Thoughts from the 3rd March.
With the collective there are checks and balances, the combined rhythmic and melodic impulses connect through the tissues of humans, vibrating naturally. Maybe this will fool the Artificial Intelligence (AI) bot, which can replicate individuals, but the collective human wave has the combination of randomness, continuity and subtlety that will defeat the programmer. We are the robots, do do do do. According to musicologist Michael Spitzer ‘music is something bred in our bones’. Can AI ever be expected to replicate the randomness of humans when placed together with ironic meta modern sentiments? The beauty of Kraftwerk was their humanity, they introduced the machine but with naivety (and great songs) at a point where the machine was not feared but excitement abounded due to the possibilities becoming available. Cybernetics pre-empting the internet. Mass communication through wires. There is something in AI which seems almost old fashioned, like watching sci-fi show Blake’s Seven on a wet and windy November Sunday afternoon. Kraftwerk still feel ultra-modern, the future whilst being embedded in the past. AI seems comically uncultured, taking Kanye West’s vocals for example you can create your own representation of one of his tracks. Is this innovation or legitimising the cover artist, providing creative potential for the masses based on what has happened before. Kraftwerk were innovative, generally ignoring the past, tomorrow’s world. AI has been around for years in music, a secret alien takeover kept quiet from the general populace since the sequencer became embedded in the Roland SH101 mono synth or as a standalone sequencer in the battleship grey Alesis MMT8. Automation in ProTools or Logic software programmes then arrived. Preset sounds built into music making modules are programmers deciding what sounds you would like to use in their machines, providing an AI style link. The Roland TB303 bassline was designed as a bass emulator, a robotic bass player, rather than the squelching acid machine it became. The machine was out of control, a Frankenstein monster let loose by its inventor.
