Subject: HUUH-techre
"For many listeners, Autechre have lost the script; they've left behind the emotive terrain for which they were once known, and ventured into the cold confines of the blasted, post-humanist world."
http://www.insiderone.net/reviews/reviews.html
SO, how'd you kids like the show last Friday?
In a nutshell two nights in a row of Ae & their new material was a bit much. The show in seattle was great overall. In part due to alcohol, I found it easy to drift into a visually laden trance by closing my eyes and getting into their set. Not at all what i expected, but an eventful journey none the less. Amazing lighting too. Some new laser boxes to help summon the logos. The guy before them (russel haswell i think) was entertaining for the first track or so, but then the barrage of distortia-noise began applying pressure like a 300lb reclining lardass on a southwest flight. By the end of the night the closing dj had all four of us on the dancefloor, toolness being realized. I admire them (Ae) for continuing to evolve and not pumping out the same shit 7 years later (plenty of clones to go around)... maybe it will lead to a new rewarding pond. But for now it was an abstract journey i won't be missing when i'm plugged into some lexaunculpt or aesop rock or prefuse73 or etc., etc.
Portland: cool club (except no beer),
Just as i was rolling into town my headache from the previous nights consumption lifted to a manageable level. Autechre played similar material but a different set. very sound-scapish. Some local entertainment: one of the opening bands was some blond-haired portlander who came on stage with his fly open. He proceeded to position a light on himself so we could all see him clearly, and then, after ten minutes of waiting for the mic to work, yet another round of distortia-noise began. He whipped out some type of microphone attached to his right index finger and began to shake it madly through the air in front of the stage mic until it produced some barely distinguishable variations amongst the radio static. This went on for 20 minutes, where it culminated in a facial expression that looked like he was taking a monster dump while he viciously slappity-slapped the the microphone against his groaning vocal box. A tad heavy on the dramatics for such a minimal and disappointing interface with the radio static. After Ae's set, there was some dj'd aphex that was pretty cool.
So when's that upcoming tortoise show?
-mAttis
quoted 1 line
>>>>>>
RE: oakland
autechre did not play in sf but instead in beautiful oakland, which is as
you know is a bit of a secondary city just like vancouver WA and tacoma. ie
completely dead downtown but the venue did rock nonetheless. inside it was
completely art deco, all the robots from metropolis would have felt at home.
the openers all rocked-i agree that the last opener wasn't ALL THAT, but
indeed overall a great show. there were something like five
openers...autechre was good but we were dead by the time they rolled on.
video art was being mixed-real time shots of musicans playing w/clips
including "the prisoner"- #6's mug 8 feet high superimposed with lights et
al voice distorted "...i am not a number..." perhaps the video presentation
was the height of the show.
joe
quoted 1 line
>>>>>>
RE: (more oak)
adding to the comments,
certainly someone's sound should evolve, but perhaps autechre is wandering a bit from their genre. call me conventional, but if i wanted to listen the soundscapes that autechre is moving towards, i could dive into a whole mess of experimental musicians producing the unchecked noise. what attracted me to ae was the structure, the drive as well as the textures. the balance was appealing and it is what allowed autechre their success, or at least to bridge a gap between the electronic fringes and music set to time. take the balance away and the current digression is only listened to because of what autechre has done in the past. "Clones" like funkstorung and arovane may have hopped on board after autechre paved a path, but have since pushed idm into something more diverse and interesting. if the latest release is similar to the show, it seems that autechre has left idm altogether. Fine by me, but it seems odd to listen to the current work as an idm fan and pretending it's idm.
One huge benefit: if idm fans DO listen to autechre and think it's idm, it will open them up to true experimental electronic music (if they haven't been already), which would be great if they enjoy it.
one last impression: the show reminded me of the kid606 / datach'i show at Bottom of the Hill. lots of noise...
e
quoted 1 line
>>>>>>
RE: (Ae PDX)
Well since everyone is mailing everyone and talking about autechre,
I guess I better too.
I tried to listen to this stuff outside of the meat-market paradigm
of music consumption, and somehow was not able to.
I got bored with the mono-texture; with chaotic beats, and although
the space was beautiful and the people were interesting, I was tired with
the sound aspect of the situation. Over all I didn't hear the unique-ness of
machine music, and the composition of chaos that I was hoping. I guess maybe
this quote from an interview took the enjoyment out of what they were doing.
I guess maybe I will listen more to the world with the intensity that I
listen to my "music".
What are we looking for?
De:Bug: How much music do you actually produce.?
Sean: Don?t know. In a good week probably about an hours worth. And
that can be various lengths. The thing is with a lot of generative and
computer stuff you are making running from start to finish as well. Coded
routine that works. But a lot of the tracks are really long cause there is
no real end to it. Its an algorithmic process and you don?t have to have
an end to it. I might fill a DAT with a track an listen to it while doing
other things. I am totally recursive as well. Involved with Autechre. I
don?t really listen as much to other peoples stuff as much as I used to.
Quite into listening to our own stuff.
De:Bug: It?s something that I have been waiting for years, that
somebody comes out with programs as a music format.
Sean: We?ve already released one on the fals label, but only a
little one. With music that performs a little visual process as well.
Generative, always slightly different. I`ve sent quite a lot of these
things out to people, but the problem is with copyright law as it stands, it
does not support stuff like that. It?s a great idea. I?d love to give people
a CD with the programs and say: There you go, thats the new Autechre
album. But everytime the program runs it makes a different track, wich then
has a different copyright, and the person who runs the program could put
his copyright to it. You could release the tracks as your tracks. There is
nothing for me to prevent that.
De:Bug: On the other hand it?s a good idea that there is at least a
resistance against the copyrighting of software.
Sean: Yeah and you can?t put a copyright to everything a special
software makes. And it would be really stupid to do that. I mean these
programs are just a patch. And who?d copyright a patch. You?d have to be
a real moneygrabbing bastard to do that.
De:Bug: People are making money with less ideas.
Sean: Obviously i`d fucking love to release something like that, but
it is just really difficult to earn any money with it. But I like using them
for live. Thats applications and I can change the input live. And it
doesn?t really matter if everything changes because thats the whole point of
livesets. And then there is no debate about who performed it, because we
performed it.
Happy listening!
g*
---------------------------------------------------------------------
To unsubscribe, e-mail: idm-unsubscribe@hyperreal.org
For additional commands, e-mail: idm-help@hyperreal.org