Autechre @ the Black Cat
In the relatively young world of electronic music, 20 years seems like an eternity. If I asked you to imagine what electronic music sounded like 20 years ago, you might harken back to one of those early Moog albums that you've probably seen in the dollar bin at your local record store. You would, of course, be wrong, but the point still stands: electronic music has changed quite a bit during the last 20 years. So it's hard to believe that Autechre, a band that has had a profound influence on electronic musicians of today, has been around for more than 20 years.
Rob Brown and Sean Booth formed Autechre in 1987, in the Manchester suburb of Rochdale, and the duo has been creating consistently challenging experimental electronic music ever since. Known for their painstaking sequencing of loops, proclivity for complex rhythms and penchant for exploring multiple time signatures simultaneously, most of Autechre's catalog cannot be described as "accessible." Yet, the band was one of the driving forces behind Warp Records' success in the mid-1990s and has influenced a wide range of artists, from like-minded contemporaries like Aphex Twin to rock acts like Radiohead, whose Thom Yorke has often cited Autechre as a major influence.
Despite their status as IDM pioneers (a title the band often shrugs off), a question remains for those of us who have never seen Autechre live: is it interesting to watch? The fear is, of course, that the band might simply walk on stage, hit "enter" on a laptop and then proceed to smoke cigarettes. And given the sorts of shows that electro audiences are accustomed to nowadays--the LED pyramid of Daft Punk, the giant, illuminated cross of Justice, the fist-pumping shows of MSTRKRFT--maybe it's not so wrong to expect a little bit more from an electronic show nowadays. Luckily, Autechre had something else in mind completely.
Taking the stage just after 11:30 p.m. on Thursday, Autechre wasted no time in ensuring that their set would be felt as much as it was heard. Just about the first sounds emitted from their rig were loud, bassy thumps--the kind of noises that can literally rattle your rib cage if you're standing close enough to the stage. This immediately signaled to the chatty folks at the bar that the main event had begun, and soon the front of the stage was as packed as it gets for most rock shows. Hunched over countless synths, sequencers and samplers in complete darkness, Brown and Booth continued to twist knobs, punch buttons and turn dials, seemingly oblivious to the fact that there was an audience watching them. There were no projections, no visuals and no props--hell, they didn't even use any of the stage lighting. The emphasis was clearly placed on the music--a series of skittering, abrasive beats, pops and clicks. No, it wasn't exactly danceable, not even on the order of Autechre's early flirtations with the UK club scene. It was, however, tactile. Thanks to the loud volume, the generous use of low-end frequencies and the overlaid, looping textures, it felt as if you could almost touch the music. And as far as we're concerned, that's far more interesting than any light show will ever be.
Photo courtesy of Warp Records