XI year old Autechre Album Released: Exai (WARP234)

I had my first exai dream last night: that i got a mail from bleep apologizing for a corrupted FLAC file they sent out. Pretty boring dream yeah.

6852 and ts1a would fit snugly inside this album, especially 6852. do i remember reading that it was a solo rob track or was that bullshit?

Yeah it is not the quaristice variety hour (x2) I thought it might be. Definitely a progression from livesets+MOT funk trax (ethegon/rew1) put thru an IDM 2013 (or 2001?) grinder.

yep disc 1 feels real homogeneous except for prac-1 being hella swingy and first few minutes of blaaaadelores changing the pace/mood. disc 2 I have saved for tonight.

I reckon it is obviously great. Very dense. So many great ideas and sounds. Seems like maybe it is composed for live shows, but then filtered/effected/layered/obsessed over while still maintaining the ass-kicking vibe (mainly in bassdrum/snare/bassline interplay) rather than de-constructing to the nth degree. It isn't sparse/sterile/clinical, and there are some nice warm textures. It's all up in yr face.

The one (only) thing I did not dig was the sudden volume drops near the end of bladelores where the synth-wash layer on the entire L or R channels are dipped quite dramatically (the broken headphones effect). harsh effect dudes.

broken mp3/spectral intro w/ dat snare

the FX modulations in the background of flep

bladelores funky bassline triplets

1000 other things

aside from spl9, disc 2 sounds move of ten-the-fucked-OUT, sound quality-wise.

no idea what gear they're using, but it sounds CRISP

  On 2/9/2013 at 6:08 AM, barbara planar said:

aside from spl9, disc 2 sounds move of ten-the-fucked-OUT, sound quality-wise.

 

no idea what gear they're using, but it sounds CRISP

i'm guessing lots of software, but i dunno...

samples treated in jasuto sequenced entirely in sunvox tracker on an ipod touch

The people who said this album didn't have it's own feel/sound/world are wrong. There is a definite feel shared by all the tracks.

I remember pixelives said each track was like in its own world, incorrect.

  On 2/9/2013 at 3:05 AM, auxien said:

 

  On 2/9/2013 at 2:51 AM, Root5 said:

Listened for the first time at work today. First impression: "that's a lot of nasty FM, and agressing HPing".

 

Second impression: "God damn this album is funky!"

 

I don't know if this has been mentioned yet, as I haven't read the whole thread, but has anyone else thought that this sounds more like Gescom than Autechre?

 

agreed with all of that. i mentioned the Gescom feel in Flep in particular. i'd have excused the existence of nodezsh and runrepik if they were on a Gescom album. ;)

Are you saying that you don't like these tracks, or just that they sound too Gescomy to be on an Autechre album? I say this because nodezsh has been the standout track for me so far, and makes a lot of sense to me as an Autechre track. It walks the perfect line between Oversteps and Move of Ten.

underwhelming

Quaristice is much more of a headphones record than Exai... which is much better on speakers. The bass is essential and the higher frequencies are painful in headphones actually.. i'm sad about that.

these opinions formed on akg k240s

I've only listened to Exai on headphones. Sounds great to me.

yeah. first listen was headphones and it sounded amazing.

second listen was on speakers nice and loud. and it was even more amazing.

it's a speaker album for me, too.

the stereo imaging is amazing, especially in 1 1 is... need headphones to really appreciate that.

  On 2/9/2013 at 3:21 AM, pigster said:

it's such an evocative, visual album. psychedelic is an accurate description.i can almost imagine it having 70's style prog art as opposed to some black and grey squares.

  Reveal hidden contents

eg.

 

I agree. I don't think the current artwork does the album much justice. The only way the current artwork works on the imagination is the hint of a secret meaning. It's a code, waiting to be unlocked. But what would that code unlock? Something far more imaginitive than the current artwork suggests, I would think. So this artwork is just that: a code without much of a hint about the art it hides. And visually it's just too much minecraft, imo.

i love the word 'flep'. i've started using it as an expletive randomly throughout the day.

A lot of Ae fans will be Flepping to this album for quite some time, I imagine.

  On 2/9/2013 at 6:56 AM, Root5 said:

 

  On 2/9/2013 at 3:05 AM, auxien said:

 

  On 2/9/2013 at 2:51 AM, Root5 said:

Listened for the first time at work today. First impression: "that's a lot of nasty FM, and agressing HPing".

 

Second impression: "God damn this album is funky!"

 

I don't know if this has been mentioned yet, as I haven't read the whole thread, but has anyone else thought that this sounds more like Gescom than Autechre?

 

agreed with all of that. i mentioned the Gescom feel in Flep in particular. i'd have excused the existence of nodezsh and runrepik if they were on a Gescom album. ;)

Are you saying that you don't like these tracks, or just that they sound too Gescomy to be on an Autechre album? I say this because nodezsh has been the standout track for me so far, and makes a lot of sense to me as an Autechre track. It walks the perfect line between Oversteps and Move of Ten.

yeah i don't much care for them yet. i'm only a few listens in though, so those sorts of things can change. they sound a bit Gescom-y to me, yeah...i was mostly making a joke on what i'd expect from Gescom vs. what i'd expect from AE. hopefully i'll start enjoying them more.

  On 2/9/2013 at 7:57 AM, digit said:

i love the word 'flep'. i've started using it as an expletive randomly throughout the day.

google image search for "flep" ->

and i was hoping for dolphins...

This would be a hell of an awesome Gescom album, though. A bit too Autechry, I'd say. Because I don't much Fitton in these tracks ( to give anexample).

  On 2/9/2013 at 8:53 AM, kieselguhr kid said:

 

  On 2/9/2013 at 7:57 AM, digit said:

i love the word 'flep'. i've started using it as an expletive randomly throughout the day.

 

 

google image search for "flep" ->

 

and i was hoping for dolphins...

So far the tracks that are the most challenging for me are irlite (get 0), nodezsh and runrepik. Nodezsh makes some sense to me but I can't figure out what they are trying to do with the beat, doesn't seem to be head bobbable to me.

Runrepik sounds ok but I have yet to find the hook. For those of you digging this track, what is it that makes it dig into you? Give me a specific sound at a specific time. I'd love to love this track but so far it's meh for me.

irlite is pretty cool but the synth line plays in so many keys it's hard to digest. I feel like there isn't much to that besides repeated listens.

But seriously what is good about runrepik?

For me it's simply the footworky drum pattern.

  On 2/9/2013 at 9:07 AM, thehauntingsoul said:

So far the tracks that are the most challenging for me are irlite (get 0), nodezsh and runrepik. Nodezsh makes some sense to me but I can't figure out what they are trying to do with the beat, doesn't seem to be head bobbable to me.

 

Runrepik sounds ok but I have yet to find the hook. For those of you digging this track, what is it that makes it dig into you? Give me a specific sound at a specific time. I'd love to love this track but so far it's meh for me.

 

irlite is pretty cool but the synth line plays in so many keys it's hard to digest. I feel like there isn't much to that besides repeated listens.

 

But seriously what is good about runrepik?

its the fast paced beat that sounds like it could be on untilted (i just love that album)

  On 2/9/2013 at 9:07 AM, thehauntingsoul said:

Runrepik sounds ok but I have yet to find the hook.

You didn't hear the really cinematic horn riff that plays throughout the track? That alone makes "runrepik" one of the standouts to me.

  On 2/9/2013 at 9:07 AM, thehauntingsoul said:

So far the tracks that are the most challenging for me are irlite (get 0), nodezsh and runrepik. Nodezsh makes some sense to me but I can't figure out what they are trying to do with the beat, doesn't seem to be head bobbable to me.

 

Runrepik sounds ok but I have yet to find the hook. For those of you digging this track, what is it that makes it dig into you? Give me a specific sound at a specific time. I'd love to love this track but so far it's meh for me.

 

irlite is pretty cool but the synth line plays in so many keys it's hard to digest. I feel like there isn't much to that besides repeated listens.

 

But seriously what is good about runrepik?

The rythm? the percussion sounds? the atmosphere? the sound design?

BTW What the hell is challenging about the melody in irite? Just be patient, I think thats the problem here, its damn amazing to me.