Autechre @ the Funnel Club, Feb 13th: The Funnel was rammed this evening for the Warp stalwarts and although we half expected it to be like this, it was surprisingly uncomfortable up the front for this gig after about 11pm or so. Dennis and Alan fucked about on the decks from 9.30 til 12am, playing loads of cool tunes and a few shit ones, Dennis was apparently in a "swing beat" mood for Valentines Day so that got a bit dodgy at times (the music got Thayl really horny and he kept on grabbing my leg like a neighbours dog), but they played cool stuff, and a real nice mix. Autechre came on at about five past midnight, and again like the Furnace over two years ago they played in pitch blackness. Their live set is crazy.. you recognize bits and pieces of stuff from the recorded material but you're not sure what it is, because its so mangled and distorted.. their set starts off very minimal and then they build up layers and layers of sound, each one more menacing and darker than the last, and at no one stage did I hear a 4/4 beat, not that I expected one. Their set was dark and crunchy in places but at other times very meaty and beaty, and the crowd were dancing with the heads down. They finished up around 12.50 though which I was disappointed with. I was hoping they would play for about an hour and a half. The ponytail of Dave Cleary appeared on the decks then and started playing some Autechre tracks with this wierd howling wolf noises over it which were a bit annoying. Thayl and I loitered about until about 1.30am or so and then we split and got the 2am NiteLink home back to our respective suburbs. Overall not a bad night, the place got a little too packed for my liking, the smoke was hurting my eyes and the heat was making me sweat a lot, perhaps Autechre would have been better suited to a slightly larger venue. Thier live set was brilliant as before..live techno is definitely the way to go. Reportedly they'll be playing here again relatively soon so we'll definitely be going to see them again.