XI year old Autechre Album Released: Exai (WARP234)

[Soloman Tump]

vekoS is amazing at -6% pitch. Vinyl is getting a thorough roadtesting right now!

[futureimage]

First impression: Interesting album, like LP5 mashed up with Oversteps and Quaristice. Not the strongest, not the worst. The first half had me completely entranced, but after 1 1 is, it lost my attention almost entirely up until recks on.

 

Highlights: Jatevee C, bladelores, 1 1 is, recks on. Jatevee C might be one of my favourite Ae tracks yet.

Pretty much exactly how I feel...

 

First impression: Interesting album, like LP5 mashed up with Oversteps and Quaristice. Not the strongest, not the worst. The first half had me completely entranced, but after 1 1 is, it lost my attention almost entirely up until recks on.

 

Highlights: Jatevee C, bladelores, 1 1 is, recks on. Jatevee C might be one of my favourite Ae tracks yet.

Pretty much exactly how I feel...

[Soloman Tump]

ps whoever it was a few pages back that said they thought bladelores sounded quiet, you must have a duff copy as mine is currently rocking the shit out of my soundsystem....

[modey]

I havent received my vinyl copy yet and I pre ordered... should i be worried?

I got mine on thursday and I think pigster's arrived on tuesday, so I'd give it another couple of days.

 

I went record shopping lastnight and saw Exai everywhere. Multiple vinyl copies!

[Vilwx]

I also hate the drum sounds in Flep -- I don't know if it's the sound themselves or the way they're programmed to stutter like they do, but it just sounds like an old FL stock sample? No, that's not the right way to put it -- but it just sounds kind of old-school IDM cliche to me. I feel like an asshole saying that, but it makes me want to skip the track as soon as it starts with that big stutter!

Kinda sounds like this doesn't it?

[media]

[/meda]

 

But I really dug the groove of this one. It immediately got my up out of my chair and shuffling and bobbing around the room on my first listen.

[beariksson]

nodezsh

good track

[ketteltian]

I now like vekoS a bit more than what I did before, yet two things continue to bother me:

 

1) the drum sounds

2) the whispering, which sounds like a bad cliche taken from a z-horror movie. It's absolutely awful and kitsch in the negative sense of the word. I pretty much think that this whispering sample is Ae first contact with bad taste. Apalling.

It's only saying "Veko S...yeah" which probably has something to do with the title :)

[awepittance]

i was going to say it sounds like the vocal synth on the monomachine, not an actual sample of someone whispering. I think they also used the same synth sound on IO

[modey]

yeah, it's definitely a vocal synth!

[Ivan Ooze]

fucking love runrepik right now, like being shot through space

[awepittance]

yeah, it's definitely a vocal synth!

 

i'm happy to see AE are still on the monomachine tip. I feel like they're also using some of the monomachine drum set somewhere on Exai but i forget where. Last time they did was on Bnc castl, that track sounds like 100% monomachine to me. It might have been the quickest AE track ever produced by the sound of it.

[modey]

 

fucking love runrepik right now, like being shot through space

Yes! It's total ae footwork and I'm ok with that.

[jules]

that and spl9 are my current favorites. funny how the slow ones were my imitial favs (java, 1 1, blade,etc) and I didn't care for these tracks much at all.

[Guest pixelives]

Also those Vekos drums could also be Monomachine but processed externally. They have that crunchy MnM quality and also the time sound at a time thing going on.

[xox]

Again, again and again...i can't get over it! I really REALLY hate the last 1:30 minute of YjY UX! With this track they've managed to achieve the highest level of abstraction and the rarest moment in all of arts IMO.

Everything builds up nicely until a complete hidden universe reveals its self in its fullest extend at 4:42 and continues to stay visible over the next minute of so and after that everything falls apart...that harsh sound is back (which i like until that moment) totally out of the place and nothing of that sweet feeling from 4:42 is left. The track should have finished with its head above the clouds! ...Fade it out while is still at the genius level like you did with Sublimit! But no, let's fakitup ...just cause we can!

I wouldn't bother me much if I don't like the track very VERY much.

This is the first time I'm really disappointed with Ae's decision.

[vamos scorcho]

i love the whole track. i truly don't understand why the last minute or twoa re a problem? it's one of their greatest tracks, ever. but i said negative things about Known(1) and can see why someone would feel differently!

 

 

overally this album is just... blowing my mind. i'm in love. truly. it's a masterpiece.

 

I think it is their most loving album, deep, beautiful even. it's very emotional, in a strange sense. where it is like madness, obscurity, but a heart that is very good is in it. despite the evil. i've never felt authechre like this and I am really just... happy to be feeling this album which is a monster in terms of musicality but most importantly is perhaps their most... loving and devout... release yet!

 

strangely enough it makes me want to relisten to King of Limbs which may not add up. i caren ot!

Edited March 10, 2013 by vamos scorcho

[Guest]

guys it occured to me that bladelores is a misnomer...

 

imagine....

 

 

if... bladelores would be called

 

 

 

 

Flep

 

 

[Ivan Ooze]

holy shit spl9 is like a black hole prolapsing, i'm sure people will puke their brain out if they play it on tour

[SR4]

i havent listened to it all the way through yet...still waiting for my vinyl to arrive in zeh mail...maybe ill spin the mp3s today with nice headphones and play a game

[Guest net]

Again, again and again...i can't get over it! I really REALLY hate the last 1:30 minute of YjY UX! With this track they've managed to achieve the highest level of abstraction and the rarest moment in all of arts IMO.

Everything builds up nicely until a complete hidden universe reveals its self in its fullest extend at 4:42 and continues to stay visible over the next minute of so and after that everything falls apart...that harsh sound is back (which i like until that moment) totally out of the place and nothing of that sweet feeling from 4:42 is left. The track should have finished with its head above the clouds! ...Fade it out while is still at the genius level like you did with Sublimit! But no, let's fakitup ...just cause we can!

I wouldn't bother me much if I don't like the track very VERY much.

This is the first time I'm really disappointed with Ae's decision.

 

My problem with YJY UX is that, while it's lovely how it recalls the LP5 style (restless, jerky backing harmonies and somewhat squelchy rhythms; Corc and Vose In respectively) it has none of the elegance whatsoever, or even any space. The whole of Exai is squashed and sidechained, and I think this style of loudness now the standard in electronic music production has a specific aesthetic potential (arguably Flying Lotus and all that kind of stuff, although that Brainfeeder beatmaking or whatever it's called rarely does anything for me; some of Clark's moments are pretty fun although some are also shockingly ugly) - but most of the time it just sounds like garbage to me. Confrontational and, depending on the style of music, often seeped in a kind of provocative crudeness, which is tiresome. I can understand chart music having to retain a market-competitive volume, even if I find it ideologically repugnant. In terms of the climate of Autechre's music, it obviously felt like an aesthetic decision on their part; they've produced very clean and clear music in the past, and now they're apparently investigating something more muscular and cramped in the spectrum. There were signs of it in Move of Ten, Oversteps and earlier still.

 

1 1 is I feel is the most successful track on Exai in terms of the compression; it's also one of my favourites for that unelievable groove. And nodezsh is among their greatest tracksever imo; the trio of bladelores, 1 1 is and nodezsh is bloody superb. There's no doubt that they've still got it! I also enjoy the rest of the album, besides tuinorizn (great handclaps, but it just feels very weak overall to me) and a couple of others I could more happily take or leave (deco Loc, Fleure, that nasty bitcrush sound in YJY UX). It's just that my current lasting impression of this album is that had it been mastered more quietly and not sidechained, it wouldn't have lost a great deal, and may have gained some handsomeness. It'd be less punchy and a lot of the tracks are deliberately riding on being punchy, so I suppose all I'm really revealing here is that the squashed and cramped sound of this style of mastering just pisses me off something silly. I'll get used to it but I'll probably never find Exai as rewarding a listen as most of the other stuff. There're no lush or gentle parts for me, just this uniform roughness. Anyway, forgive the incoherent rant. Top album, no matter the louder style.

Edited March 10, 2013 by net

[Hugh Mughnus]

Your rant was coherent, don't worry.

[thehauntingsoul]

Jatevee C sounds like a hot shower. I play it in my head every time I get in the shower. I wish my bathroom had a speaker that would automatically start playing Jatevee C every time I got into the shower.

[encey]

Listened to Fleure real loud and with some enhancement, and it is easily my favorite track on the album. So many cool effects and amazingly detailed beats, sort of rolls together my favorite aspects of LP5 (very computerized-sounding), Draft (metallic awesomeness) and Untilted (superspeed beats), with the wet, echoey atmosphere of Oversteps.

[SR4]

alright, so Im really intently listening with some nice headphones....keep in mind this is all my opinion, first experiences pretty much, and Im not a GIGANTIC AE fan like some of you, so don't flip the fuck out if you disagree.

 

 

Fleure-

 

Really let down by this...sort of a crap intro honestly..reminds me a lot of Untilted which tbh is one of my least fave AE albums..though the last minute or so is amazing....."yes...this is the autechre Im expecting"...spooky and theatrical. Compared to r ess off Oversteps this intro is really underwhelming....for a 2cd opus you'd expect there to be a bit more "oomph" in the first track the listener hears.

 

Irlite(get 0)-

 

surprisingly accessible industrial/hip-hop beat, 1:30 synth is amazing...sounds like disjointed piano playing atop strings that are melting due to heat exposure or something. yup, this track is classic already. i can't say im a huge fan of when those "piano" stabs are whatever become overly distorted and sharp further in, but maybe I'll warm up to them. transition into spacey music at 4min is much much welcome. The midsection reminds me a lot of ICBYD's "Next Heap With", but I have no idea why...very Amon Tobin'ish low bass....beat comes back in (5:43 or so)!!! This is yummy and epic. Sounds like harpsichord/horn stabs over a pretty housey bass progression, and I really like it. Overall this is one of Autechre's best (maybe?) It's incredibly accessible as far as most mid to late era AE goes

 

prac-f -

 

Sounds a LOT like an LP5 groove in the beginning, and the pads/atmosphere are eerily reminiscent of Chiastic Slide and moments of EP7. I have a feeling this is going to be one of my overall favorites simply due to its minimalism, doesn't sound as chaotic as the earlier two tracks. Very menacing...some sort of delayed/flanged chorus in the background ooooh, reminds me of the sounds of the eels from The Princess Bride (please tell me someone else gets that reference) now around 2:10 jangly metallic noises come into the forefront overriding the earlier beat. The stuttering hi hats are very interesting, the entire atmosphere depicts a humanoid android or something shuffling along a factory floor while rusted bits of it fall away from the whole. Yeah, definitely my favorite track thus far.

 

jatavee-C-

 

I was lucky enough to hear this very very early around the time of the leak, and I still love it...VERY housey pads in the beginning...everytime the beginning of this track plays I gear up for a possible ambient/rave epic...then the hiphop beat comes in completely unexpected but certainly welcomed. Again, pleasantly surprised at how AE seems to be bridging the gap between accessibility and the more chaotic, randomized and dare I say "non-Euclidian" melodies and rhythmic geometry of some of the few earlier albums. The last minute and a half of this is absolutely sublime...loud penetrating bass and the crunch crackle of the machinery mechanics with those housey pads washing in and out. Not too much more to say about this one, very enjoyable. Another favorite.

 

PS. does anyone else want to hear an Autechre footwork/juke track after jamming to this?

 

T ess xi-

 

Sounds out sounding rather playful...perhaps its because of the bubbly percussion? Again, very surprised at how straightforward and relatively unmanipulated those housey chords are..reminds me of that one track off of Squarepusher's Numbers Lucent EP....beat kicks in WOW!!!!! First time in this album Im legitimately headbobbing to the beat...this is excellent. This is such an interesting blend of genres/styles and once again, accessibility with a lot of strange rhythmic experimentation...there seems to be this odd chalky sounding string put through a 1/4 step gate or something...you'd think it would be jarring but its oddly welcome within the rest of the song's parameters. The only complaint i have (and this is very minor) is how much better this would sound with a heavy thick sub bass wobbling underneath it. I do like how it progressively gets more intense and off-kilter towards the 3:30 mark..and there seems to be more bass bubbling/farting underneath which I really like...interesting and gorgeous decaying harpischord melody around the 4 min mark. The ending reverting back to the bubbly percussion is a great way to end it. Another favorite thus far on the album.

 

vekoS-

 

Sounds like a video game fiending for more crack cocaine or something....This is an incredibly dense atmosphere here...I'm not even sure I'm fast enough to process all the layers as they play out. Theres a very disturbing sound thats like a cross between a child wailing and the sound of wind rushing through a crack in an industrial building. Damn this might be yet another favorite. I like the rattling buffer-override percussion that seems to be speaking some sort of angry language..mechanical phonetics. This is like an automated warning or alarm for some sort of alien civilization's R&D department. Although there are certainly a lot of changes going on, it's not as grabbing or immediate as most of the aforementioned tracks...and Im not sure whether that's good or bad. Definitely the darkest track so far....possibly my favorite of all?

 

Flep-

 

Very interesting sounds going on here...like a monk doing some throat-percussion then cut up and bastardized/randomized by the AE crew? whoa the pad rhythms around 1:40 are insanely catchy. I might consider this one of the weaker tracks (though that's not really a bad thing persay), it remains fairly static....this would be better enjoyed in the background rather then subsuming my headspace demanding direct attention...a decent headnodder. Would be good for deskwork I'd imagine.

 

PS-Is it just me or was there a Funky Clavichord melody towards the end? Sounded exactly like a Stevie Wonder lick if it was shat out by some industrial caulking contraption.

 

 

tuinorizn-

 

some sort of deep flangey trumpet thing followed by a VERY interesting monosynth I think? This is very interesting....echoes of AFX's "Equation" or Analogue Bubblebath around here...even with oldskool claps rounding out the main beat! This is short but very sweet. One of the most "creative" tracks I think I've heard thus far. Some of the melodies are absolutely amazing and constantly morphing....to me this sounds like if FSOL-Dead Cities-era was a collaboration with the AE boys. Considering FSOL is probably my all-time favorite electronic group, this is fantastic.

 

 

and now we come to the epic everyone has been speaking of...I have not heard this one yet

 

bladelores-

 

Basic hiphop beat, lots of foggy echo...Im expecting some sort of melodic "monster" as it were to protrude from this haze...and the bass synth sounds fairly close to that. Ok, now the real downbeat has kicked in...this reminds me a LOT of Deus Ex for some reason...futuristic hacker soundtrack going on here.

 

around 2 min or so I almost barely hear a beautiful cascade of what sounds like choral voices/????? I wish it was just a bit louder because it sounds phenomenally gorgeous. ok..sounds like they are getting louder.....this track is rhythmically every basic compared to the earlier tracks but this is very transcendental. Its like the choral passages from Skyrim mixed with Silent Hill 2's percussion and hints of Oversteps arps. So far this is everything its hyped up to be....definitely my favorite thus far in the album...I just really, really wish those choral pads were a little clearer in the overall mix....I could probably just listen to them by themselves for 30 minutes. ooh 5min mark FINALLY just the pads!! Yes. This is very very Michael Stearns-ish now that I hear it clearly.....and once again Im dragged away back into the hazey echo beat....nice tease lads!

 

Amazing track BUT, Im somewhat let down by the last 5 minutes of it....the pads become less defined and just amorphously overwhelming...sounds like a TON of brickwall compression and while it certainly creates a unique atmosphere it really pales in comparison to the choral sounds in the first half....this could have definitely been edited into a much more cohesive 8 minute version....I mean, I like the long extended ambient wash at the end, but its nothing terribly unique or exciting, and would be rather easy to make in fruity loops by layering a ton of pads and on top of that throwing tons of compression over the master effects track. Still, the first 6 minutes of this are up there in my top AE moments ever.

 

Overall Id say thus far these are the tracks that made the biggest impression on me (not necessarily my favorites, but some of the most notable parts on first listen):

 

Prac-f

Tess XI

vekoS

tuinorizn

bladelores (or the first 6-7 minutes of it at least)

 

hope people read this and enjoy it, I dunno, I spent an hour writing stream of consciousness.

 

But my overall impression of the first half, EXAI thus far: pretty damn good album.....I think I still like Oversteps better simply because it caters to my more ambient sensibilities, but one thing I definitely give credit to this album is that it seems to be the perfect hybridity of all of AE's past 7-8 albums. Im hearing echoes of all the great AE moments from Tri Repetae onward....to me this is like an AE greatest hits album then recut and fucked with/remixed and reprocessed a few hundred times to make a completely new AND old amalgamation.

[goDel]

alright, so Im really intently listening with some nice headphones....keep in mind this is all my opinion, first experiences pretty much, and Im not a GIGANTIC AE fan like some of you, so don't flip the fuck out if you disagree.

 

 

Fleure-

 

Really let down by this...sort of a crap intro honestly..

 

Euh, nice effort, but I stopped reading after this. WTF O_o