Exai

WARP234

Exai is the eleventh studio album by Autechre released on Warp Records. It was originally released on February 7th, 2013.

Exai was made using much of the same setup and process that were used for Oversteps -- mostly Max-made with edited live jams and some planned compositions. [1][2]

Tracks

FLeure

• The original titling is "FLeure", uppercase L, however via bleep and other streaming services it was incorrectly changed to Fleure, lowercase l. [3]

T ess xi

• The sequencing in "T ess xi" was mostly done in Logic as opposed to Max. [4]
• The first track on Hanalgig is an extended outro version of "T ess xi".
• Despite the title similarities to "r ess" from Oversteps, Rob noted in the WATMM Ask Autechre Anything that they don't share meaning.[5]
• The main harmonic progression of the track consists of a 16 bar progression which is repeated twice, after which every repeated version moves one semitone down from the previous loop. [6]

tuinorizn

• An earlier version of "tuinorizn" appeared in the Oversteps tour shows [7] (example)
• A common interpretation of the title is that it is phonetically pronounced like "twin horizons".
• "There's glottal shit on the bas[s]line"[8]
  • im not expanding on this

bladelores

• The reverb wash that appears at the end reappeared later on "splesh" and "all end" from NTS Sessions 1-4.
• Part of the name likely comes from lores~, a resonant lowpass filter max module.

runrepik

• Alongside "tuinorizn", "runrepik" also appeared in the Oversteps tour material.[9]

deco Loc

• One of the samples for "deco Loc" was found to be from a Bols liqueurs ad, which was uncovered via one of the 4utechre's streams.[10]. The other sample is still unknown.
• The sample manipulations are archived via a video-cut up patch made around 2005-2006 by Rob. Sean took the patch and "did some hip hop type stuff with it."[11] Sean noted the percussion he added was "wood and rubber." [12]
• "deco" may refer to the assembly command of the same name for "decimal output".

recks on

• "recks on" may be a reference to the slang term "wreck shop."

18 (keyosc)

• The track title “18 (keyosc)” is likely in reference to it being the 18th track on the album.

Tracklist

#	Title	Length
1	FLeure	4:51
2	irlite (get 0)	10:01
3	prac-f	4:20
4	jatevee C	4:14
5	T ess xi	6:43
6	vekoS	6:42
7	Flep	6:43
8	tuinorizn	3:40
9	bladelores	12:19
10	1 1 is	7:18
11	nodezsh	8:40
12	runrepik	4:35
13	spl9	7:06
14	cloudline	10:13
15	deco Loc	5:27
16	recks on	9:21
17	YJY UX	8:24
		2:00:39
18	18 (keyosc) [Japanese CD exclusive]	8:57
Total		2:09:36

Trivia

• The sessions that spawned both Exai and L-event were initially compiled as a series of 12" records before having one of them split off into L-event. As mentioned in the WATMM Ask Autechre Anything, they saw Exai "as a box of four 12"s" with L-event being interchangable with any of them.[13]
• Many of the tracks on Exai were from trial runs of The System they were building for live shows. [14] [15]
• At just over 2 hours, Exai was by far the longest Autechre album upon release. It was quickly beaten by their next album, elseq 1-5, which was more than double the length of Exai.
• The album artwork is a heavily stylized/pixelated rendering of the text “Exai”.
• The album name itself is a phonetic spelling of “XI”, the roman numeral for eleven, as well as being an anagram of “AE XI”, meaning “Autechre eleven”, or “Autechre’s eleventh album”

Links

• AE_STORE
• Apple Music
• Bandcamp
• Bleep
• Discogs
• Soundcloud
• Spotify

Credits

• Autechre (production)
• Rob Brown (writer)
• Sean Booth (writer)
• Noel Summerville (mastering engineer)
• The Designers Republic (design) [16] [17]