Re: (idm) RE: AE in Vancouver

From Kreig.Zimmerman
Sent Wed, Aug 5th 1998, 21:03

     I'd say I'd have to agree wholeheartedly with the below comments.  I
     myself saw Autechre in Jan. 96 in NYC, and I too was put off by what I
     think of as just wanking to fuck with the crowd, i.e. "try and figure
     out what song _this_ is!!!"   I'm sorry, but that's what going to a
     concert is _not_ about.  When you go to a show, you're hoping to enjoy
     a band's music with people who also enjoy it, a party put on by the
     band itself.   Now I'm no fan of bands that do verbatim renditions of
     recorded material, I find that fairly uninteresting in itself.  But
     the Orb is a good example of an electronic group that manages to remix
     their songs for live performance, making them new and exciting, yet
     keeping them recognizable at the same time.  Yet Autechre seems to
     have decided that in order to be taken seriously "live" they have to
     completely remake all their songs with virtually nothing remaining
     from the originals.  This may make them feel like they're s00perk00l
     and may satisfy the trainspotters in the audience, but for the vast
     majority who's seeking a more visceral thrill, it simply seems
     pretentious, a bunch of techno-geeks pulling noise out of their arses.

     I doubt I'd ever go to another one of their so-called live shows.


______________________________ Reply Separator _________________________________
Subject: (idm) RE: AE in Vancouver

[snip]

It was a real disappointment for me because I am a really big
fan. But as is often the case with live electronic acts, Autechre saw
fit to completely dissect all of their songs and reassemble the parts
into much grungier, less danceable, and in my opinion, less enjoyable
tracks.

The formula went like this for several songs: Start with a
stunning AE beat that causes the whole crowd to go nuts and scream and
begin to dance. Layer sound->layer->layer->layer->watch crowd stop
dancing and start scratching their heads. Either that or they were

I can appreciate that the audience would want to hear artful
rearrangement of their songs, but these tracks were beyond the pale in
terms of experimentation. They were frequently undanceable (when I say
that I don't mean 'they weren't 4/4 I couldn't handbag around the
dancefloor whine whine' I mean they were grating and inaccessible when
compared to the tens of songs that they have that make you want to wig
out).

Why don't they play the songs that are full of amazing melodies
that everyone loves? Why does a live concert from them (and others,
notably Aphex) consist of a sonic middle finger to people that pay good
money to hear what they like?

The argument goes, "If you just wanted to hear the same music
played live, then why not just stay home and crank up your stereo to get
the effect?" to which I reply that in this case, Autechre overshot the
space where artist and audience meet to have a good time.

[snip]