XI year old Autechre Album Released: Exai (WARP234)

[jules]

all the pieces are starting to fall together now. i couldnt stop myself from skipping around before because it is so massive and huge and i was so excited. but now i am listening more to big chunks together. loving deco loc now too.

Edited February 14, 2013 by jules

[exm]

starting to really feel this amazing album! Cannot point one single track that i really don't like. Great start of 2013!!!

[acroyear]

I don't know how I'd be feeling right now without Exai. I'm going through some rough shit in my life, which normally turns me to some B.O.C, or some roots Reggae, or if it's Autechre I'd listen to Amber, or something more sentimental really... But THIS album. This fucking EPIC beast of an album.. It's got me fucking happy. I don't know what to say. I'm thankful for it, and so glad it's playing on my stereo

 

This may end up to be my most favorite Autechre album of all time. And I've been listening to them since I was young, when they were just starting up some 20 years ago. I'm loving Exai.

[syd syside]

starting to really feel this amazing album! Cannot point one single track that i really don't like. Great start of 2013!!!

[joseph]

This album could take third for me (behind chi and draft). Like other people the pieces are finally snapping into place -- first it was little parts of tracks that I liked, then whole tracks, and now I'm starting to get a glimpse of the bigger picture.

 

I'm astonished, mindfucked, that they can be making music this compelling and deep after two decades at it.

 

Fleure is their best opener since xylin room (at least).

Edited February 14, 2013 by Joseph

[awepittance]

I really cannot understand the 'meh' sentiment many of you have towards deco Loc. This one reallly gets me, its a current favorite.

 

Its nice to have a more digestible 5.5m track amidst longer tracks. The gated vocals seem to slow down time, and make my brain dance along at half-time when everything is in motion at the middle of the track. Then the latter half is face-melting, sub-deep, and psychadelic. All in all, the track reminds me of a much more interesting Perlence Losid 2

 

 

 

in fact, god DAMN the 3 tracks deco Loc > recks on > YJY UX take the cake for me, strongest string on the album

 

i'm still trying to get into the outro to disc 2, or even disc 1 for that matter. I think both discs start very strong, some of their strongest work and then end sort of with a whimper. I'm still really into the opening 3 tracks to the whole album, i think they are amazing, having trouble getting into most of the tracks with the sampled break beat hits still. I like the compositions on them but not so much the sounds.

[baph]

I'm holding off on giving this a second full listen because:

(a) I guess I like getting my nuts stepped on, and

(b) I really don't want to thrash it until I have the CD playing in my car at full blast whilst prim and proper Korean girls in white Lexuses and exhausted Mexican laborers in little Toyota pickups with bumper stickers for stations that play corridos all day every day stare at me with disgust as I drive around K-town on my way to work; because that situational incoherence is how I learn to digest my autechre

Edited February 14, 2013 by baph

[jules]

im struggling with the beginning of fleure. the end is great.

 

bladelores is just a beast of a track.

 

 

i think this album is just what i asked for. some untilted. some garbage. all dark. and beats.

 

i could not be happier.

[syd syside]

I'm holding off on giving this a second full listen because:

(a) I guess I like getting my nuts stepped on, and

(b) I really don't want to thrash it until I have the CD playing in my car at full blast whilst prim and proper Korean girls in white Lexuses and exhausted Mexican laborers in little Toyota pickups with bumper stickers for stations that play corridos all day every day stare at me with disgust as I drive around K-town on my way to work; because that situational incoherence is how I learn to digest my autechre

lol

[xox]

I only regret for YJY UX not having better ending; the last minute is very weak (compared to the rest) and that affects the whole album.

The reason Untitled has the best ending IMO is cause Sublimit itself has the best ending ever; the last 4-5 min + the melody at the end. That's the only thing i find fault with Exai so far.

[beerwolf]

Starting to wrap my head round this. Sounds absolutely mint.

 

Thing is with Autechre I don't think this is a fluke, they are so fucking good it's scary.

 

I will be sure to see them live this time round.

[Guest disoriental express]

I only regret for YJY UX not having better ending; the last minute is very weak (compared to the rest) and that affects the whole album.

The reason Untitled has the best ending IMO is cause Sublimit itself has the best ending ever; the last 4-5 min + the melody at the end. That's the only thing i find fault with Exai so far.

i love the ending of YJY UX! that last little blip at the end always gets me. It's like they consciously decided to make it end with a smirk and wink.

 

i consider kiosk to be the actual ending though... a very nice afterglow/cooling off song.

Edited February 14, 2013 by disoriental express

[thehauntingsoul]

Flep is really doing my head in now. The crazy flanged-to-fuck reverby stuff that keeps popping up in between the beats is just so creepy and airy.

[vertsk8er419]

^my thoughts exactly. flep just might be the densest track on this album, and in my top 3...

 

sonically, it's in a class of it's own; would love to hear more in this style from them, it's almost too funky for it's own good.

 

*doesn't get the flep hate*

Edited February 14, 2013 by impotentwhitecapitalist

[kirm]

just listened to Exai all the way through while writing up some training notes from work, Excellent music to do work to, it made a boring 2 hour job quite enjoyable!

Edited February 14, 2013 by kirm

[xox]

 

I only regret for YJY UX not having better ending; the last minute is very weak (compared to the rest) and that affects the whole album.

The reason Untitled has the best ending IMO is cause Sublimit itself has the best ending ever; the last 4-5 min + the melody at the end. That's the only thing i find fault with Exai so far.

i love the ending of YJY UX! that last little blip at the end always gets me. It's like they consciously decided to make it end with a smirk and wink.

 

i consider kiosk to be the actual ending though... a very nice afterglow/cooling off song.

 

YJY UX I see as exotic/mysterious nocturne but at the same time very uplifting tune cause it opens spiritual paths in my mind and i like that state of being more than any other. The ending of Sublimit is letting me to stay in that state...a very nice aftertaste.

F# with the winks in the wrong place! The very ending is the most important moment of any album.

Yes, of course that the winky ending could be intentional but what good it brings? For me the end could easily be better if they wasn't inert at least with its melodic nature like they was. Easily?! How? If the last min or the very end took sudden turn into something even more uplifting or into a lowest melodic common denominator - something like the background melody at 3:11... and all that while in fade out, or without it...and we can smirk and wink afterwards all day.

Yes, i know! It's their music and they can do with it what ever they want but if we're talking about it let me be weird for a moment. I have rights too and one of my rights is to be a weirdo.

IMO, to be able to compose such melodies one has to be able 'see' hidden world...and that's the rarest thing.

What do i mean by 'hidden world'? Not the easiest term to explain for a non-native English speaker but the easiest for me is to compare it to the world of Schopenhauer's ideas or even Junglian God's world. I hear in their music they're able to 'see' it and that is the main and the most important capacity that differentiate Autechre from others artists IMO. So with the wink after such a precious divine moment that the track invokes i see it as they ridiculing themselves with it and all this in the intend to be cool or macho...cause they're afraid of cheesiness or something? WTF? Are they teenagers?!

F# coitus reservatus!

[awepittance]

after a few more listens i'm realizing how much the flanger effect plays a role. Seems to be one of the most prominent features of the whole work, crazy automated flangers of all different styles.

[AJW]

 

 

I only regret for YJY UX not having better ending; the last minute is very weak (compared to the rest) and that affects the whole album.

The reason Untitled has the best ending IMO is cause Sublimit itself has the best ending ever; the last 4-5 min + the melody at the end. That's the only thing i find fault with Exai so far.

i love the ending of YJY UX! that last little blip at the end always gets me. It's like they consciously decided to make it end with a smirk and wink.

 

i consider kiosk to be the actual ending though... a very nice afterglow/cooling off song.

 

YJY UX I see as exotic/mysterious nocturne but at the same time very uplifting tune cause it opens spiritual paths in my mind and i like that state of being more than any other. The ending of Sublimit is letting me to stay in that state...a very nice aftertaste.

F# with the winks in the wrong place! The very ending is the most important moment of any album.

Yes, of course that the winky ending could be intentional but what good it brings? For me the end could easily be better if they wasn't inert at least with its melodic nature like they was. Easily?! How? If the last min or the very end took sudden turn into something even more uplifting or into a lowest melodic common denominator - something like the background melody at 3:11... and all that while in fade out, or without it...and we can smirk and wink afterwards all day.

Yes, i know! It's their music and they can do with it what ever they want but if we're talking about it let me be weird for a moment. I have rights too and one of my rights is to be a weirdo.

IMO, to be able to compose such melodies one has to be able 'see' hidden world...and that's the rarest thing.

What do i mean by 'hidden world'? Not the easiest term to explain for a non-native English speaker but the easiest for me is to compare it to the world of Schopenhauer's ideas or even Junglian God's world. I hear in their music they're able to 'see' it and that is the main and the most important capacity that differentiate Autechre from others artists IMO. So with the wink after such a precious divine moment that the track invokes i see it as they ridiculing themselves with it and all this in the intend to be cool or macho...cause they're afraid of cheesiness or something? WTF? Are they teenagers?!

F# coitus reservatus!

 

i like you xox

[encey]

I agree about Fleure's awesomeness, the first three tracks (the first six for me) being kickass, the prominence of short delays and flange effects, and the kind of whimperish ending. And lol @ baph.

[AJW]

standouts from CD1 have been Fleure, irlite, Flep and bladelores

 

could be a combination of flu but Fleure is giving me a lovely physical buzzing sensation just behind my temples, like there's a cat inside my head gently tickling my temples from the inside with its paws

[markedone]

i consider kiosk to be the actual ending though... a very nice afterglow/cooling off song.

Yes, while YJY UX is a fantastic final climax to exai proper, (keyosc) as a comedown closer really makes the album feel complete for me

[thehauntingsoul]

I caught myself humming the melody from nodezsh and it was in that moment I realized how amazing it really is. If that track hasn't clicked with you yet, give it another listen and focus entirely on the melodies in the first half before it morphs into sheer terror. Lots of half-octave jumps and fun stuff like that. (Check around 2:22 for the exact melody I'm talking about)

[syd syside]

Gave Disc 2 a listen in car today....

 

[awepittance]

this sounds phenomenal on studio monitors, i feel sort of idiotic for listening on headphones and in my car first. All my issues with the sound of those sampled drums vanished. I'm able to hear so many more details happening this time around, especially in Fleure, strange mid-bass bendy/tape stop style sounds that i totally didn't notice before. It doesn't any longer sound like a processed mixdown during that opening loop, i can hear better the different effects on each layer. Some nice high pitched FM tones are more noticeable this time around.

I'm taking a new approach to Recks On, before 4 minutes in i still can't stand those mid 90s scorn style beats, and when that 808 hat kicks in, eek, but other than that i think it's a really great track. The sort of convulted dark melodic aspect from draft/confield with the beefiness of clean drum sounds of Untilted.

YJYUX is a perfectly fine song, I think what bothered me about is i just don't like the melody very much, it sounds like a repeat of an older autechre song that didn't grab me in the first place. IT has great stereo delay effects work going on, very psychedelic.

I'm a Deco Loc fan now

Edited February 15, 2013 by Awepittance

[auxien]

 

Gave Disc 2 a listen in car today....

 

 

lol

Edited February 15, 2013 by auxien