On 8 October, Autechre, who play experimental electronic music, will be performing at the House of Music Hungary. The English duo are known for giving concerts in complete darkness, to ensure that nothing distracts the audience. To help you to get ready for the concert, we’ve put together a list of ten essential tracks from Autechre’s discography, spanning more than three decades.

Cavity Job (1991)

Rob Brown and Sean Booth met in 1987 on the Manchester graffiti and breakdancing scene. They set out by cobbling rudimentary recordings together under the name Lego Feet, using cheap Casio and Roland devices. When their first single, Cavity Job, was released in 1991, they already called themselves Autechre and the legendary Warp Records were happy to sign them.

Crystel (1992)

Warp, which specializes in electronic music, first featured Autechre with two songs, ‘Crystel’ and ‘The Egg,’ on the compilation album, Artificial Intelligence. The other acts on the now-cult record included Aphex Twin, Speedy J and Dr Alex Paterson.

Glitch (1994)

Brown and Booth claim that their debut record, the 1993 Incunabula, was mostly pieced together from earlier recordings, and they themselves consider the 1994 Amber as their real first LP. Glitch is (also) a genre of experimental electronic music that emerged in the 1990s.

Leterel (1995)

The titles of Autechre’s songs are usually single words, often strange and cryptic. ‘Leterel’ is on the album Tri Repetae, which many consider the duo’s magnum opus. As an experimental band, Autechre never sold oodles of records, but this LP made it into the UK Top 100 (as had the above-mentioned Amber).

Laughing Quarter (1997)

Some of the duo’s releases have been EPs The songs on the 1997 Envane have relatively straightforward multi-word titles, all of which end in ‘quarter.’ We’re really hard pressed to pick the best song from this record, but Laughing Quarter is a good candidate.

777 (1998)

The 1998 album that features this song with the three-digit title is itself untitled, so fans have come to refer to it as LP5. It marked the dawn of Autechre’s increasing interest in electroacoustic music.

Dropp (1999)

Another song from another EP, although the 1999 EP7 has a listening length of no less than 70 minutes! Autechre’s most-streamed song on YouTube must be on this list too.

Perlence (2008)

The albums Autechre released in the noughties received mixed reviews, but the 2008 Quaristice once again won over a great many critics. Brown and Booth broke the mould yet again, and instead of longer compositions, they put as may as twenty short songs on this album. ‘Perlence’ gets off to a fairly calm start, but then they can’t help giving free rein to their spirit of experimentation.

Debris Funk (2018)

Here’s a long track after the short one, demanding your attention for over ten minutes. The album, which is named NTS Sessions 1–4 after a London-based online radio, is no fleeting affair either, packing 480 minutes of listening pleasure.

Esc Desc (2020)

Autechre’s most successful album to date, Sign reached number 41 on the British charts. The album title is supposedly an acronym, but the band members refuse to reveal what each letter stands for. Sign has a sister album, as two weeks later the duo released another LP, entitled Plus. These are their last albums to date.