Track Listing

1. Foil
2. Montreal
3. Silverside
4. Slip
5. Glitch
6. Piezo
7. Nine
8. Further
9. Yulquen
10. Nil
11. Teartear

Product Details

• Amazon Sales Rank: #50882 in Music
• Released on: 1994-11-10
• Number of discs: 1
• Dimensions: .21 pounds

Customer Reviews

Ice Cold
Amber' is a remarkably atmospheric record - pure electronica with a cold, programmed, robotic feel which is nevertheless eerily compelling.

The opening track `Foil' sets the scene superbly. Mechanical pulsing drones are overlaid with unconventional bursts of sound and percussion to create an unlikely but effective melody.

There is beauty too on this record - `Silverside' features glacial synth washes sweeping over heavily-treated babbling vocal effects and harsh mechanical beats. The track ends with a lovely synth flourish. The following track, `Slip' has almost perky beats and frolicking percussion.

But the over-riding feeling to the record is of a robotic dystopia which conjures up `Blade Runner' style visions. The sound is cold: `Further' is driven by dripping sounds which could be melting glaciers, but `Amber' is haunting and really gets under your skin. The strong closing track `Teartear' is brutal and menacing and sounds like a legion of battle robots on the march. Overall, it sounds hard to believe that this record wasn't made entirely by machines and that is a compliment to how well its atmosphere works.

My only criticism would be the length. At 74 minutes `Amber' is too long and its slight lack of variety shows through. Even so, I like it very much.

fyc65g76
"Slip" is easily one of the greatest songs ever devised by humans; a triumphant, lethargic stab at contentment, with one of the most effective melodies you'll ever hear. It's a timeless, genreless track that not only sounds unique in the Autechre discography, but is practically a genre in itself. When I listen to it now, memories of a holiday I went on two years ago flash back with force, as I would listen to it obsessively back then; several times a day, just basking in the sun (I live in England, just so you understand the novelty factor) and trying to focus my attention on just one of the layers that make up this song, but always failing as it flooded my mind with its aimless perfection.

The rest of it? Man, there's just no way I can evaluate it fairly. It was the opening, claustrophobic synth of "Foil" that put me off this album for so long; it was rare, during those halcyon days, that I would dare venture past that opener. The raindrops that announce the entrance of "Further" always amazed and confused me whilst walking down dry, dusty Portuguese streets, as it contrasted completely with my surroundings by giving the impression of being in a forgotten cave with water falling from the ceiling. Well, until the roller coaster screams demolish any chance of you have of forming a clear mental picture, that is. And that's just where Amber succeeds; for such visual music, your mind rarely gets the chance to settle, producing a dream-like effect of various images and senses flashing before you, constantly out the reach of tangibility. I think I may have synesthesia, come to think of it. Nothing imposes itself on the listener here, so you're on own. "Yulquen" is the track that escaped from Richard's grasp during the construction of Selected Ambient Works II, although it comes through much clearer and lighter than anything from that well-loved, well-worn album. Every track deserves attention though, by both wandering minds and focused ones, although I fear going into too much detail may spoil the delights of this album for anyone new to this recordworld.

In a recent interview, Autechre described this album as "cheesy" and insisted that this only took six months to produce. This perhaps explains why Amber stands alone in their career, but will never account for the quality of it. Heck, I feel heat resonating from my speakers when this plays. What's up with that?

Masterpiece
This magnificent album has an utterly unique sound even within Autechre's body of work. It may be electronic music but the sound is anything but clinical with its strangely compelling textures and beats. Evoking vivid imagery, the mood varies from eerie and distant to weirdly inspirational and delicately moving.

The album opens with the whooshing synths & crackles of Foil, while in Montreal the percussion is in the foreground with the wistful synths adding desolate melodies somewhere behind, far away. The symphonic Silverside has some muted vocal samples, while tracks like Further evoke the pitter-patter of raindrops and other nature sounds.

Not all tracks have a beat & tempo shifts occur throughout; Slip is mid-tempo to fast, Glitch with its echoing horn-like sounds & the warbling percussive Piezo have a fast beat, while the bleepy Nine and delicate Yulquen unfold at a slow pace. The complex arrangement of Nil allows for rhythmic segments alternating with pure ambient synthesizer sounds.

The closest I can come to a comparison would be to the instrumental work of Peter Baumann like Trans Harmonic Nights, and then only to a certain extent, as Amber is charmingly diverse. I suppose one could describe this as classical electronic music, and Amber certainly is a classic in more than one sense of the term.