Uno de mis álbumes favoritos de Autechre ;)Digamos es una mezcla entre lo viejo, lo nuevo, moderno y de lo mejor. Este álbum aprovecho mucho el potencial.Mis canciones favoritas son:jatevee C, 1 1 is, prac-f, bladelores, cloudline, YJY UX, deco Loc, spl9.Les recomiendo a todos los fanaticos y los que quieren inicialmente a escuchar esta banda.5/5

Bladelores is amazing. So is jatevee C and tuinorizn ❕

Listening to Exai now. It's one of those albums you listen to occasionally. Then feel guilty for that. Some of it is truly epic. I say this on a personal level but some of the tracks you'd like to play to the masses. THAT epic. Most of the fickle people won't get it. But a good percentage will find it most profound. Which is what counts.

Even by Autechre's typical standards, "Exai" is one unfriendly beast. I'm a longtime listener and I found it almost impenetrable at first. My usual strategy is to find some unguarded entry points that I can use to crawl inside the megastructure and explore. If you're looking for those, here they are: jatevee C, bladelores, 1 1 is, nodezsh, YJY UX. Venture beyond at your own risk.The average track length is 7 minutes. Much like the "Versions" edition of "Quaristice", the longer tracks tend to begin chaotically, but then change into a quieter second movement. It's these second movements that interest me most: more melodic elements present themselves, themes emerge, and sometimes the track takes an abrupt left turn. Here and there, you get a tantalizing snatch of almost-recognizable musical styles (dubstep, dub, etc) viewed through Autechre's unique lens.I pre-ordered the digital copy of Exai, listened a bit, and was initially put off. Some time later, I heard YJY UX almost by accident and suddenly connected with it, which led me to delve in further. But even now, I find Exai best in small doses. Yes, the sound design is flawless (use headphones), and yes, there are great moments waiting to be found. No, it doesn't cohere at all into a unified whole, and no, it doesn't have the same emotional weight as their early work (but hey, that ship has sailed). So my final opinion is mixed.Still, I must hand it to these guys: while many musical acts mellow out with the passing of time, Autechre have gotten, if anything, even LESS accommodating. I mean that as a compliment. I really do respect their devotion to artistic rigor, even if it doesn't always stir the heart or agree with the eardrums.

Not sure what I think about this album yet. What I do feel is that CD 1 feels a bit formulaic and mechanical. CD2 strikes me as being both more inventive and emotionally grounded. It definitely doesn't have the impact for me of their best though - for me: Incunabula, EP7, Confield, Draft 7:30, and Chastic Slide. Don't know how anyone could declare as a masterpiece?

cloudline, hot shit.

In my opinion Autechre need to slow down with the releases or at least release something new or original. The past albums have sounded too similar to me and I feel that Exai also falls into that category. It has some good tracks on this album such as jatevee-C, T ess xi and 1 1 is but a lot of the others just sound like the other stuff they've released. Its worth a listen but don't expect it to be something new or original.

Amazing release, really happy to have it !

another great release from autechre, and now it's mechanical 8-bit-like schizophrenia, with notes of everything you ever heard from sean and rob - beautiful ambience of early releases, dnb-like glitch madness of lp5/ep7, melodic overstep-ish pieces, etc.. but, somthing different is indeed achieved here - particular style, that holds these, at a first sight, inconsistent tracks - it's undercurrent, as in every latest autechre release: 8-bit-alike dos ibm glitchiness (i cannot descibe it better, folks, but that's just me), and it's really amazing, counting the fact that tracks really differ one from another. the only thing i find exausting about this release is its length.. 2 hours of autechre non-stop seems too much for me, so i'm used to listen to only one of cds at the time (it really depends on a mood, both cds sound amazing).. well, all in all, it's an amazing release, i'm happy to own this badboy in my collection, one of the most reach and wealthy releases from autechre, and if you did not like it, it means that you cannot percept it right.. yet. peace!

Wo_w ok we get it same ol format. Not one thing new here. Same ol hey look at our cool computer graffx 8bitbullshit cover art. Trying tooooo hard boys . Time to hang up yr laptops boys.

OUCH. Amen, I guess. For me the songs compiled onto this LP may be the pinnacle of IDM (most recently). Many a peculiar quality in the groove of these songs. And, o, when those two tracks flow so perfectly into each other. It's brilliantly simple to groove to this, when you're in the mood.

Personally I find this album to be enjoyable. When I first heard it I was certainly amazed and it had an instant impact (which is odd because usually Autechre albums can take a while to grow on me). However, I find the staying power of this album didn't last long at all and it was probably among their worst records in that regard. I can't exactly explain why this is the case or if other people have had a similar experience however in my opinion I'll say this is a good album, but far from their best. Being released after oversteps and MOT, the melodies in contrast come across as a complete U-turn and sometimes the melodies are even non-existant. Which is unfortunate. It is however very much a beat driven album so it will suit people who prefer that. Overall this albums seems to have had relatively positive reviews, however, I think the test will come in 5+ years etc to see if this album will ripen with age / has the staying power of the likes of LP5, Chiastic Slide, EP7 etc. cons - The one thing I dislike most about this album is the track progressions, which seem very 1 dimensional and can come across as rather repetitive/uninspired. Summary:Disc 1 sounds more immediate. Higher tempo. Some songs sound like what you would almost expect hearing autechre live. Disc 2 has an almost Gescom vibe. If Gescom were mixed with 'move of ten'. More abstract 'hip-hop'ish with reverb, weird vocal samples, unusual old school hip-hop drum machine patterns etc. Preference depends on your mood.Favourite track is keyosc as it seems like the perfect contrast ending to finish the album off. After 2 hours of exai it's nice to have an ambient track!

After "Amber" this is my second favourite album by autechre, two cds is a fine generous gift from Autechre, two albums filled with Action, darkness, crazy trips and sci-fi experiences, The cd2 turns out to be better than the first cd. It took me some several listenings untill i could assemble the beautiful madness of this album. My favourite tracks in cd1 are: "Prac-f", "Jatevee C" and "Bladelors" the last one is absolutely amazing, really hynotic and sublimal. In the cd2 my favourite tracks are "11 is", "Nodezsh", "Runrepik" and "YJY UX".

Autechre boast a discography spanning two decades, incorporating 11 full-length albums and many more EPs. During this time the duo of Rob Brown and Sean Booth, from Rochdale, Manchester, have constantly explored new ways of creating sound, testing the limits of what constitutes electronic music. While it is often said that their albums have formed a linear progression, gradually increasing in abstraction, complexity and inaccessibility, it is probably better to view each release as a standalone exploration of a particular concept. Often carried out in micro-detail, each one brings with it a new take on texture, style and technique. Their music is visual, sometimes cinematic, and has often brought to mind images of machines and aliens.What then of Exai, Autechre’s eleventh and longest album to date. Running at over two hours in length and extending over 17 tracks, I feared that Autechre’s tendency to explore ideas so meticulously may have finally tipped the balance. I was wrong. This is not just a superb record, it may well be Autechre’s magnum opus. Exai starts inconsistently and continues that way. Opening track “FLeure” is dense, frantic and beat laden. Sounding like the chatter of aliens, it’s probably what most people associate with Autechre at their most inaccessible. Yet “irlite (get O)” draws heavily on sharp synthesised strikes and seems quite retrospective in its outlook. Not quite Incunabula, but not a million miles away. Similarly on “T ess xi” a contrast is drawn between 90s sounding synth chords with a chaotic, otherworldly beat. The theme here seems to be about pulling things together; about contrast rather than focus. The rewards for a long-time listener are clear and the first disc closes with the twelve minute stunner “bladelores”. This is as striking an individual track as Autechre have produced for some time. Its slow, deliberate beats provide the anchor for the gorgeous landscape that unfold as the track progresses. The second disc opens with the head-nodding “1 1 is” which has a melody hidden within it that is reminiscent of EP7’s “rpeg”, while “nodezsh” uses similar drum programming techniques to much of Draft 7.30, particularly those found in “IV VV IV VV VIII”. “cloudline”, one of the most fascinating and structurally complex tracks on the album, seems to have elements of 2001’s Confield about it; the alien sounding atmosphere, the muffled beat and maybe even a hint of “Bine”. We again hear Autechre’s fondness for techno in “deco Loc” and “recks on” before the wonderful, symphonic closer “YJY UX”.You could write an essay about Exai - it is that diverse, complex and ambitious. And while I have not felt this excited about an Autechre album for many years, the scope of Exai means it feels like a different type of Autechre album altogether. Whereas previous albums have tended to explore a particular technique or concept, be it the ambience of Amber or the tempo of Untilted, Exai seems to be a symposium of ideas, drawn from many years of producing music. In this sense, it could almost be Autechre’s ‘best of’ album. However, in true Autechre fashion, it doesn’t comprise individual tracks from their numerous albums but instead splices together the many styles and techniques they have pioneered and then perfected over the past two decades. Overall, the sheer scale of what is on offer here is remarkable. It is a coming together of everything Autechre are good at, even if, like the tetris blocks on the album’s cover, they don’t always fit together perfectly. It even made me wonder if this is in fact a goodbye from Autechre. I truly hope not, but If it is then this is one heck of a send off.

So terrific. It really helps if you have recently listened to Oversteps when listening to Exai. Exai is really beautiful, it combines the lush, deep soundscapes of Oversteps and combines it with the amazing and developing beats and programming of Untilted. The way that the echoes and deep sounds correspond and come in and out to the skitters of the percussion is truly magnificent. The fact that Autechre can tread such new ground and surprise me after this long really shows a lot, and like Zantman said, no need to get super technical, simply take in the breathtaking beauty and detail of the album.

On Oversteps, Autechre made a big step back to melodic composition augmenting their convoluted rhythms and textures. I wasn't expecting Exai to be "the same" - this is Ae after all - but it often sounds to me like a completely different artist than those involved with Oversteps (yes, I'm aware it's still Booth and Brown, the point still stands).Exai is the first Autechre album that adds NOTHING to their "legacy". It is a concoction of the industrial bleakness of Confield, mixed with some of the masturbatury rhythmic excess of Draft / Untilted, and the atmospherics of Quaristice. Occasionally, echoes of Oversteps drop in here and there, but this is Autechre back to being "obtuse" and excessively programming-focussed. Many of these tracks go on for far, far too long and do nothing new that we have not heard before.Bladelores is one particular nadir I find: it's just one filtered pad that never shifts notes, merely sustaining under ridiculous beat-munching for far, far too long. Sure, they spent a lot of effort on going nuts with the beats, but one pad? For most of a 12~ minute track? Lazy!Flep, tuinorizn, deco Loc, vekoS, 1 1 is, prac-f and Fleure stand out for me, as all being drum-focussed workouts, favouring obscure, intentionally difficult rhythms and textures and little else to latch on to. On the occasions that pads, leads, plips and squelches do form some sort of melodic layers, they often do so without forming anything memorable. recks on, irlite (get 0), runrepik and YJY UX are good examples of this.jatevee C has some delicious synth work though, with some off-kilter donks over those huge pads. T ess xi follows that with some of the best chords on the album, recalling old Megadrive soundtracks put through the wringer, though I'm less fussed with the latter half where it degenerates into irritated splutters. cloudline recalls some of Ae's LP5 / EP7 era work, with its skittering, destroyed hip hop beat underlying some "barely there" synth stabs.Spl9 has some punch and intensity with some quirky melodies over some huge beats. But this is rare on Exai, had there been more Mcr Quarter-style industrial ear-bleeding workouts, I'd have approved. No the vast majority of it feels like Confield mk 2 with somewhat more elaborate MAX patches. Disappointing and tedious. Exai will likely convince many that they are listening to a higher art form, despite being quite a vacuous and unmoving experience. Oversteps remains their best.

I agree that Exai seems to lack a singular direction. When listening to the album, it often feels like there's an underlying "sense" or "mood", in my experience often evoking dread or a gritty nighttime urban ambiance, but overall the statements or aims of the tracks are veiled to the point of obscurity.I definitely feel like Oversteps possessed a significant degree of sonic experimentalism without self-indulgently delving into unmusical territory for the sake of cacophonous edginess as Exai seems to do. I'll admit that at times, perhaps as a "defense mechanism" to reduce listening anxiety/increase appreciation, I tried to "rationalize" and legitimize what I was listening to; in the sake of "bladelores," where there's really no melodic movement until the closing minutes of the track during which the percussion stabilizes somewhat into an inkling of a melody, I unconsciously gave the song's intentions the "benefit of the doubt" by considering its melodic stagnation (especially of the static pad) as a deliberate obbligato whereby an effect of "making great movement while running in place with existential directionless" is evoked.

I fell totally in love with this instantly. I don't find it at all challenging, just so beautiful, almost natural (Autechre and natural in one sentence first time since Amber?) Listening to this release is pretty near effortless.When Quarstice came out I felt like something new was happening with Autechre (but it also felt like a memory of something old). I was excited and full of expectations about what would come next.Oversteps surpassed my expectations, it was just a WOW album for me.I really didn't expect that whatever came next could be compared, especially after Move Of Ten disappointed me somewhat... Exai came next and it inadvertently turned out that I was right, what came next couldn't be compared, because what came next was just so much... More.

It's 1998 and I'm a metalhead at a party. Someone plugs Autechre and I'm blown away and instantly hooked to this alien world. Having drowned myself in "IDM" for many years I eventually wandered other musical paths. There are occasional surprises in this genre though, like Frank Riggio. Of course it's impossible to achieve the same effect 15 years later, but I'm sorry to say I feel a bit like snc about this album. To me it's not a world to dive into but rather a long sit trough annoying, dis-harmonic complex structures. Maybe I've just over exposed myself to this kind of music and ended up becoming a snob. The high ratings are still nice though, because I'll always regard Rob and Sean as the fellas that cracked my skull one evening and I'm eternally grateful for that.

to create a masterpiece this late in the game can only mean one thing....ALIENS...im convinced...

xD