Exai bottom three

Still skipping cloudline, btw. I just hate the tempo of the track with a passion.

  On 3/4/2013 at 4:12 PM, disoriental express said:

I like the fact that I like it

 

it's also very luxurious.

 

honestly, it's taken awhile to fully appreciate it's spaciousness and relaxed future city feel. (cloudline)

I like that description of cloudline. That feeling of cruising around, past all kind of things rotating and blinking in shop windows, high rises. And just a general cacophany of weird shit taking place on both sides of the street as you go merrily zooming along.

  On 3/4/2013 at 10:14 PM, jules said:

im not understanding the deco loc love. if it was about 2 minutes, maybe i could see it. it feels so out of place to me, and goes nowhere.

yep

yeah,

  On 3/4/2013 at 4:04 PM, auxien said:

cloudline falls into some pretty sweet grooves in its first half...lots of small melodies work in with the drums in really tight intricate ways. the problem (perhaps?) is that those things don't stick, they're very fleeting. and the second half of the track isn't doing much for me at the moment. but i haven't been blaring this constantly either. i also enjoyed it more on headphones than i have on stereo, if you haven't tried that theSun

this, I like the start, but then it just gets goofy and wears out its welcome...imo

  On 3/4/2013 at 11:20 AM, Awepittance said:

 

  On 3/2/2013 at 8:54 AM, Chogg said:

I would love spl9 a hell of a lot more if the snares weren't so goddamn weak and Perlence-y. This track would be 10000x better if they used a fat powerful snare like in t ess XI (where, by the way, it sounds ridiculously out of place and topheavy). I don't think I've ever been as critical of their drum palette as I have on Exai.

 

But seriously guys, keyosc. How can you not love those rattling metallic percussive sounds? And the I-V-I-V movement is admittedly cheesy, but try to think of it as ae doing a hoedown

 

I agree for the most apart about the drum palette. I don't really mind the snare in Spl9 though, what i do mind are all the weak breakbeat samples that dominate tracks like Vekos, and Jatavee-c. It's especially weird since AE knows what a good drum sound is. They have a wide knowledge of hiphop drum breaks, and just played hundreds of songs on the broadcast that have superior sounding sampled drums. Do not understand

I'm not hearing breakbeat samples in those tracks, can you point them out?

I have been somewhat weirdly obsessed with Recks On because I hate that snare sample so much (they don't even modify it), but today I have decided that overall this track is weak as fuck. There's just not enough going on to justify the length. Not enough layers I mean. They could have done so much better with this idea.

Strangely enough on a similar note, I like deco Loc, maybe because it seems more intentionally simple and therefore fun.

  On 2/22/2013 at 7:42 PM, Mindphaser said:

Deco Loc ruins the flow a bit on the second half, it sounds out place amongst those darker, longer and more complex tracks.

no way

Runrepik, cloudline and deco loc, I just can't pay attention to either of those tracks. They're not even bad, I just don't remember anything about them at all.

I wonder if the way some people feel about "Recks On" is how I feel about "Nodezsh"

the drums on "Nodezsh" completely ruin it for me. unlistenable

I might need to listen more though

recks on actually has been growing on me thanks to the drums. They are so simple and powerful...

1 1 is quickly becoming a fave, it has that sound where it could slot easily into the LP5-Draft Era LPs, especially Confield. Not totally won over by the last minute or two though yet.

1 1 is' drums/wash is bland/grating, reminds me of andy stott industrialism, though i'm not very familiar with his music. the melody is pleasant enough, but the track doesn't do much. nodezsh drums are harsh-sounding, but there's enough variation that it stays interesting. goes on forever though

love 1 1 is. I think it's one of the coolest tracks. the slow transformation from that to the end lurching timbre is phat

doggone!

  On 3/5/2013 at 7:54 AM, Chogg said:

 

  On 3/4/2013 at 11:20 AM, Awepittance said:

 

  On 3/2/2013 at 8:54 AM, Chogg said:

I would love spl9 a hell of a lot more if the snares weren't so goddamn weak and Perlence-y. This track would be 10000x better if they used a fat powerful snare like in t ess XI (where, by the way, it sounds ridiculously out of place and topheavy). I don't think I've ever been as critical of their drum palette as I have on Exai.

But seriously guys, keyosc. How can you not love those rattling metallic percussive sounds? And the I-V-I-V movement is admittedly cheesy, but try to think of it as ae doing a hoedown

I agree for the most apart about the drum palette. I don't really mind the snare in Spl9 though, what i do mind are all the weak breakbeat samples that dominate tracks like Vekos, and Jatavee-c. It's especially weird since AE knows what a good drum sound is. They have a wide knowledge of hiphop drum breaks, and just played hundreds of songs on the broadcast that have superior sounding sampled drums. Do not understand

 

I'm not hearing breakbeat samples in those tracks, can you point them out?

I have been somewhat weirdly obsessed with Recks On because I hate that snare sample so much (they don't even modify it), but today I have decided that overall this track is weak as fuck. There's just not enough going on to justify the length. Not enough layers I mean. They could have done so much better with this idea.

Strangely enough on a similar note, I like deco Loc, maybe because it seems more intentionally simple and therefore fun.

I dont understand how anyone can hate on Recks On. it's like Pen Expers in reverse, you know what I mean? well, not quite that level of purity and unity and monolizm, but its still awesome. you gotta listen close for the drum samples on confield they always reveal them at the end of the track but very subtle - perhheliac triangle another good example

straight up masterpiece of a track actually. i don't know where the fuck my head has been these days. i've literally lost myself. i have no idea where i'm going or who i am anymore. "Recks On" really reminds me of that feeling. it's not all bad even. it's a lot like the break in the fourth movement of Music in 12 Parts by Glass. it is the same thing. cosmic fucking space. seriously, far far far out.

this might be their greatest acheivement. it's in a completely fucking different territory.

to me it doesn't sound like new territory for the simple fact that it's a blatant Scorn tribute for the first 4 minutes and then morphs into the most DRaft 7.30 track on the whole album. After the 4 minute mark it sounds straight off of Draft to me, perhaps a little less abstract with a more regular beat.

I think they started the Scorn tributes with this track on Move of Ten

pce freeze is my favourite from that ep :o

  On 3/10/2013 at 4:50 AM, Awepittance said:

to me it doesn't sound like new territory for the simple fact that it's a blatant Scorn tribute for the first 4 minutes and then morphs into the most DRaft 7.30 track on the whole album.

EP7.

I was listening to it analytically for a while but I must say this music is better not listened to that way.

  On 3/4/2013 at 2:44 PM, theSun said:

what do you people like about cloudline? it's the only track that is downright bad to me.

it's like you'r stoned stuck in traffic on a futuristic autobahn with the windshield wipers removing the acid rain

My thoughts on Cloudline. It starts out like some crazy transit ride through a hellish futuristic cityscape or something. The track takes quite a while to shake all of the nonsense noise that clings to it as it emerges from the womb. The chime woosh at 1:58 marks the true start of the track. It takes a few minutes for the beat to fall into this really awesome swing groove. The stuttery triple-tap click snare is one of the coolest things they've done with rhythm in a long time. Specifically this aspect peeks into the track at 2:31. Then the big fat bass jug comes wobbling in. It takes a few tries to get all the way across the melody, and then meanders into these wonderful dark variations. This bass melody has this cave spelunker vibe to it.

The main melody is struggling to enter the track for quite a while, it's such a build-up. It's this really whiny synth that is not unlike what they did with known(1) so I guess I can see why some might not like it, but I think it's one of, if not the best melody on the album. When it blasts shyly into the track at 4:56. It's first fully confident phrase occurs at 5:45. At this mark my spine tingles with how amazing the melody is, and it just gets better as the track matures. Seriously can not express how amazing this melody is. If you don't like it you definitely need to listen harder.

The last bit of the track it crawls back into the womb but the beat becomes stuttery and almost untilted-esque. I seriously don't get the hate for this majestic track. Hopefully my description has helped ease some of you into it.

I would like it if the whole album sounded more like Prac-f. :-D Variation seems to be the name of the game on Exai, though. Every track seems to bear a very different approach. But that Prac-f is on another level, especially when it switches gears half way through and then again towards the end. Wowzers! It sounds so good, too.

I can see why people dislike deco Loc, but to me it's one of the more successful 'straighter' tracks on the album. It's a simple concept executed really well. I love how utterly bare it is (bare but detailed...or something.) The production sounds quite original to me - I really like those sparse, high-pitched snares that seem to morph out of the vocal samples but are clearly distinct.

Other tracks bar the first 3/4 tracks are incredibly on-off for me, depending on mood. Sometimes I really like them, other times I find them absolutely irritating; like they're neither good in that odd, abstract Ae way, nor hitting the spot like 'conventional' music would.

the switch half way through prac-f is like time travel, back in time particularly...

oh man the last 20 (all of the) pages have been so funny!

  On 2/12/2013 at 12:17 PM, Roo said:

 

  On 2/12/2013 at 5:14 AM, TwiddleBot said:

deco loc, recks on, and maybe T ess xi after that. It's not like I'll skip them or anything, they just don't grab me in the same way pretty much all the other tracks do.

 

favorite tracks right now are probably prac-f, vekoS, flep, 1 1 is, and cloudlines. These were my immediate favorites on the album and repeat listens haven't really changed that, though I've come to like them more.

Exactly the same with me. There are other great passages of the album, but the above tracks are the ones I keep coming back to as single tracks. vekoS is a great little track.

 

VekoS through to nodezsh is the best section of the album for me so far.

Oh shit VekoS is so fucking killer! I don't have a bottom three yet.

My previous least faves (Fleure, Flep and Runrepik) have pulled themselves out of that category. The only one I'm not fussed about is spl9. Just fizzles out after 2 minutes really, don't think the progressions actually improve the tune much.

I still hate irlite (get 0). I get that the end part has a pretty cool atmosphere, but overall this is just a fucking awkward mess of a track. No idea why everyone loves it.

Bladelores and recks on remain underwhelming. I guess my bottom 3 haven't changed. Ha!

For irlite, pay attention to the stabby melodies. It is really awesome for those. Otherwise the best I can say is think Etchogon-S. It's somewhat similar to that maybe?