The leaves are finally starting to change color up in my neck of the woods, so what better way to channel those chill vibes than with some organically abstract and crunchy electronic grooves from a little IDM-type label up in Burlington, Vermont called Autumn Records? Here we have their Autumnature comp, from 2001, which gathered a bunch of songs from a crop of artists from the US and Europe who were essential to the tiny bedroom-and-netlabel wave that took place at the turn of the millennium and followed in the footsteps of what acts like Aphex Twin and Autechre had managed to foster before them.
And if you're particularly familiar with this era of IDM and leftfield electronic abstractions, then the list of artists on here should look something like an all-star roster to you: Jet Jaguar, Lackluster, Hrvatski, Fizzarum, Kettel, Cex, Lexaunculpt...some real heavy hitters from this realm. And if you're not familiar with any of these names, then welcome aboard!
So, it's hard to pick a particular favorite from this set of tunes, but the opener, "Move Bed Here," by Colongib, who played a big role in another great New England label, Kracfive, from New Hampshire, is a pretty phenomenal and freewheeling tone-setter. Complex and glitchy rhythms with emotive, and rich, underlying synth melodies. And it has a wonderful change in tempo on the back half too, before climbing back up to its previously established more uptempo mode to finish.
And another total banger on here comes courtesy of Autumn's owner, Asterisk, who delivers "Sea Green and Cyan," which does a uniquely satisfying job of panning its soft, flute-like synth stabs between the left and right channels, before washing them away with a growing and layered tapestry of folky acoustic guitar 😌. Beautiful tune.
So, a good bunch of nifty and creative electronic tunes from the early 2000s here. Only 500 copies of the album were ever pressed, though, so a physical copy is probably not easy to come by.
Highlights:
Colongib - "Move Bed Here"
Jet Jaguar - "There's a Choice We're Making"
Kettel - "Barsevoice"
Cex - "Good Will Sidis"
Asterisk - "Sea Green and Cyan"
Alright, let's cut to the chase: there's some pretty creative attempts here on this early 2000s comp from Frankfurt label Force Inc. Music Works to make some truly off-the-beaten-path techno tunes. A bunch of commendable efforts, but ultimately, almost none of them end up resulting in tracks that actually sound all that great or fully-fledged.
Except for one: S.R.I.'s "Auf Die Nachsten Zwei - Hundert." Now, I'll fully admit I was pretty much all the way out on this one early on. It sounded like the fullest piece of techno on the comp up until that point, and it had awesome hats and good drums, but the speed of its short lead melody clashed a bit with the rhythm and I was not a fan.
But then S.R.I. brought in this fuzzy, zapping, shaving kinda sound, and as it grew and intensified, it literally managed to tickle my right ear. So, in other words, that song is *actually tactile*. It only happens for a couple brief moments, but you *will* feel a sensation in your ear if you listen to it with earbuds. I've only experienced that one other time, I think, with Muslimgauze's "Azzazin," (it’s way more tactile than this one) but I don't even like that song, whereas with this one, I actually do.
Other than that one tune though, I didn't like this album. Some interesting stuff going on in some of these abstract and wonky and sometimes minimal techno tracks, but most of them feel like they're missing something; either peaking too early, too monotonous, too bare, or too weird. The glitches, filtering, abstract noises and sounds and cut-and-paste IDM-type approaches are cool and nifty, but the large majority of these tracks seem to have needed a bit more tweaking before being released into the wild.