Autechre
Incunabula

THE REVIEW

Autechre, formed in '92, are two DJs from Manchester. To enter the pantheon of the techno genre (and more generally in the history of "indelible" rock), their debut album, this "Incunabula," was enough. I won't describe the various tracks because fundamentally it’s a very cohesive work.

The album needs to be listened to in one go, and despite its considerable length (over 75 minutes), it never bores. This is due to the extreme complexity of their music, made of odd rhythms and very, very cerebral sounds. It feels like being projected into one of those horizontal scrolling arcade games that were very popular in the game rooms of the 80s (and unfortunately, now disappeared).
Their music, in fact, has the remarkable quality of transporting the listener, disorienting them, and delivering them into a state of subtle confusion. As these Englishmen's videogame progresses, our fear of encountering some sonic trap ready to enter our minds like a blade emerging from nowhere to puncture our hero du jour increases.

The alienation they seek is always achieved very finely, never with shouted or bawdy gimmicks, but always with the utmost attention to dosage. There are no noisy surprise effects, no headache-inducing cling-clang. No, here the headache might come but through a subtler game; an hypnotic carpet of rarefied, impalpable electronics that’s truly fascinating.
The great thing is that you can let the album play either by listening to it with extreme attention or as background music, always deriving gratifying pleasure. And that's no small feat, or at least it's a pronounced peculiarity.

The eleven tracks are frescoes of futurism, they are exquisite explorations of cryptic sounds, they are surely masterpieces of their genre.
A seminal work, (such as Radiohead's "Kid A," for instance) but above all, of great quality.
Undoubtedly one of the best of the '90s.
Game over.