I've (finally) got AI2 and have just worked my way through the UK-Dance
discussions on the AI series that the Designers Republic decided to include
in the layout (which did my head in after a while), as well as the
"Where In Your World?" text on the back.
A few thoughts...
1. Ages ago now I (unintentionally) kicked off the AI good/shite debate by
stating that I thought AI was pretty damn good. Jon Drukman didn't; mainly
due to the B12/Black Dog Detroit techno sound similarities. Fair enough; I
thought it was good and relatively new but then I missed out on the
May/Atkins/Transmat "true" techno era so it was all pretty new to me at the
time.
David Toop (the guy who wrote the back cover AI2 text; maybe he is the Warp/
Designer's Republic net spy?) seems to dismiss all this by stating that such
"partisan analyses" (yeah; cheers mate) is irrelevant. I don't think it is,
simply because Black Dog, B12, Hawtin, etc. have all stated their
appreciation for the old Detroit sound. For them, its a starting point for
their music and not due to the "society and language" of humans as David
Toop indicates. It _could_ be a bit of both; however its definitely wrong to
dismiss all recent electronic innovators (May, Eno, Cage, Reich, Tangerine
Dream, etc.) as David does.
2. Reading the extracts on the LP design, Steve Hebditch pointed out that
Warp can shift their products fairly well due to the packaging and
promotion of the material. This seems, in part, linked to the whole
"selling" of the AI situation with some people immediately accepting this
"new" form of music and others dismissing it as pretentious wank with
clever marketing. Whatever; Warp seem determined to carry on with this
theme and ignore any claims that say otherwise. Evidence of this is shown
below the AI logo in the advert in the NME (for AI2);
"Meaningless marketing slogan : NOT APPLICABLE"
It is also shown in the definition of artificial intelligence included on
the back of AI2;
"One test for AI requires that performance improves with experience
and operation."
Ultimately, I suppose it doesn't really matter whether it is a totally
new form of listening experience or not; if the music is good then we'll
keep on buying.
Anyways, lets see what the AI2 series of albums are going to be like first;
with or without the hype. The AI 'Motion' video looks rather tasty too...
Sorry if this bored you senseless; its just probably me getting paranoid in
my old age :-) There must have been a reason for the Des.Republic to
include the UK-Dance discussions; I just wanted to know why. Are they trying
to show public reaction to AI? Are they saying "look at this bunch of
wankers talking about Detroit techno when really AI is part of human
society...blah, blah...Indian cultures had it...etc..."? Are they just
jumping on the net-hype bandwagon? Or maybe they thought it just looked
nice...
<Sigh> I just don't know...
[CiM]
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Simon Walley | 1E 76 9A 0D 78 3A 3B 1C | /\ \
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