XI year old Autechre Album Released: Exai (WARP234)

jfc. listened to exai a couple times the other day. how is this almost 10 yrs old? wtf. it's so damn good in so many ways. solid all throughout then the last few tracks just another level good. 

exai is like when i'm making a playlist of a bunch of stuff and i add one Ae track then next thing i know there's 11 more ae tracks in the playlist and i find myself just listening to a bunch of ae instead of the new playlist. 

exai, like many of their albums, is "i bet ya can't listen to just one" track from the album. 

Exai is their perfect album in my book. Perfect length, perfect blend of digital and "analogue" sound, perfect ratio of dry vs wet, of complex beats vs lush pads, top notch track sequencing - each track is very different yet they transition quite nicely into each other. I don't feel like there's any weak moment. It's definitely my number one AE album since 2013 and it got me through some difficult times that year.

Exai was their first album that released after I moved into the new place (where I'm still living now), and was thus also the first album I got to listen to on proper speakers and not only headphones or a laptop when it was new. Exai was their second album that I got to experience as a brand new piece, the day that is dropped as I had only started listening to their stuff around when Quaristice came out.

This album is a monster and I loved it the second "Fleure" got going. Maybe it's a bias/bit of fanaticism, but I feel like every album of theirs starts super strong and has a really well curated tracklist, Exai being probably one of the most cohesive in that manner of their recent catalogue. As others have said, L-Event cannot be ignored, I adore tac Lacora and give that a spin on my record player every so often because it's so good incredibly loud.

Think I probably mentioned this before but Exai was released during the darkest time of my life and i remember quite clearly this music being intrinsically linked to my state of mind. And I never revisit it because of that, and probably never will. Very powerful this record but not in a good way.

  On 8/18/2022 at 1:47 AM, xyrofen said:

Exai was their first album that released after I moved into the new place (where I'm still living now), and was thus also the first album I got to listen to on proper speakers

Couldn't have been a more perfect album for this. Exai is one of their albums that marks a turning point in their career of a higher level of clarity in the sound design. I'm not sure exactly how many there have been, I think certainly more than two, but notice for example the difference in the fidelity of the sound between say EP7 and Confield. Also an excellent choice given all the excellent use of the stereo field by the lads.

  On 8/16/2022 at 10:02 PM, ignatius said:

jfc. listened to exai a couple times the other day. how is this almost 10 yrs old? wtf. it's so damn good in so many ways. solid all throughout then the last few tracks just another level good. 

exai is like when i'm making a playlist of a bunch of stuff and i add one Ae track then next thing i know there's 11 more ae tracks in the playlist and i find myself just listening to a bunch of ae instead of the new playlist. 

exai, like many of their albums, is "i bet ya can't listen to just one" track from the album. 

 

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I can never listen to just disc one, disc two goes on straight after

  On 8/20/2022 at 4:10 AM, splesh said:

Couldn't have been a more perfect album for this. Exai is one of their albums that marks a turning point in their career of a higher level of clarity in the sound design. I'm not sure exactly how many there have been, I think certainly more than two, but notice for example the difference in the fidelity of the sound between say EP7 and Confield. Also an excellent choice given all the excellent use of the stereo field by the lads.

EP7 is the one that made it all make "sense" for me back in the day. I think we may have talked about it at some point, that was the first one I went and truly hunted down for purchase from having tried to piece together what I liked about this "new to me, exciting artist oh wow!"

  On 8/19/2022 at 7:00 PM, beerwolf said:

Think I probably mentioned this before but Exai was released during the darkest time of my life and i remember quite clearly this music being intrinsically linked to my state of mind. And I never revisit it because of that, and probably never will. Very powerful this record but not in a good way.

 

I had that with Untilted. But I kept playing it to remove the curse. It worked for me.

also in my case exai coincided with a "complex" moment (without being melodramatic, I can frankly speak of tragedy rather than bad time): the headphones were an emergency exit (50% to stall the thought, 50% for not to hear the storms of mourning that raged constantly in the waiting room of that ward), and I really wondered if I was burning forever what I was listening to. Indeed, the Pavlovian effect affected everything, except for Ligeti and Ae/exai, although they were the most present sounds. Perhaps these are things that are now so deeply rooted in my mental system, that are practically a component of my identity, and not experiences that can be associated with a specific moment. I do not know. But it's lucky, it would have been a castration (mechanical, precisely, not chemical) to lose them

XI

Listening again now and ahhhhh yesssssssssssssssssssssssssssss

I think this album has become one of my favourites in their discography.

There have also been times where I was questioning whether this max msp heavy sound design was too limited, but it adds a very unique quality now, one that I think will date well. I also remember thinking that the melodies were kind of obscured in most tracks, but on a recent listen I was surprised by how all over the place they are? What the hell was I listening to? It's everything all at once: complex, simple, melodic, cryptic, melancholy, ecstatic, etc..

The second half of 'nodezsh' sounds like an overstimulated bird weaving through a blade runner-like city, neon lights scattering through the fog and smog. No other music tickles the brain this way.

Top-Tier 'Chre without a doubt.

Re-visiting Ae's earlier stuff in anticipation for their gig in Helsinki and Exai is a damn strong album, definetely has some bangers on it. I really rate it, Draft 7.30 still my favourite (first album to come out since discovering Ae a few years earliers, probably has a lot to do with it), but Exai coming up as a strong contender.

The last 3 tracks of Exai (and the last 3 tracks of Untilted) I could listen in loop forever!

In post-NTS world, that fadeout on Flep has got me wondering when we'll get to hear the full 19 minute version

i find it interesting that there's a bunch of us that revisited Exai latery and had fresh ears for it.

this album is really growing on me, it kind of fits into this summer, idk, maybe's just me

  On 8/23/2022 at 9:22 PM, cichlisuite said:

i find it interesting that there's a bunch of us that revisited Exai latery and had fresh ears for it.

this album is really growing on me, it kind of fits into this summer, idk, maybe's just me

it always fits though.. for me.. fckn timeless as it is. it's kind of a punctuation in some ways. i know it's just autechre being autechre but in some ways it's kind of another demarcation point or whatever. one of the releases in the discography that is a springboard.. preparing the listener for whatever is coming next w/ae releases. but that is only something that just came to mind so could be hindsight based on what i already have experienced in the releases that came after it. "wtf is an album anyways? here's L-Event and elseq.... and NTS and SIGN PLUS.. and..."

  On 8/23/2022 at 5:36 PM, gnarlybog said:

I think this album has become one of my favourites in their discography.

There have also been times where I was questioning whether this max msp heavy sound design was too limited, but it adds a very unique quality now, one that I think will date well. I also remember thinking that the melodies were kind of obscured in most tracks, but on a recent listen I was surprised by how all over the place they are? What the hell was I listening to? It's everything all at once: complex, simple, melodic, cryptic, melancholy, ecstatic, etc..

The second half of 'nodezsh' sounds like an overstimulated bird weaving through a blade runner-like city, neon lights scattering through the fog and smog. No other music tickles the brain this way.

 

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Yeah, the way the drums start sparse and skeletal and then slowly start filling out the track in "nodezsh" is certainly a highlight of this album for me. "recks on" is a banger, similar in the way "V-Proc" is from Draft. "YJY UX" is one of my favorite album closers in their catalog.

  On 8/23/2022 at 10:01 PM, YELLOW said:

Yeah, the way the drums start sparse and skeletal and then slowly start filling out the track in "nodezsh" is certainly a highlight of this album for me. "recks on" is a banger, similar in the way "V-Proc" is from Draft. "YJY UX" is one of my favorite album closers in their catalog.

I may have already mentioned it before, but nodezsh reminds me of some of the music Elliot Goldenthal made for Demolition Man, the sparse percussion really tickles that. Fucking ace track.

  On 8/24/2022 at 2:21 PM, oscillik said:

I may have already mentioned it before, but nodezsh reminds me of some of the music Elliot Goldenthal made for Demolition Man, the sparse percussion really tickles that. Fucking ace track.

In a similar-ish vein it reminds me of some of the wonkier bits from the T1 soundtrack e.g. the second half of this  -

  On 9/22/2022 at 12:19 AM, mcbpete said:

In a similar-ish vein it reminds me of some of the wonkier bits from the T1 soundtrack e.g. the second half of this  -

 

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Yeah definitely similar groove going on!

jatevee C is so wonderfully wonky and lush. And Exai has got to be my most consistently satisfying listen from the boys, something about the earthy tone (I hope you get what I mean, referring to the distinctly less prominent highs compared to the later elseq and NTS stuff, and the rich midrange and the timbres they're using) and the extremely strong cohesion throughout, where I don't think a single track sticks out in the negative sense. runrepik is another example, along with spl9 and vekoS, where the sense of space is just amazing for the ears. They're eally nailing that kinda sci-fi, momentum-filled sense of urgent movement and again, the depth and sense of placement within a vast space. I also like how in many of the tracks the bass is slightly less deep and subby to my ears, and instead has a satisfying low end thump to it.

Happy 10th birthday Exai!

Listened again not long ago.. truly bomb