Autechre - Incunabula

Incunabula has to be one of THE essential electronic music albums of all time. When it was released I had been collecting WARP 12"s from the bass-and-bleep days, and bought the first "Artificial Intelligence" on faith. That album didn't set a foot wrong in my ears, and the subsequent series of AI LPs from most of the individual artists did not disappoint.

But the debut from virtual unknowns Autechre was the last in the series to be released (save AI vol 2 some time later) and as far as I'm concerned WARP really had saved the best to last. This album totally opened up my ears and blew me away. I couldn't get it away from my record player for weeks.

Every track brings lush textures, haunting melodies, and crisp clean intricate rhythms all underpinnig a variation of light and dark shades, moods and emotions. Instrumental music rearely comes more engaging than this. Coupled with this is the highly innovative artwork from Designers Republic, which really to me does look like a visual representation of the music - lush yet fractured, superficially subtle yet intricate and many layerd in detail.

My first copy was on the limited metallic grey vinyl - I took it back to the shop and exchanged it for a black one as it was pressed off-centre on one side and also suffered from pressing faults often found in coloured vinyl. A further coloured copy I acquired later also has the off-centre pressing, so maybe this was a common problem. These days I'm lazy and generally reach for my CD.

Incidentally the word Incunabula is Latin and refers to something in its infancy or early stages of development. Highly appropriate in the light of what was to follow from Autechre (and also from WARP, and the whole "IDM" scene).

I still can't believe that this record is made in 1993 (although some beat structures remind me of that, but synths are in front of time. Thats is for sure). Such tracks as lowride or 444 have changed the understanding of music of a lot of people.
One of the first albums that demonstrate untraditional approach to eletronic music and rhytmic structures and does it good:)