Autechre's new album 'Amber' saw the murky light of day on November 7th, a much anticipated follow up to the highly influential 'Incunabula'. It looks set to be logged as one of the benchmark releases in electronic music. Deeply personal and always far from the easy option, Autechre are never easy to define (or pronounce) and their elusive and enigmatic qualities reflect a complete indifference, even a mistrust of popularity and recognition. Let the track speak for itself.
The word 'track' doesn't quite get there either. Perhaps lateral excursions into the deepest recesses of the mind would be more appropriate. Whether you're sitting on a sofa at home or swaying on a dark dancefloor surrounded by several hundred others, taking in Autechre is comparable to traversing the great plains, confronting a dozen current neuroses, toying with their ramifications, and somehow emerging at the other side, purged. With them, it's basically a question of going with the flow, and who knows where you might end up.
Learning to love electronic music isn't always easy, particularly with the volume of hard, confrontational work around that demands time, energy and a certain state of mind. Autechre are at pains to distance themselves from the growing British techno scene.
the state51 conspiracy