Customer Reviews

Amber

5 star:		(45)
4 star:		(7)
3 star:		(4)
2 star:		(1)
1 star:		(1)

 

 

Four years ago, "Amber" was my first contact with Autechre. I remember it was under a wrong file in the record shop, and I listened to it because the cover artwork looked so nice. The picture shows a kind of desert in Turkey or Egypt, I used to know the name, but I can't recall it now. At this time is was deep into Brian Eno, Tangerine Dream and all the other essential ambient stuff of the '70s. I bought "Amber" just, because it sounded funny with all these busy and sharp "bleeps" and "clonks" and the complex rhythm constructions. I took some time to get into that sound, but suddenly I realized that I never felt the need to listen to any other record after that! This was my first techno record ever, and it's still the best one of my huge record collection. Even if "Tri Repetae" is more powerful in its rhythms and beats and impressed me even more in some parts, I think "Amber" remains the more consistent and enjoyable album, and you should start here if you're interested in Autechre.

For new fans:Please note that every Autechre album has got one or two accompanying EP releases which provide a similar sound. This may be helpful for your first purchases, and I think it makes sense, because Autechre's sound changed quite "a bit" over the years. Listed chronologically:

Incunabula ~ Basscadet

Amber ~ Anti, Garbage

Tri Repetae ~ Anvil Vapre, Peel Sessions

Chiastic Slide ~ Cichlisuite, Envane

Autechre LP 5 ~ EP 7

"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.

Autechre is the only artist that gave me the courage to write an online review. Particularly "Glitch", the songs in the album make you listen to them several times to understand what is hidden behind the notes you hear. With deep concentration, Ae takes you to other dimensions where you've never been to before (but deep inside you feel like you know them). Ae does not try to prove you anything, therefore you'll hear unpredicted u-turns within most songs. Each song in this album defines different moods, yet they manage to collaborate and make an album that is consistent within. Listen closely to "Glitch", and you'll understand what Autechre is all about: Simple, yet powerful composition of sounds, a chaos that has its own beautiful rhytm that is so hard to find anywhere else. You may think the beats are exactly the same when you hear them for the first time, but turn up the volume and you'll notice that each note is selected carefully to compliment each other. In a world composed of patterns, Ae will help you discover something that's hidden behind your daily perception.

With so many reviews for this album already, I don't think there's a point in reiterating Autechre's history and backcatalogue. Suffice to say, this is one of the band's "pure" ambient releases, and a milestone for not only Autechre, but for the whole genre, as well.

I don't think anyone will deny that ambient can be just as mass-produced as any other genre out there. Just pay attention to the music in your average TV or movie drama and you'll hear how cheap ambient can be. Hell, it's even spread to pop music!

So Autechre has a bit of a burden with this release. Five years after Amber came out, ambient has infiltrated so much of today's culture that each classic ambient album is threatened with extinction/trivialization (similar to what happened to Citizen Kane in the eye of today's generation).

Leave it to Booth and Brown to come up with a way. This album features the 'standard' ambient constructions, but with just enough oddball moments that it doesn't fit. Some tones are slightly off, some rhythms deviate just a bit from what our mental metronomes would prefer... In a nutshell, the album breaks the standards by intentionally sounding strange and 'wrong' in places.

See, that oddball characteristic gets our attention. Amber is largely melodious and thus soporific, but when that strange screech or tone hits, it wakes us right up. That alone makes this album a powerful one, that it rises above ambient's image of "background/sleep aid" to "engaging, powerful listen."

Amber is very much a holistic piece. I don't know the names of the tracks. I don't know where they begin and end. I don't care. I simply play the album all the way through, and love every second of it.

This album revolutionizes the ambient genre in a way I hadn't thought possible. For that reason alone, I give it my highest recommendation. But I warn you, this album takes an open mind to truly love it.

This beautiful album has an utterly unique sound, even within Autechre's ouevre. It may be electronic music but the sound is anything but mechanical, with its strangely compelling textures and beats. The mood varies from eerie and distant to weirdly inspirational and delicately moving. The track Silverside even has some muted vocal samples, while tracks like Further evoke the pitter-patter of raindrops and other nature sounds. The tempo also varies: Glitch and Piezo have a fast beat, while Nine and Yulquen are slow and soft. The closest I can come to a comparison, would be to Peter Baumann's Trans Harmonic Nights, and then only to a certain extent, as Amber is charmingly diverse. I suppose one could describe this as classical electronic music, and this album certainly is a classic in more than one sense of the term.

This is one of my favourite albums and in my opinion is certainly Autechre's best. They certainly do sound young and amateur on this album, but on the other hand this album is filled with a youthful passion and curiosity that has never again been fully realised in an Autechre album (though I find some similarity in Chiastic Slide). If you dislike repetition, I would certainly not recommend this album to you - it's a soundscape of sorts and has no qualms with repeating itself to reinforce tiny details of the big picture. For anyone who can sit and just stare into the beautiful abyss of the ocean and sky for hours, here is an expression of that vast, dark and nameless beauty that may make you yearn for the shore as I do.

Yes perfect. This CD is in my opinion Autechre's best. It isso solid, all the way through. I don't even dream of skipping atrack. It is the best example of Autechre's "wet" sound, as opposed to the "dry" sound they employ on their more recent releases. The melodies are more in the foreground than on, for example, EP7 or LP5, and is defenetly "easier" at first. That said, I do not think that these tracks lack depth in any way, but they are more accesseble than the later stuff. The rythims are very cleaver, not as overbearing as on EP7 for example so this is a very good starting point for people getting to know Autechre. When I pop this in to my CD player I can't help it but listen to the whole thing. It is very uncomfortable to stop in the middle of it. It is really one long piece, rather than a collection of tunes. It surely is, greater than the sum of its parts. In short: Perfect.

Ae's second full length, "Amber", marked the beginning of a long string of truly brilliant releases. As I've said in my reviews of other Ae albums from this era, this is a completely different genre from the unpredictable, alien glitch worship they engage in now. "Amber" falls neatly into some subgenre of "ambient techno", probably more-so than any Ae release except their debut, "Incunabula". This is the melodic, icy beauty that alienated fans express so much nostalgia for these days, when the new album of the moment doesn't have as much melody, or slips even further into the abstract.

While I love nearly every album this duo has put out, "Amber" is definitely one of their greatest works, much more consistent than the debut "Incunabula" and more listenable than the follow up, "Tri Repetae". It's also their most ambient, containing several beatless tracks.

This is their first truly great production work. The percussion is all warm, analog static washes, muffled thumps, reverberant clicks. The synths are classic analog. Every corner of the mix is filled with some sound or other, so there's little of the space "Tri Repetae" used so effectively.

Unlike in most of Ae's work, there is little distortion or harshness of any kind... "Amber" is pleasant on the ears, emotionally intense and often melancholy but never urgent or threatening, and most definitely sympathetic and human. It's the disembodied, pensive voice of the dwellers of the modern metropolis, an ode to everyone lost in the urban sprawl, the technology, the routine, the digital communication.

The songs unfold with amazing precision and taste, something this duo nearly always has (if you've read my review of "Tri Repetae, in which I say the tracks drag on too long, I've since changed my mind) and is never given enough credit for. The pacing on "Amber" is masterful, and serves to make the album one of the most listenable in the entire Autechre catalog.

There are some truly breathtaking and heart-wrenching melodies on here, particularly in the ambient tracks "Yulquen" and "Nine"... both of which are among Ae's best tracks... they say so much with so little, creating breathtaking drama with only a few notes. "Montreal", "Silverside", "Piezo" and "Nil" are also all highlights; groovy basslines, dark, gorgeous strings, chattering percussive noise, all expertly produced and arranged.

If the album ever falters, it is in the somewhat cliched "dark" melody of closer "Teartear", which also seems to disrupt the mood and flow of the album with its harshness. Even if the album contained only the first 10 songs, however, it would be easily 5 stars.

As far as this album being the most accessible Ae album, it really depends on who you're playing it for, I think. It's certainly the least offensive Ae album, but an untrained ear could easily miss the subtlety and beauty that makes these songs more than background music.

Anyway, "Amber" is a masterpiece and highly recommended. It's the best of their first 3 LPs, and they wouldn't reach heights like this again until "Chiastic Slide". 5 stars.

The Autechre sound reaches it's apex with "Amber". Hard, ever-developing electro rythms form a solid foundation where frail, beautiful melodies thrive. Clocking in at 74 minutes, the album is not a second to long. Each of the 11 tracks on the album stands out in its own right, although the best track is saved for last; "Teartear" is a highly emotional finale to an excellent album. 4 years on from it's original release in the autumn of 1994, it still sounds as fresh as if it was put out yesterday (or tomorrow for that matter). Truly a masterpiece. Anyone who likes passionate, emotional music should own this album.

Autechre should have a genre of their own. Throughout their discography, they defy every cliche of electronica, going from their own blend of ambient techno to their own form of glitch. Despite their extremely mechanical sound, Autechre has always been able to evoke human emotion from their music. Amber is their most emotional album.
I had heard a few songs from this album ("Montreal," "Glitch," "Slip") a few years before I was able to listen to the full album. I was very impressed, and wanted to hear more. When I finally purchased a copy of this magnificent album, I wasn't as impressed as I thought I would be. There was no doubting that Amber was the middle-point between Incunabula and Tri Repetae++, both masterpieces. It was Amber's inconsistency that threw me off, but I would soon learn to appreciate this album more for it. Amber starts off with "Foil," which is an ambient song with a dark, broodingly pulsating beat that appears and re-appears throughout the song. Then comes "Montreal," which is one of their most accessible (and repetative) IDM songs. This is when things start to get strange. "Silverside" begins with a mysterious and rather creepy atmosphere, created by light violin-like synths and industrial beats. Then all the sudden the playful "Slip" comes in, totally contrasting to "Silverside." Once again contrast is created with "Glitch," which uses sharp beats and a slowly progressive atmosphere to make a darker sounding "Montreal." "Piezo" is one of the strangest songs Autechre has ever made, and it took me quite some time to find the magnificent beauty that is behind the inaccessible and rather annoying first 3 minutes. "Nine" is one of the most emotional songs ever made by Autechre, which is quite incredible as this song is composed of a strain of individual echoing beats that, throughout the song, creates a cohesive whole. "Further" is another darker song composed of simple by effective beats that, throughout the coarse of 10 minutes, create a full sound of mechanized machinery. "Yulquen" is a beautifully constructed ambient composition that evokes great emotion through its blissful simplicity. "Nil" is one of the my favorite songs from Autechre, as it creates an incredibly vivid and emotive atmosphere from an effective use of assorted beats, which by themselves would seem empty and emotionless. Amber ends with the industrial "Teartear," which ends the album on a harsh note.
Usually I do not break down an album into individual songs like this on album reviews, but I feel it must be done with Amber. There are few albums, especially in the electronica genre, that has such contrast and inconsistency. What is even rarer is that this contrast and inconsistency creates a cohesive atmosphere by the end of the album. Amber is like a piece of abstract art. It's hard to injest at first, but once observing the work of art in its complete form, made of individual pieces to make up one whole, one can begin to appreciate the meaning behind the art and the atmosphere and emotions it evokes in us. Amber may not be Autechre's most consistent, or even their most complete work, but it is one of their greatest achievements.
Overall- 9/10