Incunabula (album)

Incunabula
Abstract beige, grey and black cover art with a large translucent "Ae" logo and small crosshair symbols.
Studio album by
Autechre
Released29 November 1993 (1993-11-29)
Genres
Length77:50
LabelWarp
Producers
  • Sean Booth
  • Rob Brown
Autechre chronology
Cavity Job
(1991)		 Incunabula
(1993)		 Basscadet Mixes
(1994)
Artificial Intelligence series chronology
Ginger
(1993)		 Incunabula
(1993)		 Artificial Intelligence II
(1994)

Incunabula is the debut album by the English electronic music duo Autechre. It was released by Warp on 29 November 1993,[4] and by Wax Trax! in the United States on 25 January 1994.[5][6]

Autechre member Rob Brown later described the album as "more of a compilation of old material".[7] Critics have generally noted that it is more melodic and less formally experimental than Autechre's later work.[1][3]

Incunabula reached number 3 on the UK Independent Albums Chart in December 1993.[8] Warp reissued it on vinyl in 2016.[9] In 2012, Fact ranked it 11th on its list of the best albums of the 1990s.[10]

Music and production

Autechre member Rob Brown described Incunabula as "more of a compilation of old material", and said that he regarded the follow-up album Amber as "the first album we put out on Warp."[7] Reviewers and music writers have described the album in terms of techno, ambient techno and IDM.[1][2][3] "Eggshell" is a rework of "The Egg", a track Autechre had contributed to Warp's Artificial Intelligence compilation.[3]

Critics have often contrasted the album with Autechre's later releases. Ned Raggett of AllMusic wrote that the album did not yet show the degree of experimentation that would characterise the duo's later work, but said it remained a strong early-1990s UK techno album.[1] David Stubbs of The Wire similarly wrote that Incunabula and Amber were closer to the work of Autechre's Warp contemporaries than the duo's later, more abstract records.[11]

Raggett described the album as built around minimal beats, bass, keyboard textures and understated melodies, with "Basscadet" combining club-oriented rhythms with more avant-garde elements.[1] In a 2016 review, Pitchfork critic Andy Beta wrote that "Bike" showed Autechre at their most song-like, while "Basscadet" anticipated the harsher electronic textures of their later work.[3]

Release

Incunabula was released by Warp on 29 November 1993.[4] It entered the UK Independent Albums Chart at number 3 on 18 December 1993.[8] It was released in the United States by Wax Trax! on 25 January 1994.[5][6]

Warp reissued Incunabula, Amber and Tri Repetae on vinyl on 11 November 2016.[9] The album entered the UK Dance Albums Chart at number 21 for the chart week dated 2 January 2026.[12]

Reception

Professional ratings
Review scores
SourceRating
AllMusicStarStarStarStarHalf star[1]
Encyclopedia of Popular MusicStarStarStarStar[13]
Pitchfork8.2/10[3]
Record CollectorStarStarStarStar[14]
The Rolling Stone Album GuideStarStarHalf star[15]
Select4/5[16]

In a contemporaneous review, Daniel Durchholz of the St. Louis Post-Dispatch placed Autechre alongside ambient techno acts such as The Orb, Ultramarine and Aphex Twin. He wrote that the album avoided the monotony sometimes associated with techno and described it as music suited to introspection.[17]

Retrospective reviews have generally treated Incunabula as a strong but transitional early Autechre release. Raggett, writing for AllMusic, said that the album lacked the full experimentation of the duo's later work but still stood above many UK techno albums from the early 1990s.[1] David Stubbs of The Wire described Incunabula and Amber as accomplished home-produced techno records, though less radical than Autechre's later music.[11] The New Rolling Stone Album Guide was less favourable, describing both albums as "smart if unexciting ambient watercolors".[15]

Reviewing the 2016 vinyl reissues for Pitchfork, Andy Beta praised "Bike" and "Basscadet", while criticising the album's length.[3] Fact ranked Incunabula 11th on its 2012 list of the best albums of the 1990s.[10]

Track listing

All tracks are written by Sean Booth and Rob Brown[18]

No.TitleLength
1."Kalpol Introl"3:18
2."Bike"7:57
3."Autriche"6:53
4."Bronchus 2"3:33
5."Basscadet"5:23
6."Eggshell"9:01
7."Doctrine"7:48
8."Maetl"6:32
9."Windwind"11:15
10."Lowride"7:15
11."444"8:55
Total length:77:50

Personnel

Credits adapted from the Incunabula record sleeve.[18]

  • Sean Booth – writer, producer
  • Rob Brown – writer, producer
  • Adrian Harrow – assistance
  • Richard Brown – assistance
  • Darrell Fitton – assistance
  • Geoff Pesche – mastering
  • The Designers Republic – design
  • Daniel 72 – original images

Charts

Chart performance for Incunabula
Chart Peak
position
UK Independent Albums (Music Week)[8] 3
UK Dance Albums (Official Charts)[12]21

See also

References

  1. 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 Raggett, Ned. "Incunabula – Autechre". AllMusic. Retrieved 23 November 2016.
  2. 1 2 Cook, Jason (1 December 2010). "My Life With the Tape Hiss Cult". PopMatters. Retrieved 27 June 2026.
  3. 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 Beta, Andy (21 November 2016). "Autechre: Incunabula / Amber / Tri Repetae". Pitchfork. Retrieved 21 November 2016.
  4. 1 2 "Autechre – Incunabula". Warp. Retrieved 27 June 2026.
  5. 1 2 "Incunabula – Autechre: Release Info". AllMusic. Retrieved 27 June 2026.
  6. 1 2 Cooper, Sean. "Autechre". AllMusic. Retrieved 23 November 2016.
  7. 1 2 "Autechre Q&A". Collective. 15 April 2005. Archived from the original on 20 February 2006. Retrieved 23 November 2016.
  8. 1 2 3 Redmond, Steve, ed. (18 December 1993). "Independent Albums" (PDF). Music Week. London: Spotlight Publications. p. 16.
  9. 1 2 Bowe, Miles (22 September 2016). "Autechre reissue classic early albums, embark on massive European tour". Fact. Retrieved 23 November 2016.
  10. 1 2 "The 100 Best Albums of the 1990s". Fact. 3 September 2012. Retrieved 23 November 2016.
  11. 1 2 Stubbs, David (April 2003). "The Futurologists: Autechre". The Wire. Retrieved 23 November 2016.
  12. 1 2 "Official Dance Albums Chart on 2/1/2026 – Top 40". Official Charts Company. Retrieved 3 January 2026.
  13. ↑ Larkin, Colin (2011). The Encyclopedia of Popular Music (5th concise ed.). Omnibus Press. ISBN 978-0-85712-595-8.
  14. ↑ d foist (Christmas 2016). "Autechre – Incunabula, Amber, Tri Repetae". Record Collector (461). Retrieved 28 December 2018.
  15. 1 2 Sisario, Ben (2004). "Autechre". In Brackett, Nathan; Hoard, Christian (eds.). The New Rolling Stone Album Guide (4th ed.). Simon & Schuster. p. 29. ISBN 0-7432-0169-8.
  16. ↑ Howe, Rupert (January 1994). "Autechre: Incunabala". Select (43). Archived from the original on 19 May 2000. Retrieved 8 July 2016.
  17. ↑ Durchholz, Daniel (10 February 1994). "Recordings". St. Louis Post-Dispatch. p. 04G.
  18. 1 2 Incunabula (back cover). Autechre. Warp. 1993. Warp lp17r.{{cite AV media notes}}: CS1 maint: others in cite AV media (notes) (link)
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