Autechre / Nyarlathotep

Autechre have morphed their way from their fairly regular IDM roots (though they were always the best thing on those Artificial Intelligence compilations) into an abstract, beat chewing, granular synthesising phlid machine where they sound like whatever's left behind after music has been dragged from the face of the earth. The musical equivalent of that quote by Franic Bacon (the painter not the Shakespeare impersonator):

I would like my pictures to look as if a human being had passed between them, like a snail leaving its trail of the human presence... as a snail leaves its slime.

Along the way the albums have become increasingly occult and hermetic in their themes (or maybe they've just spent too long looking at those pretty patterns that come up when you try and play Merzbow in a playstation) and their music has become deeper, thicker and less dependent on the dragging 'Ewoks on Stormtrooper helmet' beats of many of their peers. They also seemed reluctant to delve too far into the out and out drill n bass spasmodics that Aphex and Squarepusher and the rest of the early Warpists found themselves inexplicably drawn.

Autechre aren't like other bands working in their genre; they're the Captain Beefhearts. Sometimes it may be hard to find the tunes (and sometimes, to be honest, they're not worth the wait) but when they get it right they sound better and more now than any band around.

Just listen to some of their early albums; they've dated so much better than most of their peers it's embarassing.

The MP3s

These get progressively easier so unless you like it hard start at the bottom.

Lentic Catechresis from the sometimes brilliant, often perplexing 'aunties aural autism' album Confield

6IE.cr from the 'i think i get it; no it's gone again. Fuck.' album Draft 7.30

Dael from the 'working towards a mentalist meltdown but hanging on in there with all my thumbs' album Tri Repetae

Bike from the 'comeinandjoinusit'slovelyandwarm friendly fun n frolics' album Incunabula


My son likes pirates. If you like pirates too then go here for a history of the Jolly Roger.

This link courtesy of Invisible College

If that doesn't ring any bells then why not go to Lego Cthulhu. This made me laugh an alveoli up. Trust me, it's much worse than you're expecting.

I hope Nyarlathotep is next because that might lead me to these little sweetpeas (bless their cotton socks) or maybe even here (which is probably terrible) but probably not here because, well, if you've heard one crawling chaos, you've heard them all.

I love this electronic interweb.

Oh and I almost forgot Gibby Haynes from the Butthole Surfershas a solo album out. Haven't heard it yet but I imagine by the cover that Gibby hasn't exactly expanded his frame of reference too far.