(get POLL) -- Autechre: Exai LP11

fucking recks on, so sinister, so awesome

oh this is hard. i think i'm throwing a vote to "1 1 is" but there are at least 5 others on here i really love, although there isn't a single bad track on here tbr. this one has such a nice balance between the beat programming and the deep melodies. it's more concise than elseq or nts and really nicely mastered, none of the harsh his that elseq grinds through.

I don't know wtf song is which with these guys.

i don't know any of the titles either, i have to look in itunes to figure out which one ppl are talking about

I only remember recks on because I put it on a mixtape one year. And spl9 because it was released before the album and sounds like a flying saucer attack.

spl9 is soooo hard

Blade lore sss

Probably a more important poll would be what image you see when you look at the Exai album cover, little jogging monkey or happy clown face?

LOL

I see Tetris level 8 tbh

Listening now. Good lP

Definitely "irlite (get 0)"

Listening in one headphone and thinking sund is otm

yeah i was thinking about voting for that one. it's very prog!

autechre shreds

My headphones broken. But autechre sounds good

Jatevee tho

cover mystery was debunked by Sean on watmm - it's writing "e x a i" in scrambly munted pixels. Right now I am wearing a t shirt that says "Ae t-" in the same manner.

You rule

Blade lores pinching the drum up tone wise is good

this is the only one since oversteps that i don't really dig. i don't know why, seems like they either were trying for something that didn't quite click, or they weren't actually trying for something and i'm just wrong to always be looking for them to be trying for something. i think someone on the original exai thread said it was unusually fatiguing to listen to, sonically, and that does ring true.

J otm

that was me, i don't know if it's the mastering or what, though map says that's really nicely done. it's not something i noticed with elseq or nts. but yeah the whole thing is yet to click with me. in irlite (0) at 5:50 there's this great little melody (i know, we don't come to ae for melody anymore) that builds for 10 seconds, stutters a bit then more or less disappears and i always think 'waaah come back!'

spl9 is a fuckin banger though.

was hard choosing between jatavee, Flep, and recks on. In the end recks on with its sinewy bass and menacing mood won.

Octo otm

the only two I really know as standouts are bladelores and irlite

The ending phase of recks on is some of the most aurally frightening music I can think of. I get a huge physical presence from it, and that presence is definitely not friendly.

I quite like the fact Nodezsh is basically a deconstructed version of Rae Sremmurd's 'No Type'. spl9 bangs hard!

Voted Nodezsh. And jogging monkey.

only thing that really irritates me is that CD skip effect on "1 1 is". really thought something was wrong with my copy until I listened to it on Youtube

Should be a thread for songs that convince you there’s a malfunction. See also stereolab cobra - wherein a subtle way it sounds like a car with hydraulics n bass is driving by. Had to check myself that it wasn’t the song

the worst are the ones with a faint police siren in the background

Lol yeah

btw listening to parts of this and Amber (due to the two polls on ILM now), they're really not so different

the only two I really know as standouts are bladelores and irlite

I had a listen to this (for what was probably only the third time) the other day and yeah it's between these two for me.

can't unsee little jogging monkey

Voted bladelordes without no Clue of what it sounded like. Eris would be proud. Turns out it was dope

Flep is seriously underrated

umm, cloudline
but spl9 bangs

Flep is seriously underrated

same with YJY UX

i always see happy clown face

Automatic thread bump. This poll is closing tomorrow.

Automatic thread bump. This poll's results are now in.

i'm a little surprised. i thought it would be like 4 votes for bladelores and then tumbleweeds

hype thread. this one was a nail biter

surprised bladelores didn't do better. But fuck yeah recks on!

I love how (keyosc) was titled to fuck with the WATMM fanboys. (and yes I guess I am one too)

'prac-f' into 'jatevee C' is such a great transition. There's so much to love on this record, though (well, if you're an Autechre fan, that is - I still expect anyone who hasn't got into Autechre's approach to be completely alienated by it)

is it weird that i find this one of the most accessible autechre records

"irlite" is basically house music for about two minutes

no it's not weird, i think this was one of those records where people talked about them going back to a more accessible sound after the Confield/Draft/Untilted run

that it manages to be very catchy while also being contorted heavily by the same wormhole that effects elseq and the nts sessions is something

i guess i think of oversteps as the most pleasant autechre record on earth so idk why this surprises me

i don't find it accessible, lots of aimless, jerky beats and too many tracks seem to be made out of the same sound (i mean internally, different elements as transformations of each other timbrally, and from track to track, not as much tracky distinctiveness)

i find it extremely listenable too, i used to just put it on repeat on long drives etc

Listening back to this one. I'm not sure how to feel about it now despite having a lot to say about it back then.

It certainly has its moments, and Bladelore and Irlite feel totemic, but a lot of the rest just blurs into one monochromatic sound without too much standing out to me, like a scrolling tapestry of Autechre music with the odd little remarkable moment bubbling to the surface for the blink of an ear.

I quite liked tuinorizn this time round - not a track I'd really noticed before. But this one sounds like the sort of thing I could have on in the background and passing me by entirely, while closer listening doesn't unveil much in the way of variety. I guess I feel rather similar about Elseq and NTS Sessions (so in that respect Exai/Elseq/NTS are also part of a mindcanonical trilogy to me). It's not that I don't like them, but they seem to be more about endurance listening. Sign/Plus felt like a refreshing break away from that - much more immediate, more pop, more varied in terms of timbre.

feel like it might be cool to listen to this as a 4xLP, where you can just put on a different record every day, because one thing I noticed is when I'm listening to this in the car over the span of like 4-5 days every track on it sounds awesome, but when I'm powering through it all at once I feel like my head's been spinning around a cement mixer. kinda true with the NTS Sessions too, with 1-3 I always have cool thoughts about the first few tracks, then you reach hour two and suddenly you just zone out. if I reverse the order of the records though it feels like a totally new experience, since you're hearing the deeper cuts without reaching that aural fatigue stage. idk maybe I just ain't as hardcore as these guys need me to be.

this is one of their very best and low key hookiest albums

i see i said the same thing a few years ago lol

yeah there are a lot of hooks in this thing, in the context of ae it's fairly accessible. they distill some of the most 'iconic' spaces they've been to in the longer recent works on here. production / mastering is also super sweet.

Out of all their albums that have never quite clicked for me this is the one I'd most like to change my mind on. The four lp approach would probably be the way to go - otoh I've never really come round to one of their albums once I've (more or less) written it off. Still, no harm in trying.