XI year old Autechre Album Released: Exai (WARP234)

runrepik consists entirely from oversteps tour sounds. and it has simple but beautiful atmosphere.

 

edit: percussion sounds like sonic charge microtonic, by the way.

 

overall it sounds like bitter autechrian happiness

Edited February 9, 2013 by telefunken

magnus lindstrom, microtonic's creator about MoT pce freeze 2.8i:

 

"Yeah, I couldn't resist emailing Sean Booth when I first heard that
track. He confirmed that it was MicroTonic indeed. It is also used on
the track after that, "Rew(1)". He was very enthusiastic about my plugs,
but they were not actually using any VSTs or AUs for their latest work.
Just Max stuff.



Being a big time Autechre fan I was pretty stoked about this all."

 

http://soniccharge.com/forum/index.php?/topic/134-autechre/

the melodies in Irlite (get 0) are the least timid and most memorable/catchy melodies of the whole album imo. It's the only time where i feel like they took that Oversteps prog style - impossible to hum but catchy melodic hook aspect into the new sound. The other melodies on Exai are good, but I honestly think they are passable, not amazing. For as bombastic as the sound design and percussion is through out the album i think some of the songs suffer a little bit from having melodies that sound too laid back if that makes any sense.

Edited February 9, 2013 by Awepittance

  On 2/9/2013 at 10:22 AM, Awepittance said:

the melodies in Irlite (get 0) are the least timid and most memorable/catchy melodies of the whole album imo. It's the only time where i feel like they took that Oversteps prog style - impossible to hum but catchy melodic hook aspect into the new sound. The other melodies on Exai are good, but I honestly think they are passable, not amazing. For as bombastic as the sound design and percussion is through out the album i think some of the songs suffer a little bit from having melodies that sound too laid back if that makes any sense.

Yeah I have to say I was expecting a bit more on the melodic side for this album--especially since Joyrex actually liked it. Oversteps blew me away with its dense melodic complexity and I was hoping that Exai would expand on that. Nevertheless, it's still a satisfying listen.

ps. I'm not really feeling keyosc on first listen. The melody is great but there's not much to it. However, I did hear what seems to be a nod to Ipacial Section early on in the track; did anyone else pick up on that?

left and right = me

 

Guys, Cloudline.

I know I did the "I love it!" "I hate it!" "I love it again!" thing with Oversteps, but I'm amazed how differently we hear music on different days (and obviously different audio systems.)

 

I found this to be the most unusual and stunning Autechre ever when I was overtired hearing it on headphones that first time while falling asleep. Hearing it again today out loud on speakers, however, it seems just "o.k", but not as deep or inventive sound or beat-wise as Confield/Draft/Untilted (I know the production in this one is obviously lusher than those releases, but on speakers the difference isn't so important. Exai suddenly seemed overly synthy and a bit too b-boy/hip-hoppish to me when I heard it in context of the inventiveness of that mighty trio. And I wasn't trying to compare or be critical... I just happened to have those on last night and heard Exai this morning.)

 

I know it's a great release. I think I would have loved the unusual and deeply special atmosphere of the first few tracks to have continued, though. It doesn't help I listened to Confield again and fell in love afresh with the scrunchy, totally 'other' soundworlds on tracks like Parhelic Triangle. Since Quaristice, everything has become more overtly musical, 'instrumenty' (for want of a better word...lol) and jammy for Autechre, which is better for most people, I suppose.

Edited February 9, 2013 by Lianne

anyone else gets brainfeedery (such as Teebs / Samiyam) vibes out of deco Loc and maybe a bit of bladelores?

Edited February 9, 2013 by vincentvc

yea I am under the impression that a big part of this album is lazy jams. A lot of noodling, some of it random and chaotic, edited into tracks. have to find out whether that is a good thing or not, i do like it with Quaristice.

 

it's weird, they go to places with their tracks which you would move to the trash bin if you recorded that, right? like the synth stuff in the second half of recks on, I mean what? but then you listen 20 times to it because it's them, and you start to force yourself to like it.

 

i think there's a lot of crap on this album, with no compositional idea behind it whatsoever, but it might turn out to be "catchy" crap in the end..

  On 2/9/2013 at 12:16 PM, phling said:

yea I am under the impression that a big part of this album is lazy jams. A lot of noodling, some of it random and chaotic, edited into tracks. have to find out whether that is a good thing or not, i do like it with Quaristice.

 

it's weird, they go to places with their tracks which you would move to the trash bin if you recorded that, right? like the synth stuff in the second half of recks on, I mean what? but then you listen 20 times to it because it's them, and you start to force yourself to like it.

 

i think there's a lot of crap on this album, with no compositional idea behind it whatsoever, but it might turn out to be "catchy" crap in the end..

 

Yeah... I really don't know what is going on with the second half of 'recks on'. Seems totally uninspired on every level to me.

but oh my, (keyosc)

 

  On 2/8/2013 at 5:22 PM, disoriental express said:

loud as FUCK on speakers is the only way. shit is cataclysmic

  On 2/9/2013 at 12:24 PM, Lianne said:

 

  On 2/9/2013 at 12:16 PM, phling said:

yea I am under the impression that a big part of this album is lazy jams. A lot of noodling, some of it random and chaotic, edited into tracks. have to find out whether that is a good thing or not, i do like it with Quaristice.

 

it's weird, they go to places with their tracks which you would move to the trash bin if you recorded that, right? like the synth stuff in the second half of recks on, I mean what? but then you listen 20 times to it because it's them, and you start to force yourself to like it.

 

i think there's a lot of crap on this album, with no compositional idea behind it whatsoever, but it might turn out to be "catchy" crap in the end..

 

Yeah... I really don't know what is going on with the second half of 'recks on'. Seems totally uninspired on every level to me.

and what about Netlon Sentinel off EP7?

vekoS is so close to the Untilted style - probably one of my favourites so far.

As a handful of people have already said, it's a difficult album to get into - lots of depth, lack of cohesiveness/melodies/accessibility throughout a lot of the album (not necessarily a bad thing) - a lot of noodling about compared to their other releases. Just means it might take longer for the entire album to click with me.

I'm on my 3rd spin and this fucker is awesome, thank you so much AE

yep, recks on is totally referencing netlon sentinel.

I love it.

 

 

Seriously, this album is Autechre's definitive masterpiece. I can't quite comprehend how good it is.

 

Move aside Chiastic Slide, we have a new champion.

  On 2/9/2013 at 12:16 PM, phling said:

yea I am under the impression that a big part of this album is lazy jams. A lot of noodling, some of it random and chaotic, edited into tracks. have to find out whether that is a good thing or not, i do like it with Quaristice.

 

it's weird, they go to places with their tracks which you would move to the trash bin if you recorded that, right? like the synth stuff in the second half of recks on, I mean what? but then you listen 20 times to it because it's them, and you start to force yourself to like it.

 

i think there's a lot of crap on this album, with no compositional idea behind it whatsoever, but it might turn out to be "catchy" crap in the end..

 

 

wow, what? I thought the second half of recks on was one of the more gorgeous parts of the album

 

But yes, I understand the jammy aspect. The jams aren't nearly as loose as the majority of Quaristice though. Sounds like there was at least a bit of crafting going on here, as opposed to just editing.

I could see that. They talked about working with MIDI more in the editing stage, as opposed to audio, in 2010. Maybe they've set things up so all the parametric aspects of the jam can be tracked, rather than just the audio output of the jam: recorded like Quaristice but edited like Draft.

yea I love the end of recks on

  On 2/9/2013 at 5:49 AM, Polymershapes said:

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?

 

Regarding solo track by Rob it was pure speculation. There is a certain vision of what's Sean could do best and what Rob. Like first Exai track very well could be Sean solo and second track could be Rob's solo.

 

T ess xi actually contains slightly modified beats from Ts1a, though.

 

 

Don't get the hate towards second part of recks on at all. Definitely one of the highlights.

I think the jams have just the right balance of being loose and deliberate. It's why I find this album so awesome. It's got a very fun/memorable vibe to it because of the hip hop head nodding, so its very welcoming to jump into compared to some of their other albums, but once you get inside the structure is more deliberate because of how the smaller details push and pull against one another. Then you have these moments that build up where all the components cascade together like a key slipping into a lock.

So glad this came out before my 5 hr. bus trip :D

I like that after the initial honeymoon period people are starting to level more and more criticisms and in classic Autechre fashion nobody can seem to agree whatsoever on those criticisms.

 

I'm almost getting the impression that this will pan out just like every other ae release reception wise, only this time there was a layer of immediate accessibility that had to be peeled off first.

 

 

  On 2/9/2013 at 2:30 PM, Roksen Creek said:

yep, recks on is totally referencing netlon sentinel.

I love it.

 

 

Seriously, this album is Autechre's definitive masterpiece. I can't quite comprehend how good it is.

 

Move aside Chiastic Slide, we have a new champion.

let's not get carried away...imo there's no single track on this as memorable as Nuane

 

It's shaping up to be a great album...but I can't see it surpassing Chiastic...

 

(well, who knows....)

  On 2/9/2013 at 3:11 PM, thehauntingsoul said:

I like that after the initial honeymoon period people are starting to level more and more criticisms and in classic Autechre fashion nobody can seem to agree whatsoever on those criticisms. I'm almost getting the impression that this will pan out just like every other ae release reception wise, only this time there was a layer of immediate accessibility that had to be peeled off first.

That's a really accurate assessment, I think. The layer of accessibility was partly down to the stunningly lush production.

 

I'm enjoying it a lot again, especially disc 1. Still wish that totally dark/alien/wonderful/uncanny vibe that permeated the first three tracks was more of a permanent fixture on the release, but that might be a bit much. Also, we make fun (me included) of critics who claim a presence of dubstep (or other subgenres) on an Ae record, but more than any past album I hear Autechre clearly referencing more modern electronic trends in some of the bass parts and drum work on here. And it's not necessarily a bad thing at all...I just had to admit I clearly heard it, as much as those lazy comparisons are annoying!

Edited February 9, 2013 by Lianne