As far as electronic music goes, it doesn’t get much more old school than Incunabula. This record is popular amongst electronic enthusiasts, earning a place in Darren Aronofsky’s film debut and Grand Theft Auto: Episodes from Liberty City, but I’m willing to bet you don’t know it well.
Even the record’s most popular tracks would be considered oddities by today’s standards, but I’d argue that’s what actually makes it a great record. Before electronic music became a convention, Autechre was testing the boundaries and trying things out. And I don’t feel like we get that today, at least not in the same way.
Part of that is the way the album embraces techno. In a lot of circles, particularly today’s synth-pop scene, techno seems to have fallen out of fashion. Autechre was inventive with Incunabula, but they weren’t so many years ahead of their time as to sound like Sylvan Esso. They were influenced by techno like everybody else was in 1993.
That being said, it’s not as if all electronic music used to sound like this. Autechre is in a league of their own throughout. Even they know they’re doing something unique: Incunabula is Latin and references the early development or infancy of an object. (The term was originally used to describe printed books published before 1501.) It’s a sly reference to the groundbreaking work Autechre was doing in the genre.