Autechre – Tri Repetae – Review

Autechre

Tri Repetae (TVT/Wax Trax!)
by Clarendon Lavorich

Triangulated somewhere between techno, industrial, and dub is Autechre. Call them a heavier Kraftwerk, call them digitized Coil, you’ll be wrong. Call them original… well, you’re getting there. Tri Repetae is dark electronic instrumentals, the aural nightmare of an android. Brooding computerized dread at first, but once you adapt, the music opens up, guiding you through wondrous places, clean and precise. I don’t think I’ve heard music exactly like this before. It has a lilting groove and gently mysterious undertones, but the rhythm tracks are angular and exact, piling atop one another like some sharpened crystal lattice. Autechre uses a lot of high end in the beats, clicking and hissing like some intricate machine, only it’s not mechanical. Tri Repetae is the reason sequencers were invented. This music would be impossible to create by live musicians, with all sounds synthesized, and without imitating acoustic instruments. These are tracks you don’t mind stretching out for eight or ten minutes because they keep carrying you further, drawing more things from you, pointing new elements of the music out. If you need a heavy dose of honest innovation, Autechre is the way to go.