Autechre / Saw You

Autechre / Saw You is the oldest known release from Autechre, created in 1990 as a two-track demo cassette single which was distributed to friends and labels which allowed them to get signed to Warp Records. [1] On January 13th, 2024, Sean posted downloads for tape transfers of both Autechre [2] and Saw You. [3]

Tracks

Autechre

• The track name came from typing "Au" (due to a 'au' type sample appearing in the track) and then keysmashing the rest until the Atari's 8 character limit was hit. The band themselves liked the name so much they later adopted it as their new pseudonym. [4][5]
• The file "LegoFour#01_Autechre.NORM.wav" tagged the track with the date 1989.

Saw You

• When asked about it in 2022, Sean mentioned that in the Sweatbox 1991 recording, "Saw You" was the house/techno track with long keys and an a TX81Z saxophone sound. [6] The TX81Z sound was an edited [7]
• The file "LegoFour#14_SawYou.NORM.wav" tagged the track with the date 1990.

Tracklist

#	Title	Length
1	Autechre	5:22
2	Saw You	6:11
Total		11:33

(note: times are taken from files shared by Sean, which likely mismatches by a few seconds with the distributed cassettes)

Trivia

• The Discogs listing created by user awkwardsilence, including the images, was confirmed to be real in the July Twitch AMA [8] however the original poster out of respect stated they aren't copying the tracks.
• Both tracks were made in Daz Fitton’s studio above Dr Rock around 1989-1990 and recorded straight to cassette. [9][10]
• The labels on the cassette was made by Sean with ink splatters.
• A early copy spread around Soulseek and later uploaded on YouTube by hsfq, is fake - consisting of the tracks "Many" and "The Brink" from Freeform's Free EP (SKAM, 1995). [11]