XI year old Autechre Album Released: Exai (WARP234)

i have only minor complaints with the album, the composition is very elaborate in parts and i appreciate that. The sound design on the other hand isn't that mind blowing with the exception of like 4-5 tracks. I don't really like that really bulky saw tooth stacked bass/lead sound they use on a lot of these tracks. Also some of the glitchery sounds kinda too obvious or something. A lot of tweaked simple delay effects. It doesn't detract from the album too much, im sure on 2nd listen i won't have as much of a critical ear for the sound textures. The opening track got my hopes up very high because of how much insane textural stuff is rapid firing into your ears, that breakdown too is like a mini fm synth electro acoustic composition, pretty awesome

This one goes all the way.... trickles light from its talons at the end of the day....

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Don't get the runrepik hate. Love it!

This album feels huge! You think you have a grasp on a track when suddenly a more foregrounded sound comes in making you realize that it is a wider canvas. You were just staring at a specific point in the distance the whole time. For this reason the compositions feel cryptically self-aware to me.

prac-f: holy hell, this is some excellent sound design and mixing. made me smile.

jatevee C: phenomenal deconstructed hip hop vibe.

T ess xi: it's quite jarring to hear such an overtly pretty melody coming from autechre these days. Lovely. The latter third of this track sounds dripping wet.
vekoS: literally sounds like an animal is trapped inside some constantly shifting cage.
tuinorizn: reminds me of a heavier oversteps. it creates a nice feeling of negative space between the individual elements.

bladelores: immense. at 5 minutes in, for a brief moment, the rising pad sounds like classical music in space right until the beat slips back in. it conjures total science fiction imagery for me. side one ends with beautiful long-ass reverb decay.

break time.

There has been a continuity since Quaristice and the thread runs right through this album still. There are a few tracks on here that sound alien but only because they are less abstract, not more so. t really really like it though, the thing it has in common with Draft and Confield is the track structure I think, they feel more like journeys or something. Some tracks sound like a mix of 90's stuff with more recent stuff. Hell of a lot to isten to. Bladelores was the initial stand out for me for some reason. Look forward to listening again. /2cents

besides the structure i'd say the commonality with Draft and Gantz Graf (less so Confield) is that this thing is fucking dense. A lot of murky and buried layers in here covered in massive sounds. It shares some similarities to Untilted but that was a lot more skeletal

don't forget guys, keyosc is specifically for us

KEYOSC

really i would not be surprised if watmm directly got this album released today

I mean fuck guys....lets give ourselves a round of applause for generating this massive stinking cloud of non-commercial, pure fanboy exaitment for this album

We won the game.

jatevee C holy shiiiiiii BANGER

Salvatorin I am really enjoying your insights into the sound of this album. I am not really in a position to listen to Exai in the way that I feel would be best for a while so I am going tohave to avoid it for now and wait for my Japanese CD to arrive in the mail.

  On 2/8/2013 at 2:32 AM, whylessness said:

jatevee C holy shiiiiiii BANGER

thats one of my fav off the whole album

Fuck that, you guys were totally impatient and it was an embarrassment to be associated with such frenetic fanboyism.

  On 2/8/2013 at 2:32 AM, Goiter Sanchez said:

Salvatorin I am really enjoying your insights into the sound of this album. I am not really in a position to listen to Exai in the way that I feel would be best for a while so I am going tohave to avoid it for now and wait for my Japanese CD to arrive in the mail.

thank you! I'm going to listen in full again and write a comprehensive review.

I

  On 2/8/2013 at 2:34 AM, Salvatorin said:

 

  On 2/8/2013 at 2:32 AM, Goiter Sanchez said:

Salvatorin I am really enjoying your insights into the sound of this album. I am not really in a position to listen to Exai in the way that I feel would be best for a while so I am going tohave to avoid it for now and wait for my Japanese CD to arrive in the mail.

thank you! I'm going to listen in full again and write a comprehensive review.

I'm really looking forward to the reviews on this, and more so an interview.

  On 2/8/2013 at 1:38 AM, modey said:

Holy cryballs YJY UX is the best album closer since Drane2 imo

that's what I thought too

aint no album closer unless its got a WATMM title in it niggas.

Question... Does this mean the physical copies will also be on their way early? Or do we still wait until March?

And was there a leak that prompted this?

best work since granz graf in my opinion. i'm delighted.

  On 2/8/2013 at 2:54 AM, StephenG said:

Question... Does this mean the physical copies will also be on their way early? Or do we still wait until March?

 

And was there a leak that prompted this?

The working theory is that the Japanese iTunes dropped it early, although it's unknown if that was an accident or planned. The physical copy will still ship in March I'm sure because they can't just speed up the production lines.

  On 2/8/2013 at 2:54 AM, StephenG said:

Question... Does this mean the physical copies will also be on their way early? Or do we still wait until March?

 

And was there a leak that prompted this?

physical copies (at least for customers in the UK) generally end up having their copy posted out to them so that it arrives with them either on release day, or on some occasions a few days before.

and nope, there wasn't a leak.

edit: ahh yeah I forgot about the whole japanese thing

  On 2/8/2013 at 2:55 AM, thehauntingsoul said:

 

  On 2/8/2013 at 2:54 AM, StephenG said:

Question... Does this mean the physical copies will also be on their way early? Or do we still wait until March?

 

And was there a leak that prompted this?

 

The working theory is that the Japanese iTunes dropped it early, although it's unknown if that was an accident or planned. The physical copy will still ship in March I'm sure because they can't just speed up the production lines.

Interesting! Makes sense RE the physical.

I wonder if warp's legal team is all over this biotch? (if it was an accidental release anyways...)

the potential live set of this type of material is incomprehensible

The ambient-ish ending of Bladelores is sublime

  On 2/8/2013 at 2:57 AM, jules said:

the potential live set of this type of material is incomprehensible

I was thinking the same thing earlier. This is a MASSIVE effort. And on top of that they potentially have another HOUR of newish material for a live gig. Fuck.