On the heels of the major success that was Moving Pictures, Rush rolled out a righteous wall of sound composed of futuristic-sounding synths with Signals, their ninth studio album. This album was the beginning of their electronic period, which stretched from 1982 to 1991, ending with the release of Roll the Bones. Though I love all Rush music equally (except for "Dog Years." We overlook that song for a reason.), my favorite period in their forty-year career is the synth era during the eighties. My personal favorite Rush album, Power Windows, comes from that period. While digging through reviews and forum posts, I found that German electronic band Kraftwerk influenced the sounds on Signals.
You could say that Kraftwerk contributed much to laying the groundwork for eighties music. It was quite an amazing experience listening to the echoes of Autobahn in "Subdivisions." Unfortunately for me and Geddy Lee, Alex Lifeson felt like the synthesizers were pushing him off the stage. He and Geddy and Neil eventually agreed to dial them back and reintroduce the in-your-face guitar power for which Rush is famous.
U2 also entered an electronic period, which produced such gems as Achtung Baby, Zooropa (my favorite U2 album), Passengers: Original Soundtracks 1 (a little project headed by Brian Eno), and Pop. Their success with Joshua Tree sort of went to their heads and then they made a victory lap with Rattle and Hum, an album/autobiography that turned off many of their fans and was vilified by critics. However, they very wisely took an about-face and began sliding through the seamy, neon-lit dance clubs that were packed full of Europeans celebrating the fall of the Berlin Wall. U2 shed their ardent and stridently political persona and became an act that not only made fun of itself, but also turned the whole idea of the big-ticket rock 'n' roll band into an ironic spectacle, as can be seen in videos of the Zoo TV Tour. The electronic elements of their music during that period owe their influence to krautrock, house, and other forms of dance music. However, like with Rush, the electronic period, which had lasted until 1997, ended. The Edge, their lead guitarist, wished for a return to U2 as the biggest rock band in the world. The scathing reviews of Pop didn't help either (even though it's much more brilliant than some are willing to admit. The critics didn't get the satire of that album, unfortunately.).
OK Computer very nearly shattered Radiohead. Thom Yorke and the other band members grew increasingly uncomfortable with the attention they got from the media and even with each other. Yorke approached the brink of a nervous breakdown, but the media hounded him and his band, demanding more interviews and another hit in the vein of OK Computer. Coldplay and Oasis tried to capitalize on the sounds of that album. Radiohead had had enough. Kid A, an austere, barren, echoing soundscape through which glitchy, electronic winds blow, was their statement of artistic freedom and sovereignty. The shadows from OK Computer deepened on Kid A and helped create its post-apocalyptic world. The title track, whose lyrics were drawn from a hat, is the creepiest. Amnesiac continued their electronic period, but provided a claustrophobic atmosphere instead. Hail to the Thief (my favorite) drew on all of their previous music and ran it through the electronics they adopted with the previous two albums. Radiohead borrowed much of their electronic sounds and atmospheres from Aphex Twin and Autechre, two electronic artists from England.
Aphex Twin and Autechre, along with a few other performers, are often categorized as creators of IDM, or Intelligent Dance Music. It's unfortunate that this sort of electronic music has come to be referred to by this shorthand because it's rather insulting. Aphex Twin, also known as Richard D. James, prefers to call his type of music "brain dance" and some others like to call music in that vein "glitch." So for my purposes, I'll be using those terms.
Radiohead's electronic phase never ended, much to my excitement. It continued on into In Rainbows and The King of Limbs. After wandering through Radiohead's dark corridors, I found both of these artists and fell in love with Autechre. I discovered them on a snowy night in January while trying to stay awake on my computer. These were the songs that first transported me to the bleak, mechanical future of Autechre's music.
"Eggshell" - Incunabula
Autechre are from Rochdale, which is in Greater Manchester in the UK. Their roots are in the American electro scene in Detroit during the early nineties and hip-hop. Their hip-hop beats, combined with synthesized atmospherics, and sometimes (deliciously) clanking heavy machinery are what appeal the most to me because they bring me into a world ruled by robots and colossal machines. Their most powerful asset is their ability to make even their most robotic music still sound somehow human, still somehow full of authentic, even organic emotion. "Eggshell" to me sounds like a robot making a long trek across a frozen waste, hoping to find more individuals like itself. The driving beats and melodies in "Clipper" sound like a procession of mammoth earth-movers and garbage processors through a continent-spanning landfill hundreds of thousands of years in the future. Often, while I'm washing dishes at the restaurant where I work, I will escape with Autechre and let their robotic energy fuel my motion.
Shifting and drifting --
Mechanical music --
Adrenalin surge --
I traveled from Signals to Tri Repetae and I loved every glitchy second of it.
In the next couple of entries I will break down Chiastic Slide and LP5 by Autechre and share with you everything I love about those albums.
This is the Heretic of the Temples of Syrinx and I won't need a bed because I'm a digital man.
