''Exai'' is the eleventh album by

electronic music Electronic music is a genre of music that employs electronic musical instruments, digital instruments, or circuitry-based music technology in its creation. It includes both music made using electronic and electromechanical means ( electroa ...

duo

Autechre Autechre () is an English electronic music duo consisting of Rob Brown and Sean Booth, both from Rochdale, Greater Manchester. Formed in 1987, they are among the best known acts signed to UK electronic label Warp Records, through which all of Au ...

, released on

Warp Records Warp Records (or simply Warp) is a British independent record label founded in Sheffield in 1989 by record store employees Steve Beckett and Rob Mitchell and record producer Robert Gordon.Southern, Richard (2003) "Label of Love: WARP", X-RAY, ...

. The double album was released in digital form on 7 February 2013, with double CD and quadruple vinyl versions released on 5 March 2013. At the time of its release, ''Exai'' was Autechre's longest album to date. Like many other Autechre albums, ''Exai'' was followed a few months later by a companion EP entitled '' L-event''. The tracks, all from the same sessions, were conceived of as a series of 12" vinyl records, during which ''L-event'' ultimately "became a separate entity" that the duo sees as "interchangeable" with the 12"'s that comprise ''Exai''.

Artwork and Title

''Exai'' (and companion EP ''L-event'') features album artwork by

The Designers Republic The Designers Republic (also tDR, and styled as The Designers Republic™) is a British graphic design studio based in Sheffield, England, founded in 1986 by Ian Anderson and Nick Phillips (graphic designer), Nick Phillips. They are best kno ...

. Following the album's release, fan speculation included theories that the artwork was based on

Conway's Game of Life The Game of Life, also known simply as Life, is a cellular automaton devised by the British mathematician John Horton Conway in 1970. It is a zero-player game, meaning that its evolution is determined by its initial state, requiring no furthe ...

or binary code. Autechre members Sean and Rob were initially reluctant to discuss the album as they "wanted to see what people could figure out," but ultimately confirmed that the artwork depicts a heavily pixelated

typography Typography is the art and technique of arranging type to make written language legible, readable and appealing when displayed. The arrangement of type involves selecting typefaces, point sizes, line lengths, line-spacing ( leading), ...

exercise. ''Exai'' is Autechre's eleventh album, and the title may be derived from a

phonetic Phonetics is a branch of linguistics that studies how humans produce and perceive sounds, or in the case of sign languages, the equivalent aspects of sign. Linguists who specialize in studying the physical properties of speech are phoneticians. ...

rendering of the

Roman numeral Roman numerals are a numeral system that originated in ancient Rome and remained the usual way of writing numbers throughout Europe well into the Late Middle Ages. Numbers are written with combinations of letters from the Latin alphabet, ea ...

"XI," or eleven, which also appears in one track title: "T ess xi."

Reception

''Exai'' has received positive reviews, with a

Metacritic Metacritic is a website that aggregates reviews of films, TV shows, music albums, video games and formerly, books. For each product, the scores from each review are averaged (a weighted average). Metacritic was created by Jason Dietz, Marc ...

average rating of 80 out of 100, based on reviews from 26 critics. Grayson Currin of ''

Pitchfork A pitchfork (also a hay fork) is an agricultural tool with a long handle and two to five tines used to lift and pitch or throw loose material, such as hay, straw, manure, or leaves. The term is also applied colloquially, but inaccurately, to ...

'' thought the album had some good moments, but was too long at two hours, and would have been improved by more editing and trimming. Chris Power of

BBC Music BBC Music is responsible for the music played across the BBC. The current director of music is Bob Shennan, who is also the controller of BBC Radio 2, BBC Radio 6 Music, and the BBC Asian Network. Officially it is a part of the BBC's Radio ...

was more enthusiastic, calling the album Autechre's best in fifteen years.

Track listing

Release history

References

External links

Official release announcement
{{Authority control Autechre albums 2013 albums Warp (record label) albums Albums with cover art by The Designers Republic