Autechre

The icy Autechre represent the avant-garde of the worldwide ambient-techno scene. Their electronic architectures spring from complex structures, built on unusual time signatures and distorted sounds, with heavy use of filtered voices and digital reverbs. A project that gathers the fundamental insights of Kraftwerk and Tangerine Dream, updating them with the sounds of the new millennium (Black Dog, Aphex Twin and Orbital in particular). But compared to other exponents of this electronic revival, Autechre boast a greater percussive richness, which allows them to forge a sound with more "industrial" traits.

The band is a duo made up of Sean Booth and Rob Brown, two DJs from Manchester's techno scene with a passion for acid house. They were discovered by Warp, the label that had already released work by Sweet Exorcist, Nightmare on Wax and B12, and that would go on to write the history of Nineties electronic music, with names such as Aphex Twin, Boards Of Canada and Plaid.

Preceded by the EP "Cavity Job" (1991) and, a year later, by their appearance on the compilation "Artificial Intelligence" (which marks the birth of so-called "Intelligent Techno"), the British duo's debut album, "Incunabula", arrives in 1993: a monumental 78-minute work in which their instrumental sound shines through, built almost entirely on beats and chords. Autechre's techno-logical formula - deconstructed rhythms and cerebral tones, aseptic sounds and impalpable melodies - proves remarkably evocative, moving somewhere between Brian Eno's ambient watercolours and the spatial forays of late-period Tangerine Dream.

It's mechanical music, yet fluid, freely drawing on textures with jazz and symphonic leanings. Cerebral, minimalist music, at once menacing and relaxing, born of a careful blend of analogue and digital equipment. Like many theorists of the "ambient" mode, Autechre count Gyorgy Ligeti among their hidden inspirations. But within the folds of "Incunabula" there are also traces of hip-hop, Indian music and African rhythms, along with a peculiar quest for "groove". Their sounds, slow and hypnotic, with minimal chord variations over a backdrop of percussion in odd time signatures, are at once majestic and desolate, far removed from any cliché commonly associated with techno. The overture of "Kalpol Introl" is an alluring cocktail of velvety sounds, robotic rhythm and reverb; the sticky opening electronic riff is followed by a haze of ethereal notes à la Popol Vuh, and by subtle melodic textures. "Bike" is a futurist ballet, its rhythm hovering over a carpet of disorienting sound effects.

The recurring shift from rhythmic storms to sudden shreds of silence, where the synth is left to float alone for a few instants, sharpens the sense of mystery and disorientation. "Autriche", on the other hand, seems to come from some remote abyss, with a quasi-Gregorian choir taking shape over a vortex of sonic fluctuations and free-jazz-style keyboard solos. "Bronchus" is a further ambient digression, leading into the compelling single "Basscadet", propelled by tighter rhythms and Latin American percussion, and reinforced by a wall of synths and computerised samples. The game grows ever more mesmerising, to the point that, sinking into the atmospheres of "Eggshell" - a geometric progression of melody, driving rhythm and jazz improvisation - one could almost stumble upon Kraftwerk's magical "tanzmusik". And while "Doctrine" and "Maetl" seem intent on emphasising the darker, more techno side of their sound, "Winwind" and "Lowride" combine sophisticated technological research (made up of loops, filtered breakbeats, samples and drones) with a seductively jazzy "chill-out room" sound.

The sticky "444" finally closes the album on a note of deeply evocative ambient dance music. These mechanical scores, in which sequencers, computers and drum machines chase one another, transport the listener into another dimension, constantly disorienting them and stripping away all contact with earthly reality. The effect is not far removed from psychedelic trance.

A kind of sonic galaxy in which the listener floats freely, trying to decipher its mysterious codes, "Incunabula" is one of the most cryptic and fascinating electronic music albums of the Nineties. Melodic, harmonic and rhythmic idioms converge here into a gigantic electronic cathedral, within which they are alternately pulverised or exalted. A bold undertaking, then, capable of revolutionising techno, launching it into space towards the boldest symphonies of ambient and kosmische musik, and of influencing a multitude of bands (from Kid 606 to Oval, from Pan Sonic to Boards of Canada, from post-"Kid A" Radiohead to Matmos). And, for once, experimentation would also be rewarded with solid commercial success: "Incunabula", in fact, would reach number 1 on the British independent charts.

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26/10/2006