"We're more into sort of fluid structures that are simultaneously the most efficient, the most beautiful, and the most engineered. You know what I mean? We like the balance you can get in there"
About this Quote
"Fluid structures" is a musician's way of smuggling a manifesto into a casual aside. Sean Booth is talking like a builder, not a mystic: the goal is architecture that moves. The phrase signals a refusal of rigid verse-chorus thinking in favor of forms that can morph without collapsing, the electronic music equivalent of load-bearing minimalism. "Simultaneously the most efficient, the most beautiful, and the most engineered" is a three-part dare, because those values are usually treated as competing. Efficiency sounds cold, beauty sounds subjective, engineering sounds clinical. Booth insists they can coincide, which is basically Autechre's whole cultural proposition: feeling can be a byproduct of systems, not a confession poured over chords.
The subtext is defensive and proud. Electronic music has long been accused of being too technical, too inhuman, too obsessed with process. Booth flips that critique into a standard: engineering isn't the enemy of beauty, it's the route to it. "You know what I mean?" isn't filler so much as a handshake to listeners who have learned to hear intention inside complexity. He's acknowledging that the language of design can sound alien in a scene that still romanticizes spontaneity.
Context matters: coming from an artist associated with intricate programming and evolving patterns, "balance" isn't about compromise. It's about tension held at the exact point where structure stays legible while still feeling alive, like a machine that somehow breathes.
The subtext is defensive and proud. Electronic music has long been accused of being too technical, too inhuman, too obsessed with process. Booth flips that critique into a standard: engineering isn't the enemy of beauty, it's the route to it. "You know what I mean?" isn't filler so much as a handshake to listeners who have learned to hear intention inside complexity. He's acknowledging that the language of design can sound alien in a scene that still romanticizes spontaneity.
Context matters: coming from an artist associated with intricate programming and evolving patterns, "balance" isn't about compromise. It's about tension held at the exact point where structure stays legible while still feeling alive, like a machine that somehow breathes.
Quote Details
| Topic | Music |
|---|---|
| Source | Help us find the source |
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