Autechre live - what are the essential recordings?

As any Ae fan knows the group is a different beast live, often playing sets which barely seem to touch on their studio material. Given how good some of what I've heard is, I've been trying to construct sort of an "alternate timeline" of Autechre via their live recordings. I've just been poking around the early stuff so far, trying to find at least one quality recording from each year. I know some of you are collectors so maybe you could help out a bit. I don't have much yet, here's what I have so far:

1993 - Oscillate, Birmingham: sort of an ambient techno set, sounds like they're either sampling or taking over for The Orb in the beginning.

1994 - not much, but there's an excellent version of "Kalpol Introl" that lasts 11 minutes here

1995 - Stormy Waters: fairly short but sweet.

1996 - Flex, Vienna: this is what got me started on this, a long evolving piece that eventually ends in a fantastic (and long) version of "Eutow"

after that...?

In general I'm looking mostly for stuff with good sound quality. The bootleg-level stuff where you can hear the conversations in the crowd aren't as interesting to me. Anyone got recommendations in particular?

I don't have my full Ae list to hand, but off the top of my head, the Coachella set around 1999, NYC or Toronto 2001, Glasgow Art School 2005, Melbourne 2010. And obviously their official live releases from 2014-5, of which I like the Dublin, Grafenhainichen and Katowice sets.
When I get home later I will see if there's anything in my collection worth mentioning.

Glasgow Art School 2005

i was at this and didn't enjoy it.

listened to it a few years later and thought it was great

I was at Melbourne 2010, loved it, got home and found someone had recorded it in brilliant quality about ten feet from where I stood. Felt like the universe spoke to me.

Milton Parker to thread please

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=pU7-yr70ntw&t=763s

classic

https://youtu.be/pU7-yr70ntw

Autechre - Live - Quirky - Brixton - 16. 06. 1994

Peel Sessions 2 - Drane

Coachella 1999 is ok, good sound quality, mostly not too far removed from the studio stuff although there's a couple of tracks in the middle I can't place. Starts off with a pen expers/vangelis (or vangelis-like) mashup and ends with a killer mashup of blifil & microphone fiend, the moment when the vocal kicks in at 3:20 is sweeeet.

Hemsby 2007 is great:

https://www.mixcloud.com/keyfumbler/autechre-hemsby-england-2007/

The thing at the start of the Coachella set is actually the theme from Cosmos, Carl Sagan's version obv.

To pick a set per year from the stuff I have ...
1991 IBC Pirate Radio
1993 Bonds Oscillate
1995 Stormy Waters
1996 Club Flex
1997 Radio Mix (promo release)
1998 Bowery Ballroom NYC
1999 Coachella (Warp 10 is maybe better but not soundboard as requested)
2000 Kriegstanz radio mix, or Sonar, Barcelona (rough quality but the only live from 2000 I have)
2001 so much to choose from, only soundboard is Toronto I think, these sets were great
2003 lots of radio sets, only live is ATP Camber Sands which is also a mix set (but nuts)
2005 Glasgow Art School (an all time great listen)
2006 both Dublin and Zaragoza sound pretty rough (and similar set to the 2005 Glasgow)
2007 Hemsby, Pontin's Holiday Park is the only soundboard (and great)
2008 quite a few but all rough quality - there is an "Amni" remaster of Echoplex in LA which sounds good
2009 only a mix set from Radio Nova
2010 so so many, Melbourne is my sentimental favourite and also sounds best, no soundboards
2011-13 don't have anything
2014-15 obviously official releases crush other options for sound quality - can't remember which I love the most, they're all available for listen on Bleep anyway and worth buying I think
2016 I know there are recordings but I slacked off and haven't sourced them yet.

ATP Camber Sands which is also a mix set (but nuts)

That was the best night of dancing I ever had. Billed as gescom but it was just rob & sean, sean sat under the desk.

How long is your version of that? Mine's only 29:59, I know they played a hell of a lot longer.

same, alas

I would also rep pretty hard for the autechre.ws 12+ hour broadcast mixes they did for the last few album releases, and similar sets for XLtronic back in the day. I learned a lot of interesting stuff from their choices, really tuned my ear for the hip-hop heart of even quite abstract Ae.

Oh yeah - the Autechre ATP was a highly swell weekend.

Is braunld's first one IP there the 1991 Bojangles vid? It won't play.

Of course that and the Quirky set ruled off-side in the OP for being room audio with crowd noises.

should maybe clarify that a bit, these don't need to necessarily be soundboards. the Quirky set is about the lower bound of what I'm looking for, if only cuz the music is so good. I have another from 94 (Fuse, I think?) which is similar, but the crowd is sometimes louder than the band.

Also for an "alternate history" approach, the fan-made "Laxir" remix compilation is 5 discs' worth from about 1993 to 2010 and evolves in many of the same ways their own material did.

my first try was the Quirky set. the Bojangles '91 vid is def inferior (sound-wise) as I recall, lots of crowd noise and incessant whistles. I've got an mp3 of the Quirky '94 set on my mp3 player, it's well-listenable (for the music)

https://youtu.be/rX8NMaGEs6g
Autechre @ Tavastia, Helsinki FIN, 14.11.2016 -- this is an audience recording of their most recent set, haven't checked lately (there are others) but it's pretty decent.

Of course there's MCR Quarter on the Japanese release of Confield, recorded live in Manchester 1998. Rest of the set is pretty good, minimal crowd noise, mostly EP7 stuff but strays a bit more from the studio than Coachella.

Zurich 2001 on the Japanese Untilted otoh is something of a bad joke.

Was at that 1999 Coachella set, coming down off some potent acid. The set was them shuffling around a ton of DACs if I recall, a weird hybrid DJ/live set and unique to any other show I've seen them do. The Vangelis bit mashed up with the Pen Expers beats was Movement 3 the Heaven and Hell LP and was indeed the same tune used for Cosmos.

It's been a while since I heard the recording but I recall they dropped Glitch from Amber and Second Bad Vilbel... Lots of great bits and pieces from Confield/EP7/Peel2 era.

I also vaguely recall they peaked the speakers so badly at one point, I thought they busted the damn stack. I'm sure a small bit of my tinnitus is because of that.

Back when that was my only Ae live recording and I was wayyy into them, I identified most of the tracks on that set. And yeah, early in the first or second track there is something which sounds like a vocal sample that cuts in for 3-4 second, literally triple the volume of what was going on in the track, and I have to dive for the volume control. Must have been a glitch, ha.

1 Cosmos Theme / Pen Expers (version)
2 Glitch
3 ISS::SA
4 Gescom/Hecker - Itiso161/Ae
5 unknown
6 ccec
7 unknown
8 Bike
9 Gelk
10 Gelk (cont'd)
11 Tangle Ill
12 Blifil / Microphone Fiend
13 unknown
14 Second Bad Vilbel
15 Gaekwad
16 Remix of '8'

They did some really wicked stuff in the beginning of their set in Denver 2015, at the Bluebird Theater. Basically a variation on the set (intro/first part) that comprises all of the official AE_LIVE recordings, but it's this unreal sort of warping and re-ordering of the sound events.. kind of hard to explain, I have a recording of it but it's very quiet. I'll mess around w/it in Audacity to see if I can normalise it or make it more presentable. Really, really fuckin wicked. I wish they documented more of the US tour, the set was well-honed by that point, the show was truly awesome.

Meanwhile, pendulu hv moda is top elseq material. There ought to be a poll

https://archive.org/details/AutechreOneSixTour-BudapestHU-07-11-16
https://youtu.be/7Lm5e39CPb4

another recording of the post- "AE_LIVE" set.. this might be better quality than the Helsinki recording.

Glasgow 2005 wowowowowowow

feels like discovering a hidden LP between Untilted and Quaristice

I'd never heard Live at Flex Vienna 2/15/1996 before. This is incredible, really didn't expect something this good this far back.

might as well put the link here https://youtu.be/watch?v=pSnkEqbnHhE

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=a2BBmb_0B0k

v good quality (room recording) from Sept. 30 (2024) ... excellent 👌

These recent sets (during the last several months) have been the most straightforward & "banging" (hip hop-esque) expositions--moreso than pretty much everything documented during the last decade.

The audio quality of the Oslo set above (apologies for the double post) is so good that you can hear the fucked up, ep7-esque creak & groan (granular splintering) going on in between the more pronounced percussion sounds (see around 30 minutes into the set)

This is primo Ae. It's unreal

I saw them in 97, so not long after that first video. And I'm seeing them next year (for the tenth time!), not long after the second. I'll check them both out tomorrow.

really wish they would do some North American dates sometime in the not-too-distant future, I haven't managed to see them since they were touring for oversteps.

This '96 show, wtffffff

The metric modulation jeeeeez.

Oscillate 94 + 95 recordings here: https://www.oscillate.club/1993-1996/

I wish I could remember more about the one show I saw here way back when. 2005? 2001? Earlier? Honestly I mostly remember being really tired!

yeah holy shit at '96 Vienna

'96 is indeed banging. '24 for the most part feels to me more like percussive ambient. even when the beat becomes more propulsive they don't hold on to it long enough for it to qualify as 'banging'. the '15 live era was more energetic and coherent than this.

The Sydney '23 show that was going around last year was definitely banging. But that was the first time I actually listened to an AE bootleg, I've stuck to the albums otherwise.

Ironically we were seated in Sydney

'24 for the most part feels to me more like percussive ambient

I was halfway through my second listen when I posted this, to be fair the last 2/5 of the set is fucking banging.

on tour late summer/fall (Europe in August, North America in October, UK in November)

https://www.instagram.com/p/DGiq2UAIf1-/?igsh=NTc4MTIwNjQ2YQ==

autechre coming to my town the day before my birthday, I am happy

Shit

Might have to hoof it up for the Philly show

Chicago!! hell right!!!

Just when I thought I was totally over live music… Haven’t anticipated an event this much since slowdive reunited.

Can't believe they are actually coming to Austin, I'm in

frogbs, I've never even heard of Outset. You know it?

Thank god they are playing Birmingham AL...

...

Outset is a new-ish place with a dubious reputation as far as sound and sight lines go (and promotor, iirc) but I've never been. Down the street from Salt Shed.

nah, never heard of it, Chicago's about 2 1/2 hours from me so I don't go often, but for Ae I'll make an exception

lol I literally just described what I've heard of it. About 750 capacity.

So the presale is ... tomorrow?

great...I might have to go anyhow. why is it on a monday. ugh.

wish they were playing the Midway instead of the Regency Ballroom here in SF.

I saw them last week, posted about it on the classic or dud thread - in short see them if you can.

Hard to do with the lights off.

Excited for Minneapolis! Do Ae sell merch? Do you have to feel around for it? Probably only effective for LP5 and the EP box

They have merch online so I'd be surprised if they didn't bring any there.

Curious what wax they'd have on hand, probably just Sign/Plus, but I'd love to get a copy of Oversteps/Move of Ten if they had any extras of those lying around

pretty sure they had records in '22 but I don't know what, didn't look at the merch stand this time.

I'd be surprised if there was anything there you couldn't get elsewhere

hmm I might hit up mpls

OK, so the presale is in about 30 minutes, and there is still no code or anything that's been emailed out ...

Nuts that they’re playing Icehouse in MPLS, figured they’d max out a much larger venue than thst

xp if you find one, please share!

The venue choice in Chicago is odd, too. Last time they were here they played Metro, which is not only a little bit bigger than this new place, but is historically aligned with electronic/dance/club/house/beats.

Presale started, no code sent yet ...

twentytwentyfiveae worked

Seems to be TWENTYTWENTYFIVE or TWENTYTWENTYFIVEAE for most shows

fwiw ends up being $50 a ticket. $35 each plus bullshit.

“Twentyfive” worked for me

Surprisingly affordable ticket price, all things considered

Shocked the presale code was not like ixl23_stent25

Not even on the show listings for the Seattle venue.

not seeing how to get the presale for Chicago, the Ticketmaster link just acknowledges that it exists but doesn't have a link or anything.

oh well, guess I'll just take my chances tomorrow

Am I killfiled or something? The presale code was twentytwentyfiveae in Chicago, might be closed now. (fwiw, the official email with the presale came 25 minutes after the presale started.)

Josh, can you share the artist presale link? Thank you!

lol it's ixl23_stent25

? My ticketmaster page doesn't give me an option to plug in a code. I'm assuming I need the actual link they emailed out?

TWENTYTWENTYFIVE worked for me in Toronto - Thank you!

bought my tickets for Montreal, somehow my girlfriend decided she wants to come with me despite generally not liking autechre whenever I play it in the house, I wonder if she'll regret it

TWENTYTWENTYFIVEAE was the code I got

My ticketmaster page doesn't give me an option to plug in a code. I'm assuming I need the actual link they emailed out?

Can't tell who is being serious, but in the off chance, I believe the presale is now closed, at least here.

Ah, didn't realize it was only an hour. No wonder. Tomorrow it is.

sales still open for LA. thanks for the code silverfish!

there are also locations that don't go on sale until tomorrow

Got seated balcony tix for SF. Sound will probably be better on the floor, but I'll enjoy the show more.

that code worked for Brooklyn. Got 2 tickets, came to about $60 each with all the fees.

I'll also be at the SF show. Looking forward to it! Been way too long since their last visit

Ned's going too - I moot an SF ILX pre-show FAP

It must be done. (I'm on the floor.)

It must be done. (I'm on the floor.)

I got my tickets!

I couldn't get Mpls tickets yesterday and it seems to be sold out. :(

Brooklyn show already sold out (?) at 10 am... wtf

Look like Chicago sold out. Makes sense, it's been a decade since these guys toured here, and they are not playing particularly big venues.

literally only two seats left in the balcony for the Toronto show, get on it folks

Yeah, I tried Chicago too. Got one for Detroit — never been there and seems like an appropriate place to see them, so I'll make a little trip of it.

Chicago must've sold out yesterday or more or less immediately. I tried and was denied within seconds.

ugh, fucking sucks. i missed the presale by like 2 minutes too.

oh cool there's a ton on resale sites for $300, fuck this

autechre are our taylor swift

Lol, when thinking about how I’d explain getting AE tix to coworkers or whoever, my exact thought was “they’re my taylor swift”

Look for tix the week of. October is a long way away, and if people are already selling tickets then those are likely bots or scalpers that will have to get rid of their inventory. And if those are real people, few people know for sure what they are doing in 9 months, so some of them will be selling, too.

NYC, Philly, and Boston all sold out instantly but I managed a Detroit ticket. I'm with you, NJS, seems like a fitting place to see them.

Edit: Goddamn I went to post this and got the "Other messages have been posted since you last looked..." message and immediately went in to panic mode as if I had once again clicked "Purchase Tickets" only to see that they were sold out.

Man if you were to tell me in 2002 this was the general vibe wrt to getting tickets for them I'd have been shocked. Hell I was shocked the last show here was sold out. Previously it was just some niche super nerdy event.

It seems like everything just sells out here these days, one way or another. There was some act I wanted to see a year or two ago. I got a press release listing the local show as sold out, and the venue said sold out, but iirc you could still buy tickets through the venue link and there were literally dozens of tickets on secondary for less than $10. It's all just a frustrating shell game, at least in the US. How are things looking elsewhere? Out of curiosity I looked at the Leeds AE gig, and there are still tickets, though it says "selling fast." Still, that means it wasn't an instant sell out.

If anyone's going to Bristol, UK in November, holler at me

Look for tix the week of. October is a long way away, and if people are already selling tickets then those are likely bots or scalpers that will have to get rid of their inventory. And if those are real people, few people know for sure what they are doing in 9 months, so some of them will be selling, too.

― Josh in Chicago, Friday, February 28, 2025 11:07 AM (one hour ago) bookmarkflaglink

true it's just a matter of knowing where to find these things. I mean lets face it this is a band whose fanbase now skews a little older and when that's the case there are always folks who can't go. but idk where those people put their tickets up, I feel like the best place would be an Autechre Facebook group or something

Yeah where are middle-aged AE fans sharing cringe idm memes, that's where you want to be

Yeah, I'd say an AE facebook group, maybe, or some other place that can be verified. AE reddit seems pretty engaged. Cashortrade.org might be a good choice closer to the date, or maybe tickpick. The high prices I see scream scalpers, not real persons, especially in February for an October show, so I bet you'll be OK, it's just too early right (literally the day tickets go on sale). Of course, I personally hate uncertainty, makes me anxious, so I hear you.

huh, apparently the watmm forum is shutting down soon. I would imagine it’s still the same people chatting about aphex and autechre for the last twenty years

that's quite sad... is it due to lack of activity?

decline in activity, the guy doesn't want to run it any more, or hand it over. does seem a bit of a shame, it's where autechre did their ama, right?

yes, an amazing moment that

Watmm is going to shut down, but a 'surrogate' forum is being set up. It's called Keyosc.com and will go live in april. It'll be a proper continuation of Watmm.

oh man, end of an era. is watmm going to stay up in read-only mode? gotta be some real gems in those old posts...

yeah - any mention of archiving or transferring past threads/discussions over to the new forum?

69k Total Topics
2.1m Total Posts

this doesn't seem too bad, like it would be scrapeable

Watmm user Ego did a thorough job scraping the forum. I think he managed to get most of it and it's already browsable/downloadable at https://watmm-archive.com/
I believe it will be a integrated part of Keyosc in time.

Btw, the 'decline in activity' is simply not true. I know this was stated as an argument by the site admin, but activity was pretty continuous through the years.

looks like some more tickets got released if you're on their mailing list! I got one for Chicago, don't miss out!!

or maybe not? looks like the venue was moved hence more tickets being available. so hop on that if you didn't before. more shows added too.

DC show added big tix not avail yet!

But

late show added to Brooklyn Steel on 10/25. Just got two tix with the pre-sale code AEACCESSPRE. I so hyped rn I'm floating at work.

^ thank you! Just got mine as well.

Show in ... less than a month? Who is going to be in Chicago? Looks like reasonable prices on secondary, for those that missed out.

I'll be at the 10/9 show in SF

10/29 in Washington

10/22 in Toronto, maybe the most excited I've been for a show this year

tried to buy 2 tickets to montreal date and sent 80$ via interac etransfer to a scammer :(

in fairness to me, their pfp looked like that of an autechre fan so i didn’t question it or investigate further

Wow. That sucks hard. Any recourse from a card provider, bank etc?

10/22 in Toronto, maybe the most excited I've been for a show this year

Yeah I haven’t seen them in at least 15 years if not longer, and I’ve been following how their live shows have evolved. Hope I’m not getting too high expectations of transcendence.

Xp nah basically a “this one’s on you” situation

It's possibly been 15 years for me, too, if not longer. Not looking for or expecting transcendence, tbh, just hoping my older body and ears can take standing in the dark late at night being unable to talk to my buddy.

10/22 in Toronto, maybe the most excited I've been for a show this year

Most excited I’ve been for a show in almost ten years. There are v few music events that still feel important on a personal level, and I’m glad I’m getting the opportunity to experience this, even if it’s not transcendent or anything (though it’d be nice if it was)

standing in the dark late at night

i went to an autechresque live electronic music show where the music was very heady not at all danceable but it was standing only, and it kinda detracted from the experience. i feel like there should be a seating option

I'll be at the 10/9 show in SF

That makes two of us!

I'll be seeing them in Vancouver very soon. Didn't get tickets initially because it sold out pretty quick but a friend is selling me his which is a blessing.

I've got two tickets to the Detroit show on Tuesday 10/17 that I'm looking to sell for face value + processing fees. My email receipt tells me that's $88 for two tickets. I wound up buying two tickets to the second NYC show when they announced those, as the date and location are better for me. Hmu if you're interested!

thanks for bumping the thread. I'd put a reminder in my notes, not my calendar, and just panicked when I couldn't find an email receipt or anything for the Minneapolis show. Looks like the Eventbrite website says I have a ticket, though. October really snuck up on me.

I'll be at the Montreal show, day before my birthday, can't wait. Haven't seen them since they toured for quaristice

Trying to decide whether or not I’m going to the DC show

go

Seattle show sold out so hard to bots on presale that the three tall white guys that queued up separately at the box office an hour before opening the next day got nothing

tbf it was only three minutes before it was due to open, they just made us wait to tell us to fuck off and go to work

Looks like you can get tix for around $50:

https://www.tickpick.com/buy-tickets/7062742?track=true

wish i could make that denver show. how did i not know earlier they were touring... getting patchier about following these things.

Okay looks like they just announced further support spots (beyond Mark Broom, presumably) for individual dates. Looks like Portland and SF are getting Cygnus:

https://cygnusat.bandcamp.com/

I got the email about the further supports and some of the dates were crossed out which at first I thought meant they were cancelled which scared the shit outta me but I figured it meant they’re sold out

was happy to see nnirror added to the michigan date, that’s good stuff

https://evel.bandcamp.com/album/destory

Never heard of Mark Broom or the opener for Washington. But nothing will beat hearing (for the first time for me) Nourished By Time opening for Dry Cleaning.

Mark Broom is great, classic hardgroove techno producer and DJ

Who is Deep Glens?

Deep Glans

cube is a great opener

looks like Deep Glens is a Minneapolis studio guy who has his own project doing max/msp type stuff. Seems like a good fit: https://www.wooo.media/features/building-your-own-friends-with-deep-glens

Ooo Deep Glens is sick, I first heard him because Autechre dropped his tracks in their BBC 6 residency last December.

Tickets are WIll Call Only - Non Transferable - PLEASE DO NOT PURCHASE FROM ANY RESELLER. They will not be honored.

does anybody know what this means?

uhh, seems pretty clear to me, what part are you confused about

I am also unsure, unless you're not used to "will call" which means there probably aren't physical tickets and you will just have to say your name and maybe show a form of id that matches the name that purchased the tickets at the entry

Also it means no tickets on your phone I think too.

to me i had trouble understanding the relationship between "will call" and not purchasing a secondhand ticket. like, if there's somebody in my city who can't make it, and wants to sell it to me, is the venue saying we're both SOL?

yeah seems like it

lame

Actually, that confuses me, too. Not even the many vetted secondary sites? It might vary from city to city, too, based on laws. I think Illinois, for example, has no limits on resale. And my tickets are on my phone.

It might vary from city to city, too, based on laws.

Probably. But it seems like, wherever possible, they (Autechre) want you to purchase your ticket online and then show up at the venue box office on the night with photo ID in order to claim it.

okay. that makes sense to me. i guess if it's done to ward of scalpers, i can get behind it, although it's annoying because i only heard about the show yesterday and it's already sold out. maybe i will just try to sneak in

ftr i do remember will call from when i was a little kid, but it seems to me like it's been a while since it's been the norm