Autechre – Cavity Job

I’ve been trying to get my hands on a copy of this for years that was in excellent condition and didn’t cost an arm and a leg. Finally got it in my hands today. Worth the wait!

Current Autechre fans or those who have byed this release altogether opting for the chin stroking instead, are quick to slate this record because it tends to fit into the hedonistic warehouse spectrum. I like both sides. To be honest, I wish they made more slamming hardcore / techno tunes back in the day before moving onto the pastures of IDM intellectualism. As they were evidently adept at doing so.

Just 10 copies?

Now I know where BoC were influenced while making white "Boc Maxima" press @ 20?

One of hardcore's history essential pieces. Production is remarkably tight compared to it's coetaneous, the mixing is pretty solid and the lack of cheesy moments that ruin a track make this record a must have in any proper hardcore collection.

This EP is really a bomb.

While oxbow may feel this is a pretty unremarkable ep for me it's one of the best uk hardcore 12's ever made. It certainly stood out as being something different and showed that autechre had amazing talent which they would later show with Amber among others. Tuff and uncompromising with not a hint of the scourge of many hardcore tunes - pianos or shite girly vocals. While i love autechres later material, i've always wished they had released more hardcore 12's at that time. Dark and sinister the way hardcore should be, hence the name ;)

Another hint on the spacey / abstract side turn their music would turn towards would be this weird intro on the title track, "Cavity Job", the dentist / drill / patient sample, directly lifted / sampled from "Hawkwind, Friends & Relations" LP, a compilation with a late 70ies unreleased track entitled "Valium Ten" which starts out with the exact same sample and gets cut by the starting music the same way autechre did! Allright Hawkind aren't from Manchester or Sheffield and this may be a private joke, yet, in retrospect, this referance / "name/sample-dropping" might just have been a look into the future ;)

This EP came out back when Sean and Rob were being very heavily influenced by the hip-hop scene and as you might expect sounds NOTHING like their current stuff (though the laser-y synth in "Cavity Job" is reminiscent of "Incunabula" and, to a lesser extent, "Amber"). Stylistically, this EP is VERY similar to Orbital's debut album - heavy old skool beats, goofy acidic synths, and harsh male vocal samples. However, at 4:18 on "Accelera 1 & 2," a dreamy synth wash cascades into the sonic landscape and hints at the more surrealistic direction Autechre would subsequently take their sound with "Incunabula." Musically, the "Cavity Job" EP is pretty unremarkable, but it's an interesting piece of Autechre history and is worth checking out if you can find it.

I was lucky enough to pick up these tracks a couple of days ago. They are reminiscent of the Ae tracks on the first Artifical Intelligence album, more hardcore sounding though. But they are good tracks, no doubt about that :-)

The track on the b-side has a sample from a Jean Michel Jarre live album running through it ("The most amazing sight ever viewed by the..").

There is a muffled voice on Basscadet saying "Any idea what's going on?" that I'm sure is taken from the same Jarre album.

Any idea whats going on