Autechre
Exai

I remember when, still completely ignorant of anything electronic, in my ignorance, I defined that unknown field to me as something that could be done in 2 seconds, putting four sounds together and sequencing them with a computer: I was a classical musician back then, a keyboardist and singer in various bands, from prog, to Pink Floyd-esque psychedelia, to doom sludge with black undertones.

The year was 2005 when, listening to that masterpiece named Kid A, filled with the electronic music I had so snubbed, I decided to delve deeper into my understanding in that direction and, attracted by a cover as minimal as it was beautiful (I'm talking about Amber by the ones reviewed here), I threw myself into the study, discovering a world that was not just boom boom, but could be as intricate as it was deep and emotional, even if generated by sounds not coming from traditional instruments.

From then on, I dug so deep into the subject, that today, electronic music ranks among my favorite genres, discovering Aphex Twin, Warp, the so-called IDM, but also trip-hop, ambient, experimental, drone, passing through dark wave and even techno, immersing my being in a vast panorama full of chromatic nuances, worthy enough to stand alongside or even surpass all other musical genres.

Autechre were my key to entering that world, as previously mentioned, the personal pillars that opened up a new vision of what I loved most: music.

Now we are in 2020 and 7 years have passed since this work, Exai, was released. So many things have passed under the bridges that I have also been doing electronic stuff for quite some time, fully immersed in this genre, experimenting myself, but still today I cannot comprehend how certain things in the Autechrian production are done or even conceived.

Exai is a mysterious musical question mark, a 2-hour-long monolith (later they would up the ante with the 5 hours of Elseq and the magnificent 8 hours of the latest grandeur NTS), a comprehensive, penetrating, and exciting compendium of all that Autechre (but also electronics as a whole) had been up to that point: it speaks the language between avant techno and ambient melodies present in the first phase of their long career, of that apparent regularity and gloom that oozed from monstrous works like Incunabula or Tri-Repetae (T Ess xi / Bladelores / Jatevee C). It stages oblique scores, mutant synths, roaring insane and distorted drum machines on anomalous reverberations that here and there come in as if to melt the surrounding metal (vekoS / Flep / nodezsh / spl9). It moves from almost normal universes, strong with almost standard rhythms to then crumble as the track progresses (tuinorizn / irlite (get 0) / recks on / runrepik), immersing, as if to let it breathe for a moment, into ambient structures/non-structures that are mutable and luminescent (Fleure / cloudline / YJY UX).

With this work, Autechre opened their third phase, after the beautiful alien harmonies overshadowed by anomalous impulses of the '90s, and after the ultra-amorphous, cerebral and almost soulless raids of the '00s. With this work, they produced a mysterious and indeed beautiful and profound work, despite the cold and inhuman drafting of its compositions. A gigantic and tentacular musical Cthulhu with which anyone who wants to understand new electronics must come to terms.

Exai is and remains their point of no return, 2 hours of descent into the inferno of what can and cannot be considered Music. An avant-garde compendium that, while giving rise to numerous new projects (see Arca, or Herndon, and many others) remains unsurpassed and unsurpassable.

An almost inhuman short circuit that makes its executors, Rob Brown and Sean Booth, two born precursors, now as almost 30 years ago.