I just don't get how people prefer their work from the past 15 years. It's just deliberately wanky and obtuse, as well as self indulgent to a ridiculous degree. Funnily enough, they've done nothing new or innovative despite how "experimental" they try and get.
ITT: Hot Opinions
>>60836231
Not at all, in fact the majority of people share my opinion. There's a reason why their work spanning from 1993 to 1999 is held to a much higher regard. /mu/ just likes to be contrarians.
>>60836180
it took them a while but they have been trying to make their music much more real time and improvised than in their earlier periods. They are really good at it now. I saw them a few months ago and what they did was way more focused than the 2014 soundboards out now. I have a sweet ass bootleg of the show too but I don't share it with you.
>>60836576
>There's a reason why their work spanning from 1993 to 1999 is held to a much higher regard
You mean 1995 to 2001 (maybe 03 if generous). Nobody (not even the band themselves) think the first two albums are anything but cheesy electronic.
>>60836576
>>60836883
I think 05 -08 is really good stuff when they went through that all analog phase.
>>60836883
>Nobody (not even the band themselves) think the first two albums are anything but cheesy electronic.
This is simply not true...
In the "dance community" they are still considered classics. Ask many of the prolific producers around (Martyn, Scuba, Perc, Modeselektor, Four Tet etc.) and even music critics (yes, including Meme-ero Scaruffi) and they will tell you that those two are still very important records. People tend to overplay how similar they sounded to other Warp artists at the time, because their sound was rather singular, they blended influences unlike others at the time, and also had a sternness that others lacked. They may not be so impressive to you nowadays, but take context into account and put it in perspective.
Their other work is not so inspirational. It's easier to much completely soulless music.
>>60836576
The funny thing is that people complained in exactly the same way about Chiastic Slide, LP5, EP7, etc. when they came out.
I don't care much about their recent work either, but if you call it "wanky and obtuse" then you're really just a bad listener.
>>60836180
that album is the fucking best in a way. When I heard it my immediate though a few tracks in was, damn they tought computers to play jazz music with each other
>>60837664
I'm not big on LP5 myself (too plinky sounding), but EP7 and Chiastic Slide were very deeply rooted in hip-hop, there was a reference point there that deeply tethered the more perplexing bits and made them enjoyable. It didn't seem so mindlessly abstract. In some ways I believe Exai had a few tracks that were going back in the right direction (particularly on disc 2), but then too often they go back to those overly difficult and fussy sounding tracks (like Flep or prac-f).
That's fine if you think that, but on your second point I think you're making some assumptions about their intentions that simply aren't true. They aren't trying to break any boundaries - in fact they try to stay removed from the larger context and framework of the current musical climate/scene - but intead trying to discover and explore new sound for themselves. Does that make them "self indulgent" or "wanky" like you've said ? Maybe, but I think it's just that they really fuckin like what they make.
