Techno lovers and audio purists rant and rave about the advantages of primitive analogue technology over its modern digital successors. Had I, however, used digital means over analogue means to record a conversation with Rob Brown of UK ìintelligent techno/experimental hip hopî outfit Autechre, the following would read somewhat differently. Instead my primitive audio tape ceased functioning and in so doing has caused the destruction of the only recording of the aforementioned interview. Late at night, one can but imagine my despair at having my only hope for adequately relaying the succinct and incisive words of Autechre taken cruelly away from me by the forces of outdated technology. But perhaps the music is more important . . .

The Criminal Justice Bill recently passed in the UK outlaws diversity, protest, free expression, and writes into law a huge array of draconian measures with which the ruling Tories can further clamp down on those who do not vote for them. Included in the Bill is specific reference to music with a ìsuccession of repetitive beatsî. Take it as you will, but this effectively prohibits techno, hip hop and any other predominantly rhythmic style of music. Of course, rock is exempt. Rockers drink beer, a very normal thing in Britain, rockers are, in the Tories eyes, wholesome White middle class kids just exercising their little bit of acceptable juvenile delinquency, which they will soon grow out of. Rock is conformity. Rock is also incredibly 1950s. Nothing more horrid, to a White, middle to upper-class minority, is the thought that a vast number of their most precious sons and daughters have decided to band with the Others - the migrants, the Indians, the Asians, the Carribeans, the gypsies and the travellers - to dance all night long on better drugs than they ever remembered indulging in in the Sixties. Not only listening to techno but hip hop, ragga and jungle as well, has linked many in a struggle against those in power, and those who control the land and the paltry few Social Security benefits left after years of Thatcherite mismanagement, minimisation, misinformation, and deprivation.

Techno has produced few protest songs. A lack of lyrics has not helped. However with the Criminal Justice Bill looming, a flurry of openly political techno has been hastily put together - the Retribution supergroupís Repetitive Beats EP, Orbitalís Are We Here anti-mix have stood out. On a more subtle, and perhaps a more subversive wavelength, Autechre released the Anti EP. Packaged with a warning that by opening the sleeve would indicate an acceptance of responsibility for its potentially illegal contents, and further advice to DJs that they have a lawyer and a musicologist present at all times when playing a particular track on the EP, Flutter, this EP was intended to raise money for the non-aligned, civil rights group, Liberty. The Anti EP is the first post-modern protest song - totally self-referential it engages and challenges the listener not by the traditional medium of words, but by that of musical structure. Further the subversive musical structure remains cloaked in a disguise of ìdanceabilityî, so as to make the listener almost unaware of the radical message contained within. Indeed, under a system that effectively outlaws dancing outside the bounds of a lager-soaked nightclub, or a school-sanctioned dance, the danceability of these tracks is indeed their political end. The third track on the EP, the previously mentioned Flutter, takes this yet another step.

Inevitably laws have loopholes and in over-defining and over-targetting specific groups and actions, The Toriesí CJB has exposed to Autechre such a loophole. Prohibiting ìrepetitive beatsî, Autechre have created a track without such beats but instead with a repetitive rhythm. Assuring the listener that no bars in the track contain identical beats, Autechre openly flaut the CJB, simultaneously allowing the listener to dance ìin gatherings greater than ten people without police permissionî, and expose the utter stupidity and injustice of the Bill itself.

But who are Autechre? In a conflagration of musical styles, Autechre emerge blending electro with techno, and more recently, hip hop with ambience. An acronym for Aural Technological Research, Autechre are ex-grafitti bandits Sean Booth and Rob Brown. Signed to revered label Warp Records, producers of, amongst other things, the Artificial Intelligence series and home to the Aphex Twin, there have been two albums - last yearís Incanabula and the November release of Amber - and an EP, Basscadet. They have also done some remix work for the MoWax label - more known for their experiments in hip hop - a label for which they have a lot of respect and with whom, further work is likely.

Citing the ever experimental Coil, who are best known for their work on the original Hellraiser soundtrack, and Meat Beat Manifesto, pioneers of hypnotic, semi-industrial breakbeat, amongst their influences other than electro and hip hop, it is clear that they do not really belong to the ever expanding world of techno or ambient trance. Fitting somewhere between the dark experimental music of the late seventies and early eighties, and a post-Detroit electro it is particularly fitting that Warp is their home.

As fans of the Warp label, Autechre sent in a demo tape expecting no reply. Surprised they were to find themselves recording for the very label they had, weeks before, been haggling over at the nearest record barn. Warp has allowed them a freedom rarely dreamed of by the Rock Establishment, which has allowed them to set up a sublabel of their own to release other recordings both of themselves and various collaborations with friends. These are due out next year. Moving from an initial fan base created around the Warp label itself - the obsessed ìI own everything on Warp/Transmat/Underground Resistanceî crowd - to being respected and sought after in their own right, Autechre promise to continue to deliver something new. Currently working with artists on the MoWax label, including Palm Skin Productions, a more hip-hop electro fusion is looking inevitable.

Yellow Peril (1994)

Goto Snarl Texts Index Pages