Exai
"Exai" (and companion EP "L-event") features album artwork by The Designers Republic. Following the album's release, fan speculation included theories that the artwork was based on Conway's Game of Life 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 exercise. "Exai" is Autechre's eleventh album, and the title may be derived from a phonetic rendering of the Roman numeral "XI," or eleven, which also appears in one track title: "T ess xi." "Exai" has received positive reviews, with a Metacritic average rating of 80 out of 100, based on reviews from 26 critics. Grayson Currin of Pitchfork Media 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 was more enthusiastic, calling the album Autechre's best in fifteen years.
Artwork and Title
Exai is the eleventh album by electronic music duo Autechre, released on Warp Records. At the time of its release, "Exai" was Autechre's longest album to date. Like other Autechre albums, "Exai" was followed a few months later by a companion EP entitled "L-event".