Autechre Exai

17 tracks, QR code/Ad Reinhardt cover, nice

i hope i'm not the only one scanning the track names in anticipation/dread of what the inevitable poll is going to be called

Ah 17 tracks over 2 CDs - I thought we were doing a Quaristice here but it looks like track's'll be long, excellent

exai = album name for dummies

Well Oversteps was my 2010 album of the year, so I am anticipating this one highl

nice!

exai = XI = their 11th album.

p.s. hi xlm!

uhhh, hi ilx :(

haha awesome transposition

Cipating. :\

01. FLeure
02. irlite (get 0)
03. prac-f
04. jatevee C
05. T ess xi
06. vekoS
07. Flep
08. tuinorizn
09. bladelores
10. 1 1 is
11. nodezsh
12. runrepik
13. spl9
14. cloudline
15. deco Loc
16. recks on
17. YJY UX

FLCTSFLYJYUX

love these guys but seriously fuck off with those track titles

06. velkoS

http://img181.imageshack.us/img181/4066/doyouknowexaiel0.jpg

recks on effect

*retags a buncha phoenecia tracks as the new autechre album, posts on slsk*

heh

*retags a buncha bieber tracks as the new autechre album, posts on slsk*

*retags a buncha plumbing noises from recent toilet explosion, posts on slsk*

big anticipation over at WATMM.. 100+ page thread. one person has a promo copy, and everybody asking questions regarding the sounds/style/content etc. kinda rad that it hasn't leaked, but it's only been a week since promo copies went out.

I've had a promo for a couple weeks, it's dope

that all? c'mon, you tease us - a pithy line or two about style/content wouldn't be amiss

It's better than the last two: dark, chaotic, jumbled. Every song is kind of its own universe

I know that wont make anybody happy as a description, but there it is. I've been a fan for ages and its my fave since Confield.

AE speak their own language at this point

YJY XU was a fave

I wasn't being a dick initially, I just didn't have time to say more

dear god that watmm thread. anyway you are completely failing to manage my expectations here raymond, i'm starting to get too excited.

maybe I'm too trusting but I really think Autechre could totally nail a two hour album. after all this is the biggest gap in their discography, length wise isn't it?

Move of ten was 2010, so just over two years? I don't see it as big gap personally.

i guess you're right, Untilted -> Quaristice was about 3 years as well. but the Quadrange EP was even longer than this.

Leaked. Its on slsk.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=-Q4F-kvWY7A

i guess you're right, Untilted -> Quaristice was about 3 years as well. but the Quadrange EP was even longer than this.

― frogbs, Monday, 21 January 2013 14:31 (5 minutes ago) Bookmark Flag Post Permalink

They just press a button and the machines do it all for them, anyway. The amount of time they spend between albums is neither here nor there.

Scratch that.

exai = XI = 11. 11th lp. (just thought of that, might be old news)

ilm pre-covers lp anyone?

old, news. yes. props to cheeseburger.

what's that on the cover btw? a monkey? bloke in gasmask?

http://media.warp.net/images/h59px_WARPCD234_Packshot_480.jpg

damn. i think it is a monkey

ah cool, sounds like they've gone back to a more ambitious composing-style, gonna devour this when it comes out

yeah, pretty psyched as well!

those of you Acroyear2 fans are gonna shit for this record. it's super-complex, beat driven, but not at all in a boring way. i'mloving it so far on first listen.

have u got a promo dl?

got it today *bragging*

aww congrats <3

In other things people have probably already worked out, if you treat the 11x11 grid of the front cover as a series of 11-bit binary numbers, they add up to the release date as YYMMD (13034). Or the release date spells out something which the front cover also adds up to.

https://docs.google.com/spreadsheet/ccc?key=0AougnYAALBAvdHI0MTNBNm1ZbldiN29ISHFBUWp4WVE

Why 13034, and why that particular configuration from all the ones that add up to 13034? No idea. Looking forward to someone cleverer running with this idea.

woah

https://soundcloud.com/failme/failcast-issue-019-mayan

track from the new album @ 1'5" (one hour, five minutes in. approx.)

dog latin, are there traces of the oversteps/move of ten production qualities on the new one? do the tracks have that big/spacious/crisp sort of definition going on? is it lush?

& does it sound like Amber? because that's probably the only reason i'd listen to it.

On first listen I'd say it's a bit of a cross between LP5 and Untilted. It's very rhythmic, lots of hiphop influenced beats, startling sound design (ghost noises looming out from aural blind spots in a 'did I really just hear that?' way) - sort of reminds me of tracks like Acroyear2 and UnderBOAC off LP5 (which i'm very happy about) and yeah, it's got Oversteps' stateliness in there too, but then it's very long and I haven't quite digested the whole thing.

goddddd... !

spoilers!

it will also surprise nobody that i love the dazzle covers for these things.

Presumably this:
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Dour_Festival

I may end up dusting off my spindle of CD-Rs and writing them to disc as MP3 (I think they're about 150MB each? So two or three discs for the nine files). I could stick them on DVD-R, but that means having the TV on to navigate through tracks.

AirPlay from phone or iTunes is fine but can break up when there's other stuff going on. Better stick with disc.

(i think the pvr, the tv and the br player will all play stuff from a usb stick. it's just a pity that none of that is connected to the stereo.)

I can get all the new ones for £1 except the last one in my basket, however many items i have, which is £5. huh.

oh wait, i wisnae signed in. ok let's hear if they switched things up in '15.

Still making my way through the first four live shows. I'm starting to really regret having not gone to see them when they were here a couple of months ago. I'd seen them twice and the second time was not really that good I thought, but these live recordings are amazing.

I saw them for the first time when they were touring for Untilted. The live shows from that period are amazing as well but very different from this current era. They are worth checking out if you can find them.

not sure if it's my work web proxy screwing with their site or not. anyone able to download from it today? i made my purchase but download isn't working :/

i think i need to work out how to hear these via the stereo as i don't think the earbuds are quite cutting it. that said, autechre on loud walking around Westfields is the only real way to experience Westfields.

― koogs

can't speak on the recent five released, but the Dublin recording sounds excellent on crap headphones (KOSS on-ear $5).. super dry, spacious, and crisp. a lot gentler on the ears than Exai, too

i've downloaded today. it was a bit of an odd ui experience (because, i think, the site is geared to let people download individual tracks from releases and these releases are a single track each so it looks a bit odd) but i have files.

must be the workplace web proxy. i'll have to grab them all when i get home.

I've been binging on these and making notes (don't judge me). A) the more I hear the more awesome they sound; 2) on a broad scale they differ a lot less than I first thought, they include the same sections in the same order. The changes are mostly in the details, some elements are brought forward and some are suppressed, different filters are applied and tweaked, sections are lengthened or rapidly dismissed. There is one major difference between the sets, as they go on they manage to pack a lot more in. I've got as far as Grafenhainichen and that covers everything that Krakow and Brussels do in about 2/3 of the time, leaving room for 20-30 minutes of extra material.

I always find at least something to enjoy about all their recordings but these new live sets are a career highlight. Close to my future ideal of an album that changes slightly every time you listen to it. There's already tons of process music & generative apps out there doing that (Eno & Chilver's Scape is actually not bad) but most of them are contemplative & ambient & gradually evolutionary. but these sets are active.

https://cycling74.com/2015/12/08/youve-gotta-hear-this-gifting-futures/#.VmmzR0orJD9

I remember when the Gescom minidisc came out, they said they considered putting out a generative music app but pulled back when they figured out they wouldn't own the copyright to the results. Still hoping for a generative app/album from them.

nine versions of one album (roughly), and the music is outstanding. i wonder how it'll rate ultimately, if they'll continue adding sets from 2015 (North America) or even delve back into older material. i recall seeing one of the recordings on a year-end list (just one).. hoping it'll rate high with WIRE, at least. because the music is fucking rad ("active" is an understatement), arguably better than some of their latter-period albums. i've softened on Oversteps, however.. it's classic.

i am, of course, now wondering what notes ledge is making, how he is differentiating / naming the various parts of the concerts

45:10 washing machine full of spanners
47:23 moog vs adhd
48:00 r2d2 on mogadon
49:12 randodigicrapnoise plugin
...

it's certainly challenging my descriptive abilities. r2d2 on mogadon, might have to borrow that one. this is the highlight imo of brussels (though they all follow this template more or less):

23:50 i'm raving i'm raving
27:15 maniac accordion
29:10 happy monster
30:45 laser wars
38:30 rave gorilla

I remember when the trance stabs started at Bloc; I was sure they were trolling us.

That's exactly what I hate about these dongs. So serious and bourgeois that any hint of "popular trance music" must be trolling bra that music is for dumb prols

lol i used to dj trance and it was one of my favorite parts

12:30 electro bees

That's exactly what I hate about these dongs. So serious and bourgeois that any hint of "popular trance music" must be trolling bra that music is for dumb prols

As someone who is realistically only going to listen to one of these, which is the best one to go for?

Barely anything to choose between them for most of their length tbh. the later ones seem to be busier but also more dissonant towards the end, if you like nice things then the first four (krakow/brussels/utrecht/dublin) have a short but harmonious chime section which the later ones seem to dispense with. dublin is the longest...

First 4 (krakow/brussels/utrecht/dublin) are up on youtube (unofficially, I suspect) as well, if you want to preview them ...

all of them are reviewable on the ae_live website...

The player stops every 60 seconds, though, doesn't it? It does for me, at least!

if you keep the cursor active, seeking left/right, you can listen indefinitely.. just keep marking a new point on the line, you can determine (roughly) where in the track you are by the total time on the right side, after it loads a bit

some hot shit going on in nagano from 50:00

although for all I know, they are going to release a 4 hour EP in a couple of months

― silverfish, Tuesday, February 19, 2013 2:02 PM (3 years ago) Bookmark Flag Post Permalink

lol

lol nice

Going back and reading some of the old reviews of this is pretty entertaining, on most of 'em the writers just seem annoyed that they have to digest & spit out a piece on a 2-hour Ae album, nearly all of them have some variation of "they suck at editing"

Listening back now, I really think this is maybe their best one?

It's in the Confield/Draft/Untilted echelon (yeah piss off) but I'd have it 4thbehibd them on account of slightly lower average quality. 4 longest trax on a single album wd be maybe their best tho

autechre definitely the most divisive act to receive airplay @ casa imago/tt (mirror image equiv prob weezer)

& i give weezer a CHANCE

but yeah

CD 1

eastre
mesh cinereaL

CD 2

latentcall
elyc6 0nset

^_________^

no no I'm talkin Exai

I reviewed it at the time and yeah I kind of 'moaned' (not really) about the length. I don't think it's my favourite but these days I'm finding it increasingly difficult to have subjective opinions about each step on the Ae journey - they just seem to happen. I've listened to Elseq easily the same amount as Exai but despite it being a lot longer, I guess I find the long tracks easier to sit through in one go for some reason

Exai left me with a lingering impression of aural fatigue that I've never got from any of their other releases, whether that was length or mastering or the sounds they used, or just me, idk.

^^

There's a really awesome 75 minute album hiding in the many tracks of Exai and L-event (for my tastes), and yeah when I play that version of it I feel it's their best or close to it. Certain bits on it I really find grating or out of place

I really feel it should have opened with spl9

had a nightmare here, sorry

Well Confield usually makes me want to puke so the aural fatigue of Exai isn't so bad

Would guess it's a matter of the sounds used rather than the mastering, so many deep "whap-THUNK" noises on this one, and I always want to play it loud. I guess a few more ambient bits would've helped a lot.

i'm listening to this a lot and it's good. the end.

i dug out Oversteps yesterday and it's such a treat. I always think I'm about 4 albums behind on truly appreciating Ae releases.

well I know how you're spending all of 2026