Autechre
Amber

Much has already been said about "Amber," but rarely diving into its historical/sonic perspective, a perspective that's absolutely far from trivial, transcending the work itself to directly infiltrate more than two decades of electronic music from '94 onwards. This unforgettable gem, more than any other album of its time, helped to definitively outline the standards of what is now globally recognized as "IDM", a genre that, despite the decline of new ideas in the new decade, the new names not always up to the mark, and numerous historic labels that have disappeared, is more alive and well than ever. 

Indeed, unlike much of their English peers (who might change their sound only much later), Autechre were able to evolve their creation right from the start, just a year after the no less fundamental "Incunabula," and twice in a seminal way: firstly, "launching," or rather consolidating, IDM from the ashes of the already dying ambient-techno phenomenon, years later - from '97 to 2005 - with the "abstract" side, the latter side decidedly more dedicated to experimentation, less commercial and rooted in the electronic underground, which still today boasts numerous imitations, besides being now the only one for which to dare the word "intelligent," in the face of an "Intelligent Dance Music" that, reaching the new millennium, was already far from "intelligent" given the general flattening and the drop in innovation. In both cases, the duo distinguished themselves for an eclectic and avant-garde musical personality, experimenting everywhere, from rhythms especially (revolutionary) to atmospheres (of the most diverse imaginaries) to the always innovative production techniques, moving through the rejection of the song form, the overturning of musical rules, the artworks, and even the randomly generated titles.

To an ear that has absorbed much of the more experimental aspects of electronic music from the last decade (and particularly technically gigantic and super-complex stuff like Richard Devine, Otto Von Schirach, Datach'i, the latter-day Autechre, or the digital experiments of Noto, Delay, Bretschneider), this work, despite still sounding terribly current, might seem dated, blatantly '90s in its extreme analogy, in its triumph of Nord Lead and Roland drum machines. It's no coincidence, in fact, that alongside "Incunabula," "Amber" remains the most human, accessible, and indeed analog act of the British ensemble; an ensemble that will later make digital equipment (nothing but the heart of modern IDM) its warhorse.

Its importance is nevertheless immense, given that in the crowded scene (especially British) of the time, we see the full boom of ambient-techno, increasingly in constant ferment (Aphex Twin, Future Sound of London, U-ziq, Orb, LFO, B12, The Black Dog, Deep Space Network, production houses like Warp, R&S, GPR, Rephlex to name just a few), whether it's the side more rooted in the burgeoning European techno of Joey Beltram, Speedy J & co. (inspired itself by the already highly developed Detroit school) and the two warp-compilations "Artificial Intelligence" - (LFO, B12, The Black Dog), the one connected to ambient (Aphex Twin, The Orb, The Irresistible Force, Biosphere) or the more experimental and generally more eclectic, personal and hard-to-categorize sound (Future Sound of London, Mouse on Mars, the Germans Atom Heart and Oval, Alec Empire, the same Autechre). Not to mention the fact that many of the names cited here were already traveling from one 'category' to another - showing themselves musically open and often relying on various pseudonyms to which to attribute certain directions (this is especially the case of Aphex Twin and Atom Heart). Essentially, in a scene so lively and in the making, the term "IDM" remained more of a "theoretical" term, still rather anchored to the "Artificial Intelligence" series by Warp and the conceptual triptych birth-development-etymological origins of the genre, rather than a real distinctive sound which would see especially in the releases concerning the second half of the nineties (when ambient techno was already a distant memory) the clearest examples.  

The crux of the matter is that with the advent of two or three particular records, but "Amber" above all, it's about a distinctive sound, and not a genre - and it's also for this reason that the playful term will be repudiated by many artists in the field - unlike more well-defined third electronic music (techno, electro, drum'n'bass, for example). So are we talking about a non-genre? Almost: nowadays, you can refer to IDM for multiple cases, but all united by production generated via electronic means (whether they are vintage synthesizers, drum machines, effect pads, laptops, development environments like Max/Msp, cutting-edge plugins and VSTi of latest generation) which are difficult to "frame" into one of the many genres using the same process and that are part of the term 'electronic music', unlike its ambient-techno ancestor, at least in its initial form, which was nothing more than what was initially called IDM (but for the purpose of promotion) and, essentially, with the exception of a few who were already experimenting, nothing other than amalgamating the rhythms, crystalline melodies and visionary soul of Detroit techno with the rarefied landscapes of ambient music.  

It's not something "unclassifiable" because it's naturally experimental like (uncatalogable + experimental) the initial inspired works of a Nurse With Wound (most of the IDM is obviously centered on a certain level, high or low, of experimentation, but few - Autechre among these - have experimented at a 'total' level making themselves often unclassifiable), but rather because, despite secondary small references (e.g., Aphex Twin-acid/ambient / Squarepusher-drum&bass/jazz) it doesn't root itself in any specific socio-theoretical-musical context, relying solely on artistic creativity without any limits (obviously speaking of things with 'unique' personality as those discussed here, and not simple clones - talented but still clones - like ISAN - sort of a sad replica of Boards of Canada); which is why in a more or less totalitarian "confrontation" between artists/labels/periods within the so-called "IDM" label you can find artists with hugely diverse stylistic traits, often very different from each other (from Autechre's rhythmic experimentation, to Boards of Canada's melodic one or Venetian Snares' breakcore one). 

This distinctive sound, which will evolve towards the aforementioned multiple paths - only partially anticipated in various drafts on the previous album [Incunabula is a Latin word meaning 'something in development,' decidedly appropriate for what will follow here], owes almost everything to "Amber," (and, sure, before and after from other scattered ideas in various works/artists contributing to anticipate certain "concepts," especially Aphex Twin concerning a certain type of "melodic approach" or Squarepusher for the more recent, break-oriented one). But if the "Artificial Intelligence" series had thus paved the way, and the aforementioned had mapped shortcuts, it is instead this release that completely outlines a true 'modus operandi' that launches a sort of 'technical dictate' - nevertheless far from becoming cliché otherwise we would not be talking about IDM - that consists in the evolution of the beat (now no longer a drum-machine beat close to techno, but complex rhythms that make glitch, layered sonic processing, odd time, and in general the use of the least predictable sound possible their focus) and of the melodic section (which becomes increasingly difficult to decipher, more and more a means to create a certain 'scenario' - subjective and otherwise - rather than mere tune, creating mental territories and pieces more suitable for attentive and transporting listening, or cerebral trip more than dancing track also suitable for the dancefloor context as an ambient(techno) track from the early nineties could still be (think for example of Aphex Twin's "Didgeridoo," a classic of both techno and ambient-techno). In this sense, Aphex Twin's famous 'brain-dancing' issue, or the seminal compilation "Artificial Intelligence" cover with its robot comfortably in the armchair listening to this new 'listening electronics' with Kraftwerk and Pink Floyd records next to it, initially conceived by Warp as an electronic afterclub, a publicity stunt, is quite explanatory.

That the situation then expanded to live sets, laptoptronic concerts, and much more danceable forms is obviously another discussion, but it's precisely at the dawn of this reality that we focus on in these lines, through an introduction anything but superfluous, since it doesn't want to explain the encyclopedic origin as such, but rather focus on the sound/evolution binomial in general, a rather articulated binomial and here limited to Autechre alone, but more than ever fundamental in order to fully understand, or reevaluate, an album that will still influence much of today's modern electronic music. 

It is therefore a case of moving to the work itself, and there is no better summary of what has been said than the absolute masterpiece of Autechre's career: the first pulsating "Foil", a track that seems produced by alien entities and that right from the start shows both the new directions taken and the now more evident experimentation. It is thus not a coincidence that from these first notes one can already notice a much colder and mechanical sound compared to the epic soundscapes on which "Incunabula" was based: from the brilliant rise and fall with continuous tonal change of the hypnotic analog riff (sort of a Russian roulette of sound), derives a sense of paranoia and abyss that will be quite present in the production of these particularly "dark" Autechre (think of the similar "Rsdio," on the subsequent "Tri Repetae"). On the nervous rhythms in triplets of "Montreal" - which sounds ten years ahead -  one can already glimpse timid examples of what will be their sound from "Chiastic Slide" onward, namely complex and disarticulated rhythms that will represent the trademark of the more abstract side; the heavy load of timbral effects (phaser, flanger, reverb, echo) throughout the piece gives a very interesting sense of 'undefined space' (found in the visionary paintings of "Further"), while melodically speaking, as will occur later in the soft "Slip", in the emotional vibrations of "Nine" and the distant, catacombal ones of "Yulquen", the track remains rather anchored to the dictates of warm techno incunabulosa, with the usual layers of ambient analogy. 

"Silverside" is the other masterpiece of the record, a sinister piece that seventeen years later still manages to sound futuristic; from the menacing strings, almost close to dark-ambient, an alien vocal sample (thanks to a pioneering work on tonal sampling and structural decomposition which will be repeatedly proposed by other artists) comes alive, buried among the organic delirium, that comes and goes (mutating and de-mutating it continuously) trying to make its way on the solid beat, which will lead gradually, with an incredible progression reminiscent of Tangerine Dream's cosmic journeys, to the consolidation of psychophysical third dimensions. "Glitch", apparently nothing transcendental, 'launches' another fundamental thing in that particular environment, namely the use of a technique known as bitcrushing - truthfully already used in hip hop but in a different way - which consists of reducing the quality of the processed sound (in this case the synth) by resampling its resolution, thus producing a dirty, pseudo-distorted and 'ruined' sound of considerable impact (to understand, one can listen to this on the classic "Alberto Balsalm" by Aphex, released a year later); here the beat is obsessive like classic ambient techno, equally for the cymbals and reverb-rich percussion, but the interaction with the "reduced" riff is remarkable in creating a three-dimensional mood once again ahead of its time; even the title is in a sense prophetic, being bitcrushing a familiar technique to glitch-music (representing, indeed, a sound error, otherwise known as "glitch"), either it being the first form by Oval, or the minimal-experimental-digital glitch of our days (raster noton and similars).

The Detroit-style flow of "Piezo" is a prelude to the usual rhythmic-filling experimentation sampler, with numerous unusual sounds absolutely unpredictable at first listen, while certain solutions on the monumental "Nil" and the hypnotic "Teartear" anticipate what will be done on "Tri Repetae," that is, the perfect marriage of the two Autechre sides (the melodic one of the beginnings, the rhythmic one of the following years) besides providing ambient progressions worthy of Eno in the former, more suitable rhythms for an industrial record in the latter. 

How many times can you read "innovative" or "innovation" or "anticipate"? Inevitable for one of the most influential works history remembers. That's what is generally defined as Genius. This is experimentation.

This is electronics.