Live Review: Autechre, Andy Maddocks

A MOFO sideshow on winter solstice to celebrate the darkness just feels so right tonight.

Andy Maddocks, the founder of Skam and a member of electronic trio Gescom has the honour of warming tonight's crowd. He serves the audience a thick, laptop-stew of glitchy textures and digital noise, which manifests into several tunes with a heavy industrial drum and bass flavour. At times Maddocks' mix feels just a touch harsh and grating on the eardrums, but with so many layers of sound to take in its best to just chill and soak it all up. Heading perhaps one of the best IDM labels to have emerged from the late '90s, Maddocks' set takes us back to the days when IDM found favour with rather serious young men who were more happy to be immersed in sound than actually get hot and sweaty dancing the night away.

Time just flies and judging from the folks assembled here tonight these lads have long since turned into a bunch of hairy techno dads, keen for their wives and even children to experience these innovators of '90s electronic music. It is reassuring to see a good proportion of the crowd representing a younger generation discovering music that was unbelievably popularised some 20 years ago.

Autechre draws the geeky fanboys out in full force. For many, they are now an iconic part of the underground scene of the '90s. The dude next to us is carrying a vinyl copy of Amber hoping to have it signed. His girlfriend rather glibly tells us she isn't a fan and has low expectations. However, the heaving crowd is excited. As Rob Brown and Sean Booth take to the stage all lights in the house are killed and we are left standing in complete darkness. As our eyes get accustomed to the dark, Autechre appear illuminated only by the dim glow of their synths and computers. After eliminating all distraction, Autechre present an ambient soundscape and invite us to get lost in their sounds and dream in the isolation that the darkness creates. Strangely, the fanboy with the vinyl copy of Amber briefly spotlights Autechre with the flash on his mobile, disrupting what becomes an almost meditative space, only to be heckled by everyone around him.

In full flight, Autechre delivers a 60-minute improvisation that is both voluptuous and dreamy. The futuristic, mechanised sounds shimmer and fascinate. At times their set feels like a soundtrack to a seductive science fiction dystopia filled with a world of possibilities. But when the shadows darken, the growl of their synths feel strangely dangerous. Autechre exists above all the myriad of genres of '90s electronic music but they consistently adopt an experimental approach with a penchant for coolly calculated abstraction that in full effect is just mesmerising.

Unlike a lot of other artists, Autechre adds inviting warmth to the spiky digital tones they deploy. As they move through the fluidly evolving soundscape there is at times an understated sense of abstract funk to their compositions. Once familiar 303-style sequences are playfully crunched into a kind of abstract jazz. Tonight is a masterclass in electronic music experimentation that should teach all the EDM kids waiting for a drop the lesson or two.