Rochdale sons Rob Brown & Sean Booth make up Autechre, who along with Aphex Twin, have best represented the ethos of Sheffield's Warp records. Especially as when recent years have seen Warp increasingly interested in indie stylings Autechre remain resolutely forward looking and future focused. The sci-fi future of techno that Autechre envision is complex and demanding but repays effort and has at it's centre a human heart and surprisingly transparent influences.
Autechre were 80's kids into b-boy culture, electro, graffiti and breakdancing outside the local Morrison's on a cardboard sheet, then came of age during the 91 Ardkore scene, when they had already a white label pressed. The sound progressed through techno, ambient but quickly became too complicated for dancing and so was labelled IDM, possibly the least attractive moniker for a musical style ever. John Peel had the best quote on IDM, 'I just want to hear the really stupid stuff'.
Late 90's Autechre began to stray from established techno templates by using atomised sounds, tuned polyrhythmic drums, imagine if Belgian Ardkore crew Cubic 22 was programmed by Cecil Taylor. Whilst melodies became oblique washes of colour, electro references were there in abstract timbres and rhythmic flourishes.
Confield is considered the moment where Autechre are at there most brain scrambling and esoteric, taking influence from Coil, granular synthesis, Musique Concrete & Bernard Parmegiani, best heard in final track Lentic Catachresis. Ten years on Confield remains just as rewarding and confusing as ever and is also remarkably visual music as evidenced by the videos, the tracks always put you in mind of a shape, colour, mood. Opinion remains divided about post 2000 Autechre, as either the point they became unlistenable and left the audience behind, or fans of the current era, such as I, who believe there remain codes and puzzles to be cracked from the steely maze of Confields grooves, we may even discover the missing quark.
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