XI year old Autechre Album Released: Exai (WARP234)

it puts the lime in the coconut

yep...totally love the album. IMHO their best work. Now i have 3 favourite albums. Chiastic, Confield and Exai.

Listened to Exai as a whole yesterday when I was driving in my car for a longer trip. Returning home, I ended up listening to nodezsh the whole time. Pure Autechre bliss, an ending we're familiar with; the track goes well with YJY UX.. spl9 looked inunspired to me btw... Maybe I did not yet understand it. But it was somewhat too easy for me and lacked interesting moments. That means nothing; after a few more listens it may become my most loved track ;)

I love the album, it's a solid one, but are there innovations? I mean, the moments we know from the past? When we heard strange hissy noises in Latent Quarter? When suddenly tempo changes appeared in Stop Look Listen? When they started the whole deconstruction thing and out-of-sync beats? All those WTF!!!! moments? I think we do not see such a moment in Exai. Not in any album since Confield. The question is: Should we expect groundbreaking innovations? I'm tending to say "no", because Exai is great as it is. Hmmm.

Phernomenal

Brilliant

SPlebounding

Masterful

Behyond Beautiful

Wholesome famuly fun

Genous

This.

  On 2/17/2013 at 9:19 PM, autechrist said:

nodezsh has that kind of nostalgic feeling that would make me cry if i wasn't an autistic.

  On 2/18/2013 at 8:11 AM, Wurstwasser said:

Listened to Exai as a whole yesterday when I was driving in my car for a longer trip. Returning home, I ended up listening to nodezsh the whole time. Pure Autechre bliss, an ending we're familiar with; the track goes well with YJY UX.. spl9 looked inunspired to me btw... Maybe I did not yet understand it. But it was somewhat too easy for me and lacked interesting moments. That means nothing; after a few more listens it may become my most loved track ;)

 

I love the album, it's a solid one, but are there innovations? I mean, the moments we know from the past? When we heard strange hissy noises in Latent Quarter? When suddenly tempo changes appeared in Stop Look Listen? When they started the whole deconstruction thing and out-of-sync beats? All those WTF!!!! moments? I think we do not see such a moment in Exai. Not in any album since Confield. The question is: Should we expect groundbreaking innovations? I'm tending to say "no", because Exai is great as it is. Hmmm.

groundbreaking, no. But there are some wtf!?! moments for me. The nice outro on Bladelores, the proper fucked up sounds (Gantz Graf like) in vekoS, the completely phased 1 1 is, the strange shifts in spl9 (mood-wise), the strangely slow rythm section in cloudline,,,great shit

  On 2/18/2013 at 8:11 AM, Wurstwasser said:

Listened to Exai as a whole yesterday when I was driving in my car for a longer trip. Returning home, I ended up listening to nodezsh the whole time. Pure Autechre bliss, an ending we're familiar with; the track goes well with YJY UX.. spl9 looked inunspired to me btw... Maybe I did not yet understand it. But it was somewhat too easy for me and lacked interesting moments. That means nothing; after a few more listens it may become my most loved track ;)

 

I love the album, it's a solid one, but are there innovations? I mean, the moments we know from the past? When we heard strange hissy noises in Latent Quarter? When suddenly tempo changes appeared in Stop Look Listen? When they started the whole deconstruction thing and out-of-sync beats? All those WTF!!!! moments? I think we do not see such a moment in Exai. Not in any album since Confield. The question is: Should we expect groundbreaking innovations? I'm tending to say "no", because Exai is great as it is. Hmmm.

i wouldn't really say they stopped making groundbreaking innovations after Confield. I think they kept going on the same weird trajectory. Confield is an interesting experiment by them because one could catalog fairly easily the aspects of it that are groundbreaking, the weird off kilter drum programming, the melodic stuttering (becoming more than just rhythm and actually part of a larger melodic structure), the really stripped down sounding white noise burst snare drums, etc.

Draft 7.30 follows on a similar trajectory to Confield but they turn a lot of the darker and more abstract elements from it into more musical and deeper narratives. To me this was the peak of them being ground breaking on the surface, where your immediate perception of it can determine that.

Untilted, Quairstice, Oversteps and Exai are slightly harder to pin down from the surface elements. Of those 4 i'd say Oversteps and Quaristice are probably the more groundbreaking ones, but it's hard to describe in words exactly why they are. You have tracks like Steels, Fol4, the Plc which literally sound like no other musician on the planet. But what makes those so 'weird' sounding? Each song individually is perhaps less complex than Draft or Confield but they are still really fucking weird and hard to pin down in a previously existing musical context. Oversteps has more of a continuing theme through out the whole album. There are some odd exceptions to the theme like Treale, which i think is one of the most groundbreaking songs they've ever done. The melody in it is barely followable until the last 3rd, but it's a melody nonetheless with complex changes.

It's an interesting question you ask because while i do find their later catalog continually innovative, it becomes increasingly difficult to describe into words why that is, and perhaps that's part of the framework they want to push. On Exai songs like Flep, Vekos, Fleure and Cloudline sound very strange, but if you take each individual element and put it under a microscope they aren't distinctly innovative elements. It's more of how they are combing all of these elements together in concert that makes it sound unlike anything else.

I've said it before but i like to think of Exai as Autechre doing a dub album. Using the effects processors this time as the forefront of the compositions. They aren't strangers to dub delays, spring , comb filtering or long reverb trails, but this time for example they seem intent on confusing the listener about: are we hearing a square wave synth or a delay with the feedback turned up 100% and the time being changed to a rhythm? Is that a synth pad or is that a really tight flanger screeching? Is that a really noisey subtractive synth snare drum patch on Irlite (get 0) or is it something running through a chorus/flange being automated to shit so it almost sounds like percussive noise?

They are blurring the line between synthesis and effects on Exai, and that is probably the single most powerful element that i would call innovative.

Interesting observations there Awe. Plan on digging through their discog again this following week after rinsing Exai a fair amount. Was always a fan of oversteps and after Exai I see it in even more favorable light as it does serve to be a subdued/relaxed release in their progression. I guess it feels a bit more humble as it doesn't try to attempt to show off on the surface, just discreetly.

the only big missed opportunity i see with Exai, especially since it's a double album.. the complexity of the Oversteps melodic progressions are mostly missing. Now would have been a good time to combine some of those with the crazy beats we have on display in Exai. The only time we really get an Oversteppy melody is on Irlite (get 0) and it works fucking great. The part near the very end where that bass drum is hitting simultaneously with those notes is an A+ perfect autechre moment. I feel like that experiment is already over and they'll move on to a new approach for the next full length.

We get a few hints of Oversteps melody on tracks like YJY UX, sort of reminiscent of the stabs in d-sho qub, maybe also on Tuinorizn although that feels like only half an Oversteps melody, like the 'chorus' of the song is missing. Nodezh also has a similar feel going on but it still feels a little mild.

anyone here take a stab at doing any oversteps remixes? I might try putting some really basic techno drum progressions into tracks like Redfall or o=0, but ill probably fail in the process

  On 2/18/2013 at 8:46 AM, compson said:

Interesting observations there Awe. Plan on digging through their discog again this following week after rinsing Exai a fair amount. Was always a fan of oversteps and after Exai I see it in even more favorable light as it does serve to be a subdued/relaxed release in their progression. I guess it feels a bit more humble as it doesn't try to attempt to show off on the surface, just discreetly.

i think this is probably what's attracting so many old Autechre fans to the record. I'd take a guess and say that many listeners were turned off by what could perceived as Autechre being 'above' making pleasurable music with discernable melodies and straight rhythms. There are still plenty of innovative and unorthodox techniques being used, but they are background elements. Things people don't immediately focus on when listening to a track

Just got home on friday from a two week trip and downloaded. I've listened it through three times so far. Absolutely brilliant. Bladelores has to be the most erotic Ae track yet. YJY UX is a magnificent psychedelic masterpiece. Those two stand out for me at this point.

I miss the harder side of Ae though that I feel has been missing since Untilted. Especially noticed this because I've been listening to a lots of Grischa Lichtenberger and Team Doyobi lately. Exai is relatively soft compared to their output.

  On 2/18/2013 at 8:37 AM, Awepittance said:

some odd exceptions to the theme like Treale, which i think is one of the most groundbreaking songs they've ever done.

I was going to say that. It stands out as being one of the cooler things they've done since EP7. Most of the other stuff has been what I'd call "sound sculpting" or even sound effects, rather than songs. As much as I like them.

Irlite (get 0) is the only groundbreaking track on Exai. I've never heard something like this whether by ae or any other entity. The juxtaposition of the beats, ae and kraftwerkian melodies, arrangements and the dirty sound + the live vibe makes this track truly innovative. I really hope Ae will follow this direction on the next albums.

This track is actually so good that the rest of the album sounds normal in comparison.

a very definitive-sounding statement, but you could certainly persuade me. I think it's the most intriguing track on Exai fo sho.

It really is. All the other tracks are Ae evolving, that is, you can trace their origins or influences. On the other hand, I have hard time finding anything that sounds close to Irlite.

edit: Perhaps some Surripere accents on the beat, on the fill-in drums.

Thanks Awepittance... I had a feeling tracks after the first 3 would shine more loud on decent speakers. The first three are stunning headphone experiences, tho (which I find to be unusual for Ae. Even my favourite albums of theirs sound a bit 'flat' and weird spatially on headphones.) I must confess to only really listening to Exai on headphones so far (waiting for CD to play in the car!)

And I agree with others about Irlite (get 0). I would welcome a whole album of that kind of invention and atmosphere. The first three tracks outshine everything else anyway, with Irlite being particularly 'outhiney'! Such a joy to listen to... Such a thick, dark, heavy and serious yet funny, alien atmosphere. Autechre have really done something so special here!

  On 2/18/2013 at 12:33 PM, the anonymous forumite said:

The juxtaposition of the beats, ae and kraftwerkian melodies, arrangements and the dirty sound + the live vibe makes this track truly innovative.

I get the live vibe too, my current favorite.

This album is so deep and layered. Listening to it yesterday in the pitch black with headphone set-up and I couldn't believe all the detail I picked up.

I keep hearing new rhythms, new timbres, new compositions even.

I actually think past ae albums are quite linear and flat in comparison. I feel like before listening to ae was like sailing on a boat in vast waters, but with Exai you are chucked right into an ocean. You keep sinking deeper and deeper, but as of yet there is no sign of the ocean floor.

To put it another way it almost sounds as if they have layered three or four tracks together and somehow managed to make it work as one.

Anyone still yearning for Confield/Draft etc, either you haven't listened to the album enough or haven't listened with decent equipment. There is much more going on in Exai than either of those albums.

Either that or I'm completely mistaken, it wouldn't be the first time lol.

I agree that this is their most detailed and complex album, but it`s just a shame that there`s not a few more tuneful and warmer moments in amongst all the rhythmic alien strangeness. But overall I can`t really complain because I think it`s up with there with their best and most enjoyable albums.

  On 2/18/2013 at 6:26 PM, Roksen Creek said:

Anyone still yearning for Confield/Draft etc, either you haven't listened to the album enough or haven't listened with decent equipment. There is much more going on in Exai than either of those albums.

I agree. But I'm often wrong too.

I was impatient to hear what would a 'real programming' bring to the table but i can't hear it in Exai...or better to say there's nothing in it that i can't imagine being made with conventional tools and technics. Could be they're holding their new powers for the next project. Exai sounds like they're deliberately closing one of the most important chapters in electronic music history anyway. Time for the next big thing? Hope so!

Nodezsh is a killer track.

  On 2/18/2013 at 1:24 PM, Lianne said:

Thanks Awepittance... I had a feeling tracks after the first 3 would shine more loud on decent speakers. The first three are stunning headphone experiences, tho (which I find to be unusual for Ae. Even my favourite albums of theirs sound a bit 'flat' and weird spatially on headphones.) I must confess to only really listening to Exai on headphones so far (waiting for CD to play in the car!)

 

And I agree with others about Irlite (get 0). I would welcome a whole album of that kind of invention and atmosphere. The first three tracks outshine everything else anyway, with Irlite being particularly 'outhiney'! Such a joy to listen to... Such a thick, dark, heavy and serious yet funny, alien atmosphere. Autechre have really done something so special here!

if you've only listened on headphones i can see why the first 3 tracks sound so much better than most of the rest. For some reason at least for me all the breakbeat samples sound pretty annoying on my headphones (2 different pairs). On a decent pair of speakers in a nice small room, those same sounds i found abrasive actually sound pretty good

I can't get over how awesome of a track vekoS is....