This August at RRC we are presenting a 90s dance music classic, but not the archetypal 90s dance music, instead an album that saw a group tear up their previous soundscapes and become pioneers.
Autechre's third album Tri Repetae has become a marker in the divergence in electronic music, much like Kraftwerk, Eno, Wendy Carlos, and Tangerine Dream to name a few that had done so before them.
So how did two guys from Rochdale become electronic music visionaries whose name stands in the pantheon of electronic music luminaries?
Despite their humble beginnings in the north of England, Rob Brown and Sean Booth, better known as Autechre, found themselves surfing the wave created by the creation of Warp Records. The UK independent label created a home for artists to experiment with a new genre which would later become known as IDM (Intelligent Dance Music), but at its inception was called the northern bleep techno scene.
The Warp Label created a breeding ground for artists who have now become household electronic names like Aphex Twin, Nightmares on Wax, and LFO, it was Autechre however who charted perhaps the most interesting trajectory.
The duo released their debut 'Incunabula' in 1993 which was rooted in techno and electro roots, with rhythmic flourishes and tuned percussion, and within a year a sophomore album 'Amber' was released which saw them move into a more ambient space. It was Tri Repetae though which saw the duo annihilate their own musical origins and dive deep into the genre they were spearheading, and push the equipment they used to new levels while continuing to make art, and not just music.
Tri Repetae is a soundscape devoid of lyrical content that creates an emotionless template, the music dealing with bleak, depressionist, and isolationist themes made all the more poignant when you imagine the total lack of human feeling within the music. The machines that the duo used to create the tracks become the emotional heart of the album, the drum beats, loops, glitches, and blasts of noise form the bedrock of textures which allow the duo to create music, that forsakes structure, melody, and anything which resembles traditional music creation, while creating something fresh that bubbles under the surface of the album waiting to explode, or recess again into the background.
At 72 minutes long this album is about the journey, its about the interweaving of the songs and the sinews which create the connections between the tracks. To those of us who were lucky enough to discover Autechre in the 90s, a period devoid of music streaming where finding, and cherishing new music styles was based on magazine reviews, late night radio programs, obscure music TV videos, and album covers, finding the duo was like finding the music of the future.
27 years later the album continues to excite on every listen, allowing the listener to find differing aspects to the music, and if you check the liner notes on the release you will see that Autechre themselves advise that the best way to listen to the album is on vinyl, with that in mind we hope you enjoy.
PS - Check out this interview clip from 1994
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=yuPNwLYrMm0
Stu
RRC
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