Amber (Autechre album)

Amber is the second studio album by English electronic music duo Autechre, released on 7 November 1994 by Warp. It was the first Autechre album to be composed entirely of new material, as their debut album Incunabula (1993) was a compilation of older tracks.

Amber
Studio album by
Autechre
Released7 November 1994 (1994-11-07)
Genre
Length74:27
LabelWarp
WARP25
ProducerAutechre
Autechre chronology
Anti EP
(1994)		 Amber
(1994)		 Garbage
(1995)

Production and style

As opposed to Incunabula, which was part of Warp's Artificial Intelligence series of albums and predominantly a compilation of older material,[3][4] Amber was described by Autechre member Rob Brown as "genuinely the first album we put out on Warp".[3] Designed by Ian Anderson of The Designers Republic, the cover art is a detail of a panoramic photograph of sandstone cliffs in Cappadocia, Turkey, taken by landscape photographer Nick Meers.[5][6]

Select described the album as a "'90s update of electro's cut-'n'-paste rhythmics into the realms of the odd," and stated that Amber "made music by μ-Ziq or Aphex Twin seem almost conventional."[7] CMJ described the sound of Amber as "entirely electronic and entirely instrumental" outside a few vocal samples.[8] In a 2013 retrospective feature, Fact described Amber as containing "some of Autechre's most ambient moments," and compared several songs ("Nine" and "Yulquen") to the works of Brian Eno, saying that their "beatless, but powerful low-end means that they’re contemplative rather than ethereal".[4] Fact also described songs such as "Montreal" and "Piezo" as uniquely-styled pieces with "deep veins of techno and acid house".[4]

Release

Amber was first released by Warp on 7 November 1994 on compact disc, double vinyl and cassette.[9] The album was released in the United States on 24 January 1995 by Wax Trax! and TVT Records.[10]

The album has subsequently been reissued in all major formats, including digital download.[9] Warp notably reissued Autechre's first three albums--Incunabula, Amber and Tri Repetae—on vinyl on 11 November 2016.[2]

Critical reception
Professional ratings
Review scores
SourceRating
AllMusic[11]
Encyclopedia of Popular Music[12]
Pitchfork7.9/10[1]
Record Collector[13]
The Rolling Stone Album Guide[14]
Select4/5[7]

Select's Gareth Grundy rated the album four out of five, describing Autechre as "out on the fringes, having a good rummage for the weird and beautiful," and stating that the album was not "goalless experimentation. There's plenty of melody on board, it's just that it creeps up on you from behind."[7] CMJ writer Heidi MacDonald noted that Autechre's more rhythmic music, such as "Glitch" and "Piezo," is "almost hypnotically listenable" but that slower tracks were "dangerously close to new age".[8] Ned Raggett of AllMusic gave the album a four-and-a-half star rating out of five, and compared the album to Incunabula, opining that "a couple of tracks could be removed with no problem, while tracks like "Montreal" and "Slip" continue the basic Incunabula formula without noticeable change."[11] Raggett concluded that "things are clearly starting to gel a little more here than on previous releases; the great leap forward becomes all the more logical in retrospect."[11]

In 2008, Rob Brown described listening to Incunabula and Amber again, and commented on "how cheesy they were, and how contrasted our newer ideas are."[15] Brown clarified his statement in 2013, explaining that the comment "was easily misinterpreted" and that he simply intended to say that the earlier albums "were perhaps more simple [than their more recent work], but not in a shit way."[16]

In The New Rolling Stone Album Guide, critic Ben Sisario gave both Incunabula and Amber two and half stars out of five, describing them as "smart if unexciting ambient watercolors" that "give no indication of the innovations to follow".[14] Writing about Amber upon the occasion of the 2016 vinyl reissue, Pitchfork's Andy Beta stated that the melodies of "Slip" had not aged well, and that parts of "Glitch" and "Piezo" were "dulled and gentle in hindsight, knowing just what nasty and brutish sounds [Autechre] would soon wring out of their gear."[1] He concluded that "What makes Amber fascinating to revisit decades on is to hear vestigial organs and sonic cul-de-sacs that Autechre would bin almost immediately after. ... prov[ing] that at one point the duo was human after all."[1] In 2017, Pitchfork ranked Amber at number 16 on its list of "The 50 Best IDM Albums of All Time".[17]

Track listing

All tracks are written by Sean Booth and Robert Brown.

No.TitleLength
1."Foil"6:04
2."Montreal"7:15
3."Silverside"5:31
4."Slip"6:21
5."Glitch"6:15
6."Piezo"8:00
7."Nine"3:40
8."Further"10:07
9."Yulquen"6:37
10."Nil"7:48
11."Teartear"6:45
Total length:74:27

Personnel

Credits adapted from the liner notes of Amber.[18]

Charts
Chart (1994) Peak
position
UK Albums (OCC)[19] 81

See also

References
  1. Beta, Andy (21 November 2016). "Autechre: Incunabula / Amber / Tri Repetae". Pitchfork. Retrieved 21 November 2016.
  2. Bowe, Miles (22 September 2016). "Autechre reissue classic early albums, embark on massive European tour". Fact. Retrieved 24 May 2020.
  3. "Autechre Q&A". Collective. 15 April 2005. Archived from the original on 28 August 2011. Retrieved 17 August 2014.
  4. Kalev, Maya (2 September 2013). "The Essential... Autechre". Fact. Retrieved 17 August 2014.
  5. ""Panoramics"". nickmeers.co.uk. Retrieved 15 May 2019.
  6. Palladev, George (9 February 2018). "Autechre — Amber. Short story behind the artwork". 12edit. Retrieved 15 May 2019.
  7. Grundy, Gareth (December 1994). "Autechre: Amber". Select. No. 54. p. 89.
  8. MacDonald, Heidi (April 1995). "Autechre: Amber". CMJ. No. 20. p. 30. ISSN 1074-6978. Retrieved 24 May 2020.
  9. "Autechre: Amber". Retrieved 15 May 2019.
  10. "Amber – Autechre". AllMusic. Retrieved 18 August 2014.
  11. Raggett, Ned. "Amber – Autechre". AllMusic. Retrieved 18 August 2014.
  12. Larkin, Colin (2011). "Autechre". The Encyclopedia of Popular Music (5th concise ed.). Omnibus Press. ISBN 0-85712-595-8.
  13. d foist (Christmas 2016). "Autechre – Incunabula, Amber, Tri Repetae". Record Collector. No. 461. Retrieved 28 December 2018.
  14. Sisario, Ben (2004). "Autechre". In Brackett, Nathan; Hoard, Christian (eds.). The New Rolling Stone Album Guide (4th ed.). Simon & Schuster. p. 29. ISBN 0-7432-0169-8.
  15. Richardson, Mark (18 February 2008). "Autechre". Pitchfork. Retrieved 18 August 2014.
  16. Booth, Sean (4 November 2013). "AAA – Ask Autechre Anything – Sean and Rob on WATMM! – Page 48". We Are the Music Makers. Retrieved 15 May 2019.
  17. "The 50 Best IDM Albums of All Time". Pitchfork. 24 January 2017. p. 4. Retrieved 23 December 2017.
  18. Amber (Liner notes). Autechre. Warp. 1994.CS1 maint: others (link)
  19. "Official Albums Chart Top 100". Official Charts Company. Retrieved 23 August 2019.
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