Autechre – Confield

Autechre’s sixth album is the Trout Mask Replica of early ’00s electronic music, a polarizing, often confounding listen that, like Captain Beefheart’s 1969 avant-rock classic, abides by some shattered-monocle internal logic that makes everything sound wrong at first but inevitably brilliant after you internalize the language. After creating a decade’s worth of music for Warp Records alongside Aphex Twin, Two Lone Swordsman, Squarepusher, and others and building a fanbase that analyzed Autechre tracks like structural engineers examining skyscrapers for signs of stress and proof of durability, Sean Booth and Rob Brown challenged those fans across Confield. Born of a movement in which the goal had been getting people onto the dance floor, Autechre took a wrecking ball to the discotheque and challenged their fans to dodge the collapsing pieces while keeping in time with the rhythm. – Randall

Recommended tracks: “Parhelic Triangle,” “VI Scose Poise,” “Uvial,” “Lentic Catachresis.”