Autechre is one of my favorite musical acts, and have been for over a decade. They essentially defined the years 2015–2019 for me. The run of Exai–elseq–the NTS Sessions was genuinely life changing, spiraling me deeper into their absolutely singular cavern of bizarre, icy, awkward rhythms and textures. I found myself deeply compelled by their older shit too, especially LP5 and EP7, Confield and Gantz Graf, and Draft 7.30. There's something in those digital soundscapes and stammering drums that massages my brain in such a delightful way.
Anyways: the show itself. It was at the Ogden Theatre in... I think that's still Cap Hill? Maybe Uptown? It's hilaries: two years after moving here I'm still getting to know Denver, developing a sense of place or whatever. Regardless! The night got off to a bad start. There was a group of trans women in front of me in line, and the security guard denied one of them entry because she had a Victorinox, or some other kind of knife, on her. And that's understandable, don't want knives in the venue for safety, sure, sure, and she went with one of her friends back to the car and she'd be able to get in after that. But the fucking security dude misgendered her relentlessly throughout the whole process! It put an acrid taste in my mouth, just really sad to see. The other guard nearby at least used they/them, but christ. It was a nondescript venue, which is fine. The openers weren't anything to write home about: two solo sets: one a guy doing some drones with modular electronics (and a lot of unfocused, muddy subs, unfortunately), and the other a guy doing a DJ set with some spacey hip hop beats and bass music, some super wubby dubstep—good fun but nothing to really write home about.
Then all the lights went out, and, after a few minutes, Sean and Rob sightlessly took the stage. They started slow with some cold and distant drones, which, in all honesty, caught me off guard and put me in an emotional headspace: something about it pierced my fragile heart. Now, I don't recall all of the little details, so I won't try and do a full play-by-play of the hour-plus they spent behind their laptops, but after a while they shaped the drones into the elements that have defined and, in my opinion, made inimitable, made peerless their 2010s output: the unstable kick, the skittering snare, the almost-steady hi-hat, the warp(haha)ing, sparse synths. Something about hearing their music this loud, this fresh, in the complete dark transported me somewhere I can't quite say I've ever been. I'd alternate between watching the people front and center with me bounce along with whatever groove they were picking up on and closing my eyes, breathing deep, and observing whatever imagery my brain conjured, whatever thoughts surfaced. I had been talking with a friend earlier in the day about how I like Autechre's newer stuff because it's less danceable and makes your brain tingle, but after this set I'm realizing that's selling it short: there might not be a reliable beat, but there's always some sort of pulse to feel, and that, in me, inspires motion. It's a really special feeling.
I was a bit worried that the night would wash over me, and I wouldn't get as much out of it as I wanted. It had been probably a year or so since I'd listened to an Ae album intently, and they're just so dense! My ears and brain weren't fully accustomed to parsing everything that would be going on. Luckily: the set was deep, but I'd spent enough time with their catalogue that I still knew what to listen for. What I like so much is watching how the individual elements develop, and contrasting that with how the piece overall feels. Sometimes the bass will be a little bit throttled, like if someone were to speak with their throat ever so slightly closed, with a resonant filter applied, and it'll be pounding along at a steady 4/4 quarter-note pulse for a few bars, and then the 4 will be split into two notes, one on either side of the 4, and the two combined last longer than a quarter note, so the pulse becomes out of sync with the with the rest of the rhythm. And then a short delay is put on the 2, and it's also compressed rhythmically to be shorter than a quarter note, making things even more off kilter. But there's something shaped to feel kinda like a snare that's sounding reliably at the same point in the clock cycle, let's say, until, gradually, it doesn't anymore. It's so hypnotic. It's so captivating. Feeling this push-pull lay the uneasy foundation for the airy synths and effects to color in the rest of the sonic space, and to hear it this loud—and to hear it this loud!— ... god, it's so magical; it was such a treat. One of my favorite moments was when they brought in that breathy thing they have that's, maybe, white noise run through 100% wet reverb with a huge decay, and then sharply gated or manually cut out of the mix. It's such a cool effect, and I wish they would've stayed with it longer. Sounds like boomwhackers cracking sharply, with runs more likely tethered to a frequency sweep than a scale