"Techno" music - when broadly defined as music derived from modern technology - ages about as well as any other specimen of the computer industry. What sounded fresh and futuristic five years ago now strikes jaded ears as tone-dated and often quaint, obsolete by the rampant revolutions of the tech-industry. Only a few songs, and a few artists, transcend the narrowly-set parameters of "techno," in terms of musical construction and overall lasting appeal: indeed, if anything, the set structure by which electronica in crafted - the standard build-up/climax/build-down - practically ensure that, foundationally, what's for sale now is the same as all that for sale five, ten years before, with only the technology of production itself having improved. But, as I mentioned, a few artists do break the mold, composing music that is both challenging and genre-defying, 'ageless,' consistently adventurous to willing ears. Most of these artists, viewed in hindsight, are classified with the IDM subculture - "Intelligent Dance Music", designed for headphones rather than dance floors: basement-level cyberpunk geeks wholly contrasting their sun-bleached Ibiza counterparts; tricky time-signatures, dial-distortion and glitch-hop chaos shredding the rigid 'struggle for pleasure' structures of mainstream trance and progressive house. Ten thousand huge trance 'choons' have come and gone, relegated to wholesale bins, while albums by Aphex Twin, Squarepusher and Boards of Canada are constantly discovered by neophytes, year after year.

Autechre reign, somewhat infamously, at the top of the IDM pantheon. In the past ten+ years this Sheffield duo have crafted a formidable oeuvre of sonic exploration, shifting from an early, complex ambient sound - one that reached its peak here, on *Amber* - to the fringes of avant-garde experimentation. The contrast between early and current Autechre recordings constitute a bewildering, caustic journey of extremities, but when the various albums and EPs are listened to in order, Ae's artistic trajectory makes sense, and gives credence to the notion that these guys are so far ahead of their time that, like Mozart and Bach, their music will resound far beyond this current era; I can see mathematicians and music-students two hundred years from now revering the fragment textures and shatter-glare of *Confield* and *LP5* as highly prescient.

Early Autechre is easier-listening, there is no question about it, and this album is considered by many to be their finest moment. Arriving not long after the gloomy, winter-swept *Incunabula*, Autechre's second album *Amber* instantly displayed an evolved sense of composition, a greater confidence in terms of range and ambition. Far more varied and immediate than its predecessor, I consider it the 'warm' to *Incunabula*'s 'cold', and a more satisfying overall listen.

*Amber* begins with the industrial pulse of 'Foil,' all rust-crusted tones and tweaked percussion, a theme-song of an oil refinery, the dynamics morphing from subtle tribal rhythms to harsh gear-squalls. A dark bass-roll introduces 'Montreal,' and tiny elements - chattering highhats, bongos, glitch efx - gradually weave into the main percussive riff; twinkling notes and low ambient tones slowly drown out the clatter. 'Silverside' follows this gentle decline with an undulating melancholic theme that is allowed to drift into fulfillment before a distorted vocal and snare-dominated riffs smash through the bottom end. At the end, the theme reaches a cautious resolution: out of it bounces the irresistible 'Slip,' an anomaly to the Autechre catalogue, being both major-key and sublimely ~happy~; it's probably the most overtly catchy song they've ever written.

'Glitch' is aptly named: a fractured synth-line plays over an assortment of chirping, squeaking rhythms, building into an echo-washed breakdown. The next song, 'Piezo,' enters obtrusively and reaches a tension-filled impasse with its flanged drum-pattern and random gurgles; the annoyance is then soothed - somewhat - by a standard ethereal ambient passage, *Incunabula*-style. I tend to dislike 'Piezo' for the first three minutes, then, inevitably, find myself caught up in its twisting, whiplash momentum, seduced by its emotive payoff. 'Nine,' a splintered sequence of tones, beautifully off, is gradually overcome by a sinister machine-cry, and flows directly into the opening notes of 'Further,' which also sounds out-of-time until a percussion-riff storms in abruptly, the muted drum/harsh snare revealing its meticulous structure. The drum patterns disintegrate at the end, echoing into the firmament amidst thunder-quake growls; phased synths keep the structure together, and hold on well past the final bass-boom. 'Yulquen' is classic ambient music, dreamy tones washed over a soft pulse, the melancholic haze of it making the subsequent subsonic reverberation and multi-tap crash of 'Nil' all the more dramatic - the theme, emerging in intervals as the rhythms decay to momentary silence, sounds like the weeping of a machine, eerie inhuman and yet incredibly effective. There is no respite, no moment to stop and seek human connection, at this point - the final song 'Teartear' pounds into being with palpable anger, and no resolution is made: the song fades, squalling, into the distance.

*Amber* can be viewed as an ambient coda for Autechre, for from this point on their music steadily becomes more percussive-dominated and abstract. And even this, Ae's most accessible album, cannot be viewed as happy, life-affirming music - sorrow and rumination dominate the album, and even the cheerful 'Slip' is underlined by a melancholic impression - but it is masterfully composed: intricate, beautiful, challenging and timeless like few other entries of the genre. Highly Recommended.

If you look at the middle of Autechre's name you will see 'tech' which sounds kind of like 'tesh' and when I say 'tesh' I mean like John Tesh. While Autechre's music is not even close the same style as Tesh's they share a common parallel, they're both dreadfully boring. Autechre are known as masters of the mundane, which brings me to my first point, why would anyone be interested in the mundane especially in something that is supposed to be as engaging and exciting as music. Autechre play a bunch of instrumental ambient electronica songs. Electronica can in some cases mean electronic tinged rock, and at other times old men's techno. I'd have to lead to the latter. None of the songs lead anywhere. I can see sitting through songs to get to a grand conclusion, but long after this album was over I sat in my room listening to nothing, in hopes some hook, some reason to listen to this album would be realized. Then it finally hit me, this music would be perfect for yoga, or some kind of gay interpretative dance, or when your cleaning the house. It is great background music. But so are those 'Sounds of The Ocean' and 'The Ambience of The Forest" discs you see at Target and Walmart for a couple bucks. If you want good background music I suggest you go to your local Target and pick up five of those discs rather than spend it on this 'acclaimed' music.

I am generally a fan of Autechre's later stuff (2000 and on), so I was naturaly dissapointed at this album. But, all those differences aside, this is still a damn great album. It has to be one of the most atmospheric albums I own. All of the songs seem to have the same sort of emotions to them (i.e. sadness, mourning, etc.) Even because of that, it still never becomes monotinous.

This Is a great album, overall, and is highly reccomended to any beginner in this genre.

The best and most depressing track from Autechre...."Nine". Just take some time and listen for yourself.

The deconstruction of classic musical arrangements and melodies has always worked for Autechre, who, after 1994's Incunabula and before 96's Tri Repetae++, created the next complicated piece in their ambient saga entitled Amber. In the same vein of Incunabula, Amber deconstructs melodies and molds and reshapes them in new forms, inducing transient states of euphoria in the listener. While Incunabula has more of a sense of internal buildup to climactic ambience and controls the texture and soundscapes with silence and subtle manipulation, Amber controls you in immediacy: its extremely external and variant. Minimalist beat loops and patterns are evident in sharp and abrasive coherency. But the euphoria instead comes from the innovative obscurity of mixing various sounds and creating new musical soundscapes that are at times brilliant and others horrific. But this is what Autechre got together to do, and its nearly impossible to say that Autechre have failed in creating a compelling follow-up. They have, and they will continue to evolve in abstract style and substance, even if IDM does not. Amber is a brilliant mix between the melody based music of Incunabula, and the chaotic and brilliantly deconstructed atmosphere of Tri Repetae++.

Essential tracks: Silverside, Slip and Nine.