Records 2008
11 Tracks. 67mins49secs

By now, listeners have had some time to digest Quaristice, the latest release from Autechre, and the new (yet also classic) approach they’ve taken this time around. In contrast to the longer, more spaced-out and fleshed-out ideas found on their previous three albums, Quaristice features twenty tracks, most clocking in at less than four minutes, featuring, alternately, spastic explosions of percussion and sampling, or lush ambient synthesizer arrangements. With Quaristice (Versions), a bonus disc released with the limited edition of Quaristice, Autechre offer a glimpse at a version of the album more in line with Untilted or Draft 7.30. There are eleven tracks here, many of which last longer than seven minutes, allowing the sequences and ideas from Quaristice more time to evolve. Continue Reading »

Rarely are abstract electronic acts as well known for their live sets as for their recorded output. Given such a heavy reliance on sequencing and studio edits, one could be forgiven for getting bored watching someone noodle around with pre-recorded tracks on a laptop. Autechre, on the other hand, have taken a very different approach, eschewing laptops for their live performance, and instead working with a mix and match of sequences, almost all of them unreleased, for a live show that is intense and unforgettable. Continue Reading »

After fifteen years, Autechre still manage to surprise and inspire. On Quaristice, Sean Booth and Rob Brown turn their back to the ultra precise soundscapes that have defined their work in recent years and focus instead on a much more spontaneous and direct sound, developed from their live sets. Mark Flanagan talks to Sean Booth about how the band’s live sound has infiltrated their studio work, how him and Rob work together, what they think of live bootlegs, and being Myspace’d.

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AUTECHRE
Quaristice
WARPCD333
Warp Records 2008
20 Tracks. 73mins16secs

Warm and soothing electronic waves crushing over textured beat-less soundscapes haven’t been the staple diet of Autechre for some time, but it is exactly the angle that Sean Booth and Rob Brown have chosen to open the festivities on Quaristice. Far from the infinitely detailed sonic displays of their last three albums, Booth and Brown, now well into their second decade of collaborative work, have deflected their trajectory just enough to shine a very different light on their past work and give their sound a surprisingly playful twist.

The result is a thoroughly eclectic and colourful palette of short tracks, most of which clocking between three and five minutes, which alternates between hectic rhythmic constructions (The Plc, Plyphon, fwzE, chenc9), elegant melodic pieces (Simmm, Theswere) and granular atmospheric, textural or isolationist formations (Altibzz, Notwo, Outh9X). Continue Reading »

Details of the forthcoming Autechre album, their ninth, have been revealed in a recent Warpmart newsletter. The album, entitled Quaristice, is due to be released on 3 March and is the follow up to Rob Brown and Sean Booth’s 2005 Untilted album. The album will feature no less than twenty tracks. The cover, designed, for the first time since the Cichli Suite EP, by The Designers Republic, was also unveiled.

Full track listing as follow:

1. Altibzz
2. The Plc
3. IO
4. Plyphon
5. Perlence
6. SonDEremawe
7. Simmm
8. Paralel Suns
9. Steels
10. Tankakern
11. Rale
12. Fol3
13. fwzE
14. 90101-51-1
15. bnc Castl
16. Theswere
17. WNSN
18. chenc9
19. Notwo
20. Outh9X

The band will embark on a full European tour to coincide with the release of the album. Dates as follow:

FEBRUARY
29 Manchester, UK, Music Box

MARCH
01 Glasgow, UK – Arts School
02 Newcastle, UK – Digital
03 Birmingham, UK – Med Bar
04 London, UK – Venue TBC
05 Koln, Germany – Stattgarten
06 Amsterdam, Holland – Melkweg
07 Antwerp, Belgium – Petrol
08 Hamburg, Germany – Hafenklang
09 Berlin, Germany – Berghain
10 Katowice, Poland – Jazz Club
11 Budapest, Hungry – Merlin
12 Zagreb, Croatia – Kset
13 Graz, Austria – Post Garage
14 Italy – Town and venue TBC
15 Rome, Italy – Venue TBC
16 Italy – Town and venue TBC
17 Lyon, France – Epicerie Moderne
18 Strasbourg, France – La Laiterie
19 Paris, France – Rex Club
20 Geneva, Switzerland – L’Usine, Electron Festival

Autechre (MySpace) | Warp Records

New Autechre album announced on Warp in early 2008. At the moment, there is no information on release date, track listing and so on. The only information available is the title of Autechre’s ninth album: Quaristice

Warp Records

GESCOM
MiniDisc
ONLY3CD
Or 1998/2006
45 Tracks. 66mins18secs

Audio visual history is full of obsolete formats, and recent years have been particular harsh, with audio cassettes, DAT, VHS, S-VHS, betamax, videodiscs or Philips’s ill-fated DCC, to name but a handful, all biting the dust in a matter of years, while the CD is getting under constant attack from MP3 players and computers, and even the DVD seems doomed as hard-drive recorders become more common and broadband is more widely available and faster. Only the vinyl record has regained some market shares.

One of these almost entirely extinct formats is Sony’s minidisc. Launched only fifteen years ago, it looked for a while as it was here to stay, but, with the arrival of the iPod and other MP3 players, the format rapidly became doomed. It was different when Gescom released Minidisc back in 1998. Continue Reading »