Autechre Exai

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