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?

One day I’ll make a Pepsi Challenge style playlist and ask listeners to guess if it’s “an officially released Autechre track” or “audio of somebody doodling around on a YouTube with a Nord Modular” and science will prove me right— also I type all this without derision, synth doodles are high quality content

I did remark to Stevie that the thing I appreciated most about Autechre is their commitment to the bit, that is, they’ve never released an acoustic album or a track “feat. Beth Orton” afaik

been thinking about how the set i caught (in new yaaawk, babyyy, best damn idm in the WORLD!) had a similar feel to what they were playing for this glasgow 2005 set (classic! a real high water mark for them imo) but further abstracted, more organic, and even more propulsive:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=JSpS3TFS3P0

like, i love all the sets from the last few years, nts, etc. but this felt less meandering, more focused and aggressive

xpost: I dunno, seems awfully derisive (or not derisive, just petty) to come into a thread where people are sharing their positive experiences of a beloved artist to make zings like "hurr hurr, noodly music is noodly"

I was kinda amused at how "2002" fgti's post sounded, complete with a Beth Orton reference.

Screams "electronic music isn't music" and "all techno sounds the same" nonsense I fielded a lot in the 90's.

No one makes music like Ae does even if they try.

Anyhoo, a lot of punk/goth looking people at the DC show such that I panicked that i was at the wrong place or wrong night.

Nevermind the fact that my tickets scanned correctly and I walked past the merch booth with my eye on a tshirt that very clearly said “Autechre”.

this shit is noodly and I laugh at every crack along those lines tbh

one of the young people near me was wearing a Dead Can Dance shirt, regarding the goth angle

Idk I spent all day yesterday listening to Pal Joey and it was delightful, it’s not anything like a bias against “electronic music” just decades of fence-sitting as to whether or not my enjoyment of Autechre extends past the Tri Repetae/LP5 era— and it comes from a place of understanding of what they’re doing and how they’re doing it. I’m always putting NTE and the AE live discs on as soundtracks to domestic activities, and I remain flummoxed nevertheless as to what I am getting out of it— with AFX I’m always aware of an intention and a thesis on every single track, with AE I’m usually struck by the new sonics of every track as it begins and then left cold when there’s no development, and instead a sensation of “we built a machine and this is how it sounds”. The static nature of their music creates a sensation akin to looking at works of abstract art, like, I enjoy it and move on, and the uniqueness of this feeling of digestion makes me respect the duo for such a specific oeuvre, and believe that this effect is intentional. The 2002 references were deliberate, thinking of other 90s electronic acts who went on to make acoustic albums and/or albums that had Beth Orton as a feature artist

I posted my comment to Stevie because I thought it was funny but sorry if it was taken as derisive— I spend many hours of my month every month enjoying Autechre in the way I enjoy them, as many hours as I also enjoy listening the modular synth jams that people post on their Vimeo accounts

damn i strongly disagree with all of that. i just wanna put it out there that you can know a lot of stuff about how they make their music - or think that you do (without access to rob / sean themselves i have my doubts) - and still completely miss the magic. it happens to me all the time. it happens to literally everyone. it's possible you might want to come into a thread like this with a little less of a hardline decision about them. but also i don't think your criticisms are accurate, like at all. their music isn't static. literally every second is different. it changes literally every second. there isn't a loop anywhere. not a hard facsimile loop. not an ableton loop. loops appear as an element but they're always congealing and dissolving. there are always a lot of things appearing and reappearing in slightly different form in sonically mutating ways, ways i'm excited by. i will say that there is some truth to your "static" argument if you consider that their tracks don't develop in the valley-climax-valley-climax kind of way that most percussive electronic music does. it's more like a slow slide from thing to thing to thing, with occasional drastic jerks between longer-form "sections" or "jams". "ecol4" is a good example of how their tracks follow different rules. it starts out kinda mellow and then over the remainder of the track gets quieter and quieter, without losing tension.

as far as their sounds and what they're doing moment to moment, the reason why i enjoy them is essentially they're funky. are you a fan of funk? do you have a feel for it? an ear for it? they're basically a funk band. a progressive funk band. which is what electro is - their roots. they're an update of that. a wildly imaginative and synaesthetic update of it. if you don't hear that and enjoy it, that's cool, but i'd put it out there that maybe you want to consider having less inaccurate criticisms before you talk about how and why you don't enjoy them.

The concept of “development” is extremely overrated and is responsible for some of the worst sins committed in the name of ambient/weird electronic music. Make music less like movies.

I’ve been listening to mostly field recordings of water lately though so nevermind me

I think you can criticize music in a way that is catty, critical, and entertaining and be wrong but funny in the way you’re doing it. If anything, it is a failure of the modern era that we take takes as literal, essential, and the word of law.

On the other hand, I remember criticism fgti has had that was personally devastating so it’s a hard line to walk

I dunno I just listen to tunes and vibe out at concerts

map and brimstead otm

Post LP5 Autechre to me express a similar beauty that a desert sunset or a mountain range does. Or looking at a flower or insect up close. Or like watching an ant colony collect food or a school of sardines moving in concert then suddenly scattering. The comparison to listening to water or the sounds of nature in general was very otm. There is an organic elegance to their soundscapes and tracks no one else can quite capture adequately coupled with this abstract, electronic and bass forward sound palette. And all the while they're still projecting raw emotions through this immense texture like melancholy, menace, and joy.

Live it is a bit more meditative and abstracted, but simultaneously sensual and tactile, like a sound bath. Coupled with the lack of lighting and it's a very unique immersive experience, moreso than a traditional concert.

Or like watching an ant colony collect food or a school of sardines moving in concert then suddenly scattering.

Well said - and it's the moments where you can sense human intention expressing itself through fluxing logic chains that are especially thrilling to me, like a cyborg with prehensile nanotech appendages.

If we are introducing comparisons, I almost think of the group as watching fractals. You could know what it's doing, but it doesn't make it any less interesting or appealing, especially when you have human beings messing with their own bespoke generative programming. I don't think it's necessarily unfair to make fun of the noodly aspect, or indulgent aspect, but one of my takeaways I got from the most recent gig was the sheer ... I don't know if talent is necessarily the word, but skill for sure, at generating and orchestrating a 90-minute long set that is not based on spinning other people's records or standard dance loops or other tropes that can be leaned on. It was a full-on 90 minute expression of for lack of a better phrase intentional abstraction.

Kind of like jazz, in a way. Here's the foundation, now what are you going to do with it? Not comparing these nerds to Ornette Coleman, but I was recently reading some reactions to his early shows, and boy, so much dismissal of it and other free jazz as bullshit. Which is not what fgti is doing here at all, imo, but there are some echoes of that.

loops appear as an element but they're always congealing and dissolving. there are always a lot of things appearing and reappearing in slightly different form in sonically mutating ways, ways i'm excited by.

yep. for me this is THE defining trait of their modern era.

tho i love how they still give ya these thick, heavy grooves to nod your head to. funk comment otm as well. feels like the boom bap and electroacoustic sides are pretty organically fused at this point.

I enjoyed tonight’s show ;)

map otm (though i also sympathize with fgti, since if i’m not in the right mood/headspace the recordings can leave me cold). i found the live experience extremely compelling though

i also strongly vibe with this by andy cush

autechre live set was psychedelic in that you have this enormous wave of sensation crashing over you, and you can choose to experience its totality or focus on any detail, and through focus it seems possible to change not just your experience of the thing but the thing itself

I think after 30 years of listening to their work that we share a common headspace for listening, and when I'm "in" one of their tracks or performances I feel a visceral pleasure, like the universe is right and these arrangements of sound are good for me in some abstract way. I think that what pleases them in sound is also what pleases me, no doubt through a long process of shared attention - like if I had the ability to make music of this type, I would seek out the things they're seeking. It's a real joy when they offer up something intense and esoteric and I think yeah, I totally get this. Like great writing, or lots of structured aesthetic experiences I guess.

Josh in Chicago otm! I've often tried to explain to non fans their catalogue as a fractal evolving an additional layer of complexity each album release, and that it's best to listen to it in chronological order to truly understand them.

And totally appreciate the jazz analogy too; I have also used jazz as a touch point how they make me feel on this board in the past as well.

btw I must confess ILM's Autechre discourse has been pretty amazing over the years, by far my favorite music space to talk about them. And the passion and enthusiasm during their ballot poll was an all time moment for me here. It's wonderful seeing this energy bubble up again for this US tour. You are all amazing.

touch point to describe how they make me feel

I feel obliged to respond to map— introducing sends on to a looped sample, automating modulation so that the sample (in relation to its sends) is constantly changing, slowly fading up scene changes so the treatment of the fundamental elements of the machine get a gradual fade-in of a new perspective, this shit is known and audible and (oftentimes) appreciated. I don’t need intercourse with the creators of the music to understand the foundation of its creation any more than I need tabs to learn a bit of guitar

ok

I think you can criticize music in a way that is catty, critical, and entertaining and be wrong but funny in the way you’re doing it.

i just feel the need to respond that i'm a hard "hell no" on this. i don't think catty is entertaining at all. it may be funny but not in the way the catty person thinks it is.

fair!

I know you're all gagging to know how the Autechre gig in Bristol was last night, so here's my hastily-written capsule review:

They took no prisoners. Incredibly dense, fast and complex through the whole 90 or so minutes.
Close your eyes and you go into the hole.
I wish I had a record of all the things that flashed through my mind during their set.
Mark Broom played an absolutely storming proper rave set beforehand, almost as a reminder that, yes, this is DANCE music, not art music.
For some people Broom stole a show that Autechre couldn't quite recover. But as a mega-stan I really enjoyed it. We did deplore some of the audience members who just stood stock still without even at least nodding their heads a little. I get that this is "Braindance" or whatever, but our gang were grooving with our bodies nevertheless. Not moving at all to this music must be like eating a sugary doughnut without licking your lips.
While I enjoyed the intensity and the density, it was relentless, and I'd have preferred a bit more space and dynamic range. Even the most die-hard, technical jacket-wearing dweeb would have been forgiven for finding it a bit claustro and exhausting after an hour.
I left to go for a piss about twenty minutes before the end and heard a fair few people outside grumbling about the sound quality (I thought it was fine). One person said it was like "trying to eat dry bread", which made me laugh and I totally get.
A couple of friends questioned the decision to be in pitch dark, saying they found it a bit pretentious and an actual barrier to enjoyment. I don't agree, but Autechre is such a subjective experience and everyone comes at it from their own angle.
When I saw them about 10 years ago I remember it being a lot less furious, a lot more spacious - a sensuous, almost romantic experience. This was not that. This was a maelstrom you had to fling yourself into the middle of or gtfo

I loved the dark because it encouraged you to just close your eyes and take it in.

Which is pretentious, sure, but what else are you going to look at, Rob and Sean for all appearances checking their email and vaping?

Absolutely. Had my eyes closed for about 70% of the set. My friends, who are dance/electronic music fans but not necessarily Ae heads weren't sure. For me it makes sense: I don't want or need a lightshow to influence my experience of the music. This is a deeply immersive and subjective experience being experienced collectively

The only thing is the fire exit lights are pretty bright, so it wasn't thst dark really. Health n safety gone mad!!

I was unnecessarily at the front of the stage at the show I was at and the stage lights were still on but covered I think so I was at the "brightest" part of the floor (exit signs excluded)

I should have moved to the centre of the floor or something

I didn't love the dark because it wasn't very dark and the people at my show absolutely did not stay in one place, there was a constant stream of people moving around in the club and bumping into each other

Yeah, I was by a door to a stairwell that kept opening and shutting like a really slow strobe light.

There were also plenty of people on their phones at my show

you mean like, taking videos/recording audio or like, scrolling through Instagram?

sorry, the former was me, I took a few videos surreptitiously

Shut Yr eyes people. And feel free to groove so long as you're not deliberately jostling anyone

If anything the Montreal show wasn't dark enough, thought the real barrier to immersion was people talking continuously, phones lighting up - a guy near me was watching Tiktok videos half the time, WTF?

I meant scrolling on their phones

xxp

What I would do to experience Autechre out in the middle of the desert, under a new moon sky, performing in the dark and in the open air. They're the type of artist that would make more sense at Burning Man than Tycho hah

I like their performances in the dark because I hallucinate/visualise/synesthese a bit, and wouldn’t have realised if it hadn’t been dark. Now I quite often close my eyes for other immersive-listening artists.

We did deplore some of the audience members who just stood stock still without even at least nodding their heads a little

i couldn't tell what any of the people around me were doing, or where they were, for the entire set

I just can't imagine it being that dark, don't all venues have bright exit signs by law? The mixing desk is like a big christmas tree too. it's never been much darker than the average gig when I've seen them.

i could see the mixing desk and could make out the stage and exits, but the people around me were only occasionally perceptible, and only ever as vague forms, not as clearly demarcated silhouettes

TheDaddyO44's latest mix:

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

oh nice. i was thinking i would like to give an Ae mix a go myself

ooooh - please do, there's plenty of opportunity for wildly different mixes here :-)

that mix is ace!

Love that, is that available as a file?

only if you download the youtube audio (youtube audio downloaders, youtube to mp3 converters, there's all kinds of stuff that can do that)

got presale tickets for london in october next year.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ZaHxNt0lCEc

^very high quality bootleg from their north american tour this fall, for those who missed or want to relive the experience