XI year old Autechre Album Released: Exai (WARP234)

  On 2/14/2013 at 8:09 AM, Marked x 0ne said:

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

 

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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.

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

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.

  On 2/14/2013 at 7:56 PM, baph said:

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

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.

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.

  On 2/14/2013 at 9:52 PM, xox said:

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.

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.

^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*

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!

  On 2/14/2013 at 10:27 PM, disoriental express said:

 

  On 2/14/2013 at 9:52 PM, xox said:

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.

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.

  On 2/15/2013 at 12:15 AM, xox said:

 

  On 2/14/2013 at 10:27 PM, disoriental express said:

 

  On 2/14/2013 at 9:52 PM, xox said:

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

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.

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

  On 2/14/2013 at 10:27 PM, disoriental express said:

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

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)

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

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

lol

keyosc still feels like a bonus track to me, however in a way that was completely intended and calculated. YJY UX seems like a natural ending to me, if I didn't have keyosc the album would still conclude at a perfectly normal and well defined point. Whereas most Japanese bonus tracks feel tacked on and completely remote from the album's perspective, keyosc certainly makes sense. But it certainly feels like a bonus, in a way that you've come across the final part and that keyosc is closure that doesn't introduce anything new, but gives a more positive perspective on the album as a whole, almost like a video game bonus where you can sense it's nothing more than the developer's having fun rather than appealing to the fans. Especially in the context of this album, which provides many nostalgic elements of video game analogies, for me this makes sense anyway.

I apologise if this post makes no sense, I'm extremely drunk right now

Damn, I need to go home and listen on my monitors. Fuck living in a college dorm!

I found all the Jap tracks that weren't live recordings felt like they belonged. Medrey, Nu nr6d, Xekstes Sql (not much there but meh) and ClnChr. They all seemed to fit. This one fits as well, although I still like Medrey and Nu nr6d more for some reason.

I have also noticed how well this album flows. It really works best as one complete listen with an intermission between disc 1 and 2. And when I attempt to just listen to select tracks they never have the same impact as in context. This was also the case for Actress's RIP, its core atmospheres, emotions, and rhythms are cleverly divided and paced so that each track when finishes, washed over onto the next track, mending them together in a way... despite the actual transitions not having any seamless features. Same idea I think was explored on Drukqs, the large gaps of silence provide the listener time to recall the past and configure it in their mind, so that when it is recalled it is amplified by something complimentary. And I guess I should also note Burial's newest long tracks. They also have this technical disjointed layout, but like a symphony orchestral there is a thread that keeps us attentive to the present because of the cumulative progression and build up. For example on EXAI, spl9 first 3 minutes feels a little unnecessary once the second half fully explodes, but in context to the previous track the first 3 minutes are a nice cool off. And the melodic tones throughout the album, which almost sound like symphonic elements from 2001 space odyssey, tie together the tracks like deep connective tissue or a double helix. I'll have to give a more detailed examination of how it progresses, but at the moment it certainly adds atmosphere, as well as an emotional core to each representation of time and place. And every track main structure (beats/rhythm) is nicely paced and unique.

  On 2/15/2013 at 12:15 AM, xox said:

 

  On 2/14/2013 at 10:27 PM, disoriental express said:

 

  On 2/14/2013 at 9:52 PM, xox said:

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!

the hidden world.... yes i believe i know what you mean. the difference, the flow.

i feel like the end is finally letting go. it's a kind of paradox between what was and what is. once we reach a certain state and style, everything becomes equal in a way. i feel that at least. warm and neon eons are awake.