Autechre, lp5
Warp
Released: July 1998
Autechre is an odd band. Their music annoys about 3/4 of everyone, but the 1/4 who enjoy it (like me) REALLY enjoy it. They take dance music about as far away from "dance" and "music" as you can go without falling into the black, anti-structure trap that other bands fall into. However, their latest offering (also called simply Autechre) is a surprise. It is (gasp!) beautiful in spots, and, although it is centered around the same CGD, found cut-ups, and fucked-up synth sounds of earlier efforts, there is a palatability to the disk that is unique in the Autechre universe. The third track, "rae," is a good example of this: there's a lovely synth organ line hovering over freaky CGDs. Even more unusual is "melve," which is just a nice little traditional glockenspielesque minuet, with a little traditional bass added in. Of course, for those into the regular Autechre hell on ears, there's "vase in," "777," and "under BOAC," which is noise and weird crazy shit just the way we like it. Autechre's entire catalogue is worth checking out--they are the most consistent and consistently unique band out there today. What's more, they have major label backing in the US (via Nothing Records, Trent Resnor's label), so their music is gaining more and more attention. Whether this is a good thing or a bad thing is debatable, but it does mean that their music is much easier to acquire than, say, Bola's--and that can only be a positive step for intelligent electronic music enthusiasts.