The Autechre Track Titles Wiki - Recently Updated Pages

Amber

Outpt — Thu, 26 Nov 2009 02:30:09 CST

The greek word for amber (elektron) is the base for the word "electricity". Also, "Amber" is what the color of the second light on a traffic light in England is called ("yellow" in the US). This ties in with the titles "Incunabula" (first) and "Tri Repetae" (third).

Tracklisting

Foil
Montreal
Silverside
Slip
Glitch
Piezo
Nine
Further
Yulquen
Nil
Teartear

Montreal:

Sean Booth likes the city of Montreal, and this track is dedicated to some friends of his who live there.

Silverside:

a small food fish with a silver stripe
Silver is the prize given for 2nd place - this also ties in with it being the 2nd album.

Glitch:

The word "glitch" is from german "glitten", to slip. Slip is the track before Glitch on the album.

Piezo:

Prefix meaning "pressure". Piezoelectric crystals generate electricity when squeezed (or squeeze/expand when electricity is applied to them). This phenomenon is used in piezo speakers, quartz crystal wristwatches, etc.

Yulquen:

The airport code for the Montreal-Pierre Elliott Trudeau International Airport is YUL. The Queen Elizabeth Hotel in Montreal is therefore referred to in some computer travel systems by the codename "YUL QUEN" or "YULQUEN". "Montreal" was the title of the second track on this album.

Nil:

The LISP programming language returns "NIL" for undefined. The LISP language is used in artificial intelligence research. The previous album, Incunabula, was a member of Warp Records' Artificial Intelligence series.

Teartear:

Like wind in Windwind, tear has two different pronunciations (tier and tare)
Also like Windwind, may be an instance of reduplication.

Quaristice

Outpt — Wed, 25 Nov 2009 20:21:14 CST

Tracklisting:

Altibzz
The Plc
IO
plyPhon
Perlence
SonDEremawe
Simmm
paralel Suns
Steels
Tankakern
rale
Fol3
fwzE
90101-5l-l
bnc Castl
Theswere
WNSN
chenc9
Notwo
Outh9X
nu-Nr6d (Japanese release only)

Special edition bonus disk tracks:

Altichyre
The PlclCpC
IO (mons)
Phylopn
Perlence range3
SonDEre-ix
Tankraken
fol4
90101-61-01
chenc9-x
nofour

The Plc and The PlclCpC:
1.The PLC (Programmable Logic Computer) is used for automation of various industrial processes.

IO and IO (mons):
1. IO is one of Jupiter's moons
2. Mons, plural montes, is a term used in astrogeology to name extraterrestrial mountains. For example, Tohil mons is a mountain on Io

3. On various electric devices "I" is used for on and "O" is used for off

4. IO is also In/Out in electronic audio devices.

plyPhon:
1. There is a type of ASCII/binary file format called PLY (Polygon File Format).
2. Phon is a unit of subjective loudness. It has to do with psychological and physiological audio processing.

3. "Ply" is a DOS-based polymorphic virus from 1996.

SonDEremawe:

1. This can be an anagram of "AwesomeNerd."

parelel Suns:
1. This can be an anagram of "Plural Sense."

Steels:
1. Can be also pronounced "Steals," which brings to mind Surripere's meaning.
2. Possibly relating to the heavy bass used in the track.

Fol3:
1. If the 3 is substitute with the third letter of the alphabet, we get "Folc," which can be pronounced "False."

bnc Castl:
1. bnc can be pronounced as 'bience,' and by adding 'am' we get "Ambience Castle."

fol4:
1. Similarly to Fol3, if we substitute the 4 with the fourth letter of the alphabet, we get "Fold."
2. The title brings to mind Fold4, Wrap5

Tri Repetae

Outpt — Tue, 24 Nov 2009 16:34:03 CST

Latin for "three repeats".
Almost an anagram of "Reet Petite", a song from the '50s by Jackie Wilson that was remixed in the '80s.

Tracklisting

Dael
Clipper
Leterel
Rotar
Stud
Eutow
C/Pach
Gnit
Overand
Rsdio

Dael:

autechre's abreviation for Rochdale, home of their headquarters in the north of Manchester.
pun on "dial"?
old english for "file", according to this website.
"lead" backwards.

Leterel:

possibly pun on "literal" or "litterer".

C/Pach:

possibly a reference to Pachelbel's Canon, a famous piece of a classical music
possibly short for Csound Patch.

Gnit:

"ting" backwards.

Overand

first two words of the radio phrase "over and out."
the rhythm of the phrase "over and over" is echoed in a repeating synth line throughout the song.

Rsdio:

Typo of "radio".

LP5

Outpt — Tue, 24 Nov 2009 01:16:15 CST

This is Autechre's fifth LP.

Tracklisting

Acroyear2
777
Rae
Melve
Vose In
Fold4,Wrap5
Under BOAC
Corc
Caliper Remote
Arch Carrier
Drane2

Acroyear2:

777:

The song is in 7/8 time, and there are three measures of lead-in in the beginning. This title also calls to mind the track 444 on Incunabula.

Rae:

Many commands in Unix-style operating systems have r- forms to do the command on a remote system, such as rsh (remote shell), rcp (remote copy), and others. This title calls to mind "remote autechre". (see also VI scose poise on confield)

Vose In:

There is a popular brand of hair shampoo in the UK named "Vosene".

Fold4, Wrap5

By substituting 4 with the fourth letter of the alphabet, we get "Foldd," which is similar to Dropp (in addition, both tracks are #6).

Under BOAC:

BOAC stands for "British Overseas Airways Corporation".

Caliper Remote:

A caliper is a tool for measuring the diameter of objects.

Envane (EP)

Outpt — Tue, 24 Nov 2009 00:45:06 CST

Tracklisting

Goz Quarter
Latent Quarter
Laughing Quarter
Draun Quarter

Goz Quarter
1. 'goz' means 'sandy soil' in Darfur
2. Harry Goz was the voice of Captain Hazel "Hank" Murphy in the Adult Swim cartoon Sealab 2021
3. Due to the font used on the cover, many read "Goz" as "902" or "9oz."

Latent Quarter

Possibly a play on the "Latin Quarter" in Paris, the area surrounding the Sorbonne.

Draun Quarter:

Possibly a pun on "drawn and quartered", a rather gruesome method of execution

EP7

Anonymous — Sun, 18 Oct 2009 18:19:47 CDT

Tracklisting

Rpeg
Ccec
Squeller
Left Blank
Outpt
Dropp
Liccflii
Maphive 6.1
Zeiss Contarex
Netlon Sentinel
Pir

rpeg:

From "arpeg" (abbreviation of "arpeggio".)
From "mpeg" (a digital audio/video compression format) or "jpeg" (a image file format).
From "rpg" (role playing game)

ccec:

Pronounced "seasick" according to the band, and is a reference to the way the track's vocals are processed.

left blank:

Could be a pun on the Left Bank of Paris, a district noted for it's artistic and intellectual life.
Could be a reference to the phrase "This page intentionally left blank", a phrase sometimes used by publishers of technical manuals to indicate that a page is not accidentally blank (i.e. from a printing error). This was more common in the '70s and '80s.

zeiss contarex:

Contarex is a camera made by the german Zeiss Ikon company.

netlon sentinel:

Netlon is a British company that manufactures, among other things, plastic nets. One of their lines of garden fence meshes is called "Netlon Sentinel".

pir:

"Spiritual" in arabic.
"Feast" in russian.
Abbreviation of French "planification intégrée des ressources", or in English, integrated resource planning.
The first part of the mathematical formula for the area of a circle, "pi r squared".
Pier. This could relate to the song's water-inspired percussion.

Untilted

Anonymous — Mon, 12 Oct 2009 01:32:38 CDT

Tracklisting

Lcc
Ipacial Section
Pro Radii
Augmatic Disport
Iera
Fermium
The Trees
Sublimit

Lcc

An abbreviation for London City Council. Sean Booth is a resident of London.
LCC-Win32 is a free ANSI-C complier system created by Jacob Navia

Ipacial Section

"Socialite Panic" and "Antisocial Epic" are both anagrams for Ipacial Section.

Augmatic Disport:

"Disport" is an archaic word for "sport" or "pastime". "Augmatic" could be a pseudo-adjective form of "augment".

Iera:

Possibly a scrambling of "Irae", "wrath" in Latin, as in "Dies Irae", which is a segment of the old Latin Requiem.

Fermium:

The 100th chemical element; an artificial, radioactive rare earth metal. The abbreviation for this is "Fm", so it could be a pun on FM (Frequency Modulation) synthesis.

Sublimit:

A combination of the word "subliminal" and "limit".

Confield

Anonymous — Wed, 19 Aug 2009 20:09:32 CDT

Tracklisting

VI Scose Poise
Cfern
Pen Expers
Sim Gishel
Parhelic Triangle
Bine
Eidetic Casein
Uviol
Lentic Catachresis

VI Scose Poise:

vi is an editor for unix operating systems. (It also means 6 in roman numerals, but you knew that.)
"Poise" is the cgs unit of dynamic viscosity.
"Viscose" is a viscous golden brown solution made by treating cellulose with caustic alkali solution and carbon disulfide. It is used in making rayon and films of regenerated cellulose.
This track was called "vi code spoils" and then "vi code spoilse" when streamed on warprecords.com in 2001.

Cfern:

There is a project named C-Fern which studies the growth of plants.
Pun on the israeli fighter jet IAI Kfir. "Kfir" means "lion cub" in hebrew.
The German word "Ziffern" (numbers) sounds like "Cfern".

Pen Expers:

From pers. expense (accounting term)
There's a train line from Manchester to Sheffield that's known as the Pennine Express, it could be a fun typo, as they lived in Manchester then Sheffield, and they've been known to cite the A57 route (the high altitude forest road linking the two cities) as an influential area.

Parhelic Triangle:

Pun on "parhelic circle", a luminous circle or halo parallel to the horizon at the altitude of the sun.

Bine:

A twining, slender stem of a climbing plant
European twining plant whose flowers are used chiefly to flavor malt liquors; cultivated in America
A (dangerous) alcoholic drink made from mixing beer with wine.

Eidetic Casein:

Eidetic means "of or pertaining to exceptionally clear and detailed visualisation", as in "eidetic memory" (that is, photographic memory).
Casein is a protein in dairy products. it's gluey, and used in making plastics and synthetic fibers.
Some people with autism and Asperger's syndrome are sensitive to casein", and Asperger's syndrome is sometimes characterized by eidetic memory. Therefore, this title could be a reference to autism and Asperger's syndrome.

Uviol:

Uviol glass is glass which is highly permeable to ultraviolet light.
"Viol"s are string instruments that was popular in the renaissance period. they look somewhat like varying-sized versions of today's double basses.
A pun on "uvula". note the snoring-sounding elements near the end of the track. Playing the uvula as a "viol", maybe?

Lentic Catachresis:

Lentic means "living in swamp, pond, lake or any other standing water."
Catachresis means "The misapplication of a word or phrase" or "The use of a mixed metaphor." (interestingly, the word "catachresis" was also prominent in the book that came with the special edition version of the band Radiohead's "Amnesiac" album, and there was talk about a radiohead-autechre collaboration.)

Chiastic Slide

Anonymous — Mon, 09 Feb 2009 14:34:30 CST

Chiastic is the adjective form of "chiasmus", an inverted relationship between the syntactic elements of parallel phrases (a poetic device used constantly in the old testament) or "chiasm", an intersection or crossing of two tracts. There is a text-processing algorithm called the "chiastic slide"; it is as of yet unknown whether the album was named after the algorithm or vice versa.

Tracklisting

Cipater
Rettic AC
Tewe
Cichli
Hub
Calbruc
Recury
Pule
Nuane

Cipater:

Part of a car engine.
Opposite of an anticipator.

Rettic AC:

an abbreviation for Reticular Activating System, the portion of the mammalian brain from which sensations of arousal & motivation originate

Tewe:

Name of a german electronics company (pronounced teh-vuh)

Cichli:

From italian "cicli", meaning "cycles".
From "cichlid", a family of fish
Pronounced "sickly". See also Cichli Suite.

Hub:

A piece of computer networking equipment

Recury:

Pun on mercury
Pun on recurring

Pule:

Pun on pulse
Verb meaning "to whine"
In Norwegian, a verb meaning "to fuck".

Nuane:

"Nuance" minus a letter.

On the cover of Envane, the word "ENVANE" looks somewhat like "ENUANE", which gives N-uane, or nuane.

Anti EP

moonchasm — Tue, 03 Feb 2009 12:27:19 CST

Tracklisting

Lost
Djarum
Flutter

Djarum:

A brand of clove cigarretes.
Indonesian for "needle"

Cichli Suite (EP)

moonchasm — Tue, 03 Feb 2009 12:23:58 CST

According to the band, pronounced "sickly sweet". Quite a few of these tracks are named after cichlid-family fish. The Greek composer Xenakis, whom Autechre cite as an influence, also has some compositions named after cichlid fish.

Tracklisting

Yeesland
Pencha
Characi
Krib
Tilapia

Yeesland:
1. reference to Thom Yeesland, a German experimental guitarist
2. a run-on of "Yees Land" a level in the vintage video game "Space Harrier II"

Pencha:

Form of the french verb "pencher", to lean.
Word for "owl" in Bengali. Specifically, "bhutum pencha" is the Bengali name for the Brown Fish Owl.

Characi:

crucian (a type of carp) in russian, in the plural form.
abbreviation of "characiforme" or "characidae", the scientific order of fish such as piranhas & tetras

Krib:

Krib is another type of cichlid fish.

Tilapia:

A type of fish, belonging to the "cichlid" family (see cichli)

The Autechre Song Titles Wiki Home

Anonymous — Tue, 11 Nov 2008 12:17:35 CST

The seminal IDM group Autechre tends to give its tracks very obscure names. The Autechre FAQ said:

According to an interview, their track titles don't really mean anything (at least not to the public). A track title might be based on the name of a sample they've used, words that have been messed about with or any other thing they've got in their head. It's also rumoured that they use a computer based generator to create some of the names.

But, as Autechre's music itself is not free from outside references, neither are the titles to their tracks; many people have noticed references to hip-hop terminology, electronics industry jargon, and other sources. On this Wiki we will attempt to dissect the private meanings of Autechre's track titles.

As for the name of the group itself: Autechre

Abbreviation of "aural technology research".
Mixture of the words "audio" and "architechture".
Related to the word "auteur", a filmmaker who has a personal style and keeps creative control over his or her works.
Au; the table of elements symbol for gold, tech; technology, re; 'with reference to'. THUS; with reference to the golden quality of tools. So says Deasy.

Disks, and tracks we have info on

External Links

Warp Records

License
All work on these pages are under the public domain. All contributions will become licensed under the public domain.

Draft 7.30

Pyrop — Sun, 06 Apr 2008 16:33:02 CDT

It has come to my attention that the "original track titles" might just be a prank someone pulled by adding the "original" titles to CDDB before the CD's release. Be that as it may...

A Tracklisting

Xylin Room
IV VV IV VV VIII
6ie.cr
Tapr
Surripere
Theme of Sudden Roundabout
vl al 5
P.:NTIL
V-Proc
Reniform Puls

Xylin Room:

Originally titled "Benk Chin"

IV VV IV VV VIII:

Originally titled "nwnw8" It can be seen how N lookslike IV and W looks like VV, and VIII is 8 in roman numerals.

6ie.cr:

Originally named "606.ie". 606 is an obvious reference to the Roland 606 drum machine.

tapr:

Originally named "reppat" (backwards is tapper, which sounds like tapr). "reppat" means "replacement pattern"

surripere:

French for "theft" (the original title of the track), and also medieval latin for "sieze secretly". The english word "surreptitious" is derived from this.

Theme of Sudden Roundabout:

Sudden is a neighborhood of Autechre's hometown, Rochdale, in England, which has a roundabout in it.
Originally titled "Prince Moth Mothy Moth Moth". (WTF?)

vl al 5:

Originally titled "Vlimpton Alpha 5" (which was then shortened).

P.:NTIL:

Originally titled "Foam Conduit".

v-proc:

Originally titled "uprock" (hip-hop term for a sort of dancing fight)

reniform puls:

Originally titled "kidney bean". "reniform" means kidney-shaped, "pulse" means (in addition to the usual meaning) bean or legume.

Gantz Graf (EP)

Pyrop — Sun, 06 Apr 2008 16:29:01 CDT

Tracklisting

Gantz Graf
Dial
Cap.IV

Gantz Graf:

"Ganz" (pronounced Gantz) is German for "all", or "whole".
There is also a famous graffiti artist named Nicholas Ganz; Booth and Brown were graffitists before beginning Autechre.
"Graf" means "Count" (as in the royalty title) in German.
There is a type of chart called a Gantt Chart.

Dial:

Recalls the track "Dael" on Tri Repetae.

cap.IV:

Cap. is a common abbreviation for "capítulo", Spanish for chapter. That gives us "chapter IV."

Peel Session 2

Pyrop — Sun, 06 Apr 2008 16:27:41 CDT

It turns out these titles were all given by the late John Peel himself, not Autechre, who gave John the tracks unnamed. Regardless...

Tracklisting

Gelk
Blifil
Gaekwad
19 Headaches

Gelk:

Could be related to "geld", which in addition to its english meaning means "money" in german.

Blifil:

Possibly related to "billfold".
There is a character named Blifil in the novel The History of Tom Jones. This book is available online.

Gaekwad:

Possibly related to "geekwad".
Supposedly, John Peel named this track after the Indian cricket player Datta Gaekwad, whose name caught his imagination.

19 Headaches:

John Peel's description of what the track gave him.

Peel Session

Pyrop — Sun, 06 Apr 2008 16:26:50 CDT

Tracklisting

Milk DX
Inhake 2
Drane

Milk DX:

Possibly a reference to the Yamaha DX7 synthesizer.
Possibly a reference to the rapper Mike D (of the Beastie Boys)

Inhake 2:

Possibly a mix of the word "intake" and "inhale".

Drane:

A pun on drone or drain (see also drane2 on LP5)

Anvil Vapre (EP)

Pyrop — Sun, 06 Apr 2008 16:21:06 CDT

Reference to the formation of storm clouds (which look like anvils)

Tracklisting

Second Bad Vilbel
Second Scepe
Second Scout
Second Peng

Second Bad Vilbel:

Bad Vilbel is a town in Germany near Frankfurt. It is twinned with the town of Glossop in Sheffield.

Second Peng:

Peng is the german equivalent of the English onomatopoeia "bang".
Peng is also the name of an album by the band Stereolab (whom Autechre once remixed).

Garbage (EP)

Pyrop — Sun, 06 Apr 2008 16:20:15 CDT

The numbers at the end of the titles are the percent of the total EP time each track takes up. (The numbers add up to 100, check!)

Tracklisting

Garbagemx36
Piobmx19
Bronchusevenmx24
Vletrmx21

Piobmx19:

PIOB stands for "Parallel I/O Board".

Bronchusevenmx24:

See bronchus 2 on Incunabula.

Vletrmx21:

VLET stands for "Very Low Energy Telescope".

Incunabula

Pyrop — Sun, 06 Apr 2008 16:13:46 CDT

Plural of "incunabulum": A work of art or industry of an early period. This most usually refers to early works of printing or typography. In very early instances, words were printed to look handwritten, so this may connect to Booth and Brown's graffiti work before starting Autechre.
A really strange alien conspiracy theory.

Tracklisting

Kalpol Introl
Bike
Autriche
Bronchus 2
Basscadet
Eggshell
Doctrine
Maetl
Windwind
Lowride
444

Kalpol Introl:

"Calpol" is the name of a popular children's cough syrup in the UK/Ireland.

Autriche:

French for "Austria".
Also a near-anagram for Autechre (autichre?)

Bronchus 2:

A "bronchus" is one of the tubes that conect the trachea to the lungs.

Basscadet:

Pun on "space cadet".
There is a French wine named "Muscadet".

Maetl:

"Mate" with a scottish accent.

Windwind:

Wind has two different pronunciations (whined and winned).
May also be an instance of reduplication. Reduplication is the repetition of a word or part of a word to emphasize something about it. It's used more commonly in non-European languages. For instance, in Hebrew:
Or in chinese: