Booth and Brown met through a mutual friend, trading junked-up pause-button mixtapes of their favorite singles back and forth. Happening onto some bargain-basement analog gear through questionable circumstances, the pair began experimenting with their own music before they were out of high school. After some disastrous experiences with a few small labels, the pair sent a tape off to Warp Records, whose early releases by Sweet Exorcist, Nightmares on Wax, and B12 were announcing a new age in U.K.-based techno (and one that Autechre would become a key component in). Releasing a handful of early singles through the label, Autechre's first stabs were collected on their debut full-length, Incunabula, as well as the ten-inch box-set remix EP Basscadet. Subsequent albums would reach a wider audience through stateside reissue (on Wax Trax!/TVT). Although stylistically rooted, affectations for the ponderous extend beyond their name and track titles ("C/Pach," "Bronchusevenmx24") with the basic premise of their approach being music without a whole lot of stylistic baggage.

In addition to Autechre, Booth and Brown have released material as Gescom on their own Skam imprint and through the Clear label, most notably the Sounds of Machines Our Parents Used EP on the latter. The group have also provided a number of memorable remixes (often times more memorable than their original material) for trip-hoppers Palmskin Productions and Slowly, as well as Mick Harris's ambient dub project Scorn.