Autechre Amber

Autechre 'Amber' (Warp 1994)

Wow, I have not listened to this for at least 15 years. I loved 'Amber' so much when I first bought it, but Autechre are one of the few bands, for want of a better word, whose live performance made me lose interest in them entirely. To say that they were intense would be putting it mildly. They repeatedly used those blinding banks of white lights that bands use to light up crowds in venues like the Barrowlands, but in a 400 capacity sweatbox. Lights that bright are hot which just added to the sauna experience and they played a set of isolating, almost industrial, bass heavy noise. I had geared myself up, as you can imagine, for a night of hazy Kraftwerk influenced ambience, not Whitehouse; I just wasn't on the right wavelength.

It's a shame because 'Amber' is just as good as I remember, but quite a bit different. 'Silverside' is a Vangelis inspired android dream but with hints of the industrial bleakness I experienced that night in the Venue. Aphex Twin is an obvious reference, as well as contemporary, particularly when the bouncy but angular ZX Spectrum soundtracks played through a Megadrive carry a track along.

'Slip' again reminds of a Vangelis electronic orchestra, and as the album begins to envelope you it becomes more and more like soundtrack to an unmade silent sci fi movie. 'Glitch' pulses like an insect colony slowly becoming aware of an attack on their queen with the insidious build up acting like a chemical pheromone warning. 'Piezo' is an old favourite which with hindsight I can see providing the claustrophobia I experienced that winter's night in 1997, if turned up to sufficient volumes, sounding like an alien voice communicating through ancient radio equipment, it wails like there are ghosts in the machine. 'Nine' is a warped version of the famous '2001' motif reminiscent of the Edge playing stripped back techno rather than arena filling bombast.

The whole album seems to be different alien voices trying to communicate, like Jeff Wayne's ululating Martians, but through different filters. There is peace to be found towards the end, 'Nil' reflects that the aliens have settled in their newly colonised sanctuary, but final track 'Teartear' has a real 'If you want a picture of the future imagine a boot stamping on a human face-forever' feel to it. I still sense the lush ambience I remember, but the isolation, sensory deprivation and 'Futher's' dripping water torture chimes are much more apparent upon re-listening and I understand how this translated into the seeping paranoia of their live show.

Dark, intelligent, scary stuff, like a twisted John Carpenter soundtrack to a film of 'Leatherjack'. My memory of one gig has certainly been too harsh on Autechre.

Peace