In 1992, the then-young independent British record label Warp Records launched a series entitled Artificial Intelligence. A foray into what the label called “electronic listening music”, the seminal chain of albums forever altered the way electronic music was viewed, written, and heard. At the time, most of the electronic music known to the public was club/rave/dance music. Though this had it’s place, Warp’s founders, Steve Beckett and Rob Mitchell, had a vision of electronic music that could be listened to and enjoyed rather than only dance to. Almost all of the contributors to the series went on to become well-known and highly influential electronic acts. The series today still serves as a historical landmark in the ways of electronic music, being the first to promote itself as listening music rather than as a new play-thing for DJ’s in nightclubs. Now this isn’t to say that the music doesn’t have head-nodding beats, or that toe tapping isn’t appropriate, but unlike many of the acts of the time (such as Orbital), the songs in the series were often too slow, too subtle, too melodic, or too complex to be built for the floor. The Artificial Intelligence series was, in many respects, the beginning of the genre known in the United States as Intelligent Dance Music (IDM), a label that is scoffed at by many musicians, but that stuck nonetheless.
Depicting an android sitting and listening, Steve Beckett said of Artificial Intelligence that “You could sit down and listen to it like you would a Kraftwerk or Pink Floyd album. That’s why we put those sleeves on the cover of Artificial Intelligence – to get it into people’s minds that you weren’t supposed to dance to it!”
The first release in the series was a compilation album including several big names such as Richie Hawtin, Autechre, I.A.O. (also known as Black Dog and later to become Plaid), Alex Paterson of The Orb, The Dice Man (Richard D. James), and Speedy J. The contributing artists were given a chance to talk a little bit about the series, and their comments were included in the liner notes. Peculiar artists like Richard D. James, contributing in the compilation as The Dice Man, but known more commonly as Aphex Twin, to be ironic, says that his favorite electronic musician is “[himself], mainly due to totally new ideas”. He also explained that his music is written for “nice people with three ears”, whatever that is supposed to mean. Other artists took it more seriously. Richie Hawtin stated that he contributed because he thought “there definitely needs to be a change in direction with the music scene as of late”. Sean Booth and Rob Brown, acclaimed as the brilliance behind Autechre, said that “there [weren’t] enough people pushing new and original music”, and wrote music for “those who get goosebumps listening to their favorite track”. Almost all of the artists state Kraftwerk as a major influence and came from disco or techno backgrounds. The artwork, which intended to portray sedentary listening, also enclosed the album title in parentheses and used a technical font, a theme that would carry throughout most of the series.
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The sepia-toned, rocky shores displayed on Surfing on Sine Waves match the dense acid-techno textures the album contains.
The next release, Surfing on Sine Waves, came from the legendary Richard D. James, under the pseudonym Polygon Window. Acid Techno, James’ major influence, was at the forefront of the album’s ideas. Many of the tracks incorporate the styles of James’ signature type of dance music: repetitive, thumping beats piled over mangled synth lines, sounds that would be compiled on Aphex Twin’s Classics. But the haunting overtones on many of the tracks, including the beautiful ambience of the beatless “Quino-Phec”, the dark chords lingering over the repeated bassline on “Untitled”, the slow piano riff on “If It Really is Me”, or the repeated chanting of “Introducing integrated inside with electronic techno music, controlled manual by Aphex Twin mind program…” on “UT1-Dot” all hinted at something larger. The seeds planted here all indicated a shift towards a more convoluted form of music. Over the years, Aphex Twin became adored both for listening and dancing. He later coined the term “braindance” to describe such music – as both an exercise for the mind and the body. Since his contribution to Warp’s series, he has released several studio albums, including the acclaimed Selected Ambient Works, Vol. II, which has been written about in Continuum’s 33 1/3 series, comprising of Eno-inspired tracks, sometimes beautiful and sometimes creepy, full of many songs like “Quino-Phec”. …I Care Because You Do, one of the best acid-techno albums ever released, would span the sounds here and exaggerate them, making the harsh sounds here into harsher tracks like “Ventolin” and pretty ones here into gorgeous ones such as “Alberto Balsalm”. He would play a major role in the development of the Drum N Bass genre with his iconic Richard D. James Album, and would release several hit UK singles, most notably the tongue-in-cheek “Windowlicker”. He even began to dabble in prepared piano, much like John Cage, on his album drukqs. Admired by musicians and nonmusicians alike, James continues to be an innovator in electronic music and is a major influence to thousands of electronic artists as well as artists as well known as Radiohead and Linkin Park. He has not released an official studio album in 13 years, although a recent series of records, speculation about the identity of a band called The Tuss potentially being him, and a kickstarter campaign selling rare unreleased material gives the impression that James isn’t done pumping out new tunes yet.
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The cover of Bytes was straightforward and down-to-earth, much like the enjoyable melodies found in tracks like “Caz”
Artificial Intelligence continued next with Bytes by Black Dog Productions. The trio, Ed Handley, Andy Turner, and Ken Downie, created songs in various collaborations with each other, giving each combination of members their own name, resulting in a track-listing that contained several different “bands”. The album is one of the most melodically memorable albums in the series, crafting several lines of harmonies and melodies that blend together brilliantly. The tracks all have a very similar feel, built on catchy hooks and evolving drum patterns. They shifted gears rapidly and abruptly, sometimes having several ideas lined up within the same track. On “Yamemm”, a looping drum pattern suddenly ends and a new melody is brought in, which quickly turns sinister when a chunky bassline is added. “The Clan (Mongol Hordes)” features a key change and gradually changing chord patterns, while “Carceres Ex Novum” lays down an enjoyable melody accompanied by a few piano and synth parts, and remains one of the best techno songs of the era. The group would release two more fantastic albums, both of which showed an improvement on the formula presented here, after which Ed Handley and Andy Turner would break off and form scintillating synthesized sounds under the moniker Plaid, while Ken Downie would continue to record under the name The Black Dog. The album was pleasant and memorable, and hindsight reveals the foreshadowing of later works by the three in this album, perhaps most clear on Plaid’s Trainer compilation. Plaid would receive the most acclaim in their works, collaborating with high profile artists like Bjork and Goldfrapp, providing several excellent remixes, some of which would be included on the compilation Parts in the Post, and release several other fantastic albums. Not for Threes and Rest Proof Clockwork were particularly significant and influential. Even now, after twenty years, the duo continues to release groundbreaking work, such as their most recent release, which came out just a few weeks ago, Reachy Prints. Their sound is easily recognizable, though it has grown more puzzling over the years, as layers of complex sounds fuse catchy melodies to abstraction and stunning beauty to mystery.
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Electro-Soma has themes centered around science fiction and space travel, clear on the cover and in the music.
Fourth in the series was Electro-Soma by B12, the brainchild of Mike Golding and Steve Rutter. The opener, “Soundtrack of Space”, accurately describes the rather cheesy sci-fi sound of the album. Rooted firmly in techno music, this album also struck a nice middle ground between dance and close listening, intriguing listeners with vast, spacey arrangements juxtaposed to tight electro-drums. The album parallels quite well with LFO’s critically acclaimed album, Frequencies, from just a few years earlier. The album is rife with futurism and outer space references, sounding like the soundtrack to some far away space station. “Hall of Mirrors” accurately represents the group’s sound, with the drumming style typical of the albums in the series, synthesized strings panning out a melody, and a springy bass part adding flavor. “Obsessed” is another highlight and clearly demonstrates the comparison to LFO made earlier. “Telefone 520” is probably the best song on the album, with a toe tapping rhythm that is a great example of dance music that is also meant for listening. The album is not the strongest in the series, as it doesn’t present any strikingly new ideas, but it is enjoyable nonetheless. B12 recorded under several names, including Redcell and Musicology, and had some breakthrough tracks, including Scriptures (which would be included at the end of the Artificial Intelligence series). They have released three stereo albums to date, but have the disadvantage of having been inactive from 1998-2007. The reason for this hiatus is still unknown.
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The only cover not in the same font and parenthesized format, Dimension Intrusion was an exploration into acid techno and its compatibility with ambient music.
Dimension Intrusion, the fourth installment in the series, was released by Richie Hawtin as F.U.S.E. It is the only album in the series not to follow the font style and parenthesized title. Using deep acid synthesizers to produce his own unique sound, Hawtin’s album was a contradictory statement in repetition and change. The title track, with an incredibly catchy bassline and an overarching synth chord, was particularly striking, while tracks like “Substance Abuse” echoed the notions of acid pioneers like 808 State. “Theychx” is deceptively ambient, while “Into the Space” is very thoughtful. “Nitedrive”, another ambient piece, sounds very much like the works of early electronic composer Jean Michel Jarre. A very unique release in the series, Dimension Intrusion proudly displayed the classic 303 and 909 as the iconic synthesizers they are, and presented the ideas in a new way. The album, for all its similarity, spanned several styles, and elevated Hawtin from a lowly DJ to a renowned electronic artist. This album helped give rise to Hawtin’s later project, Plastikman. He has been active in this alias as well as a few others for the past two decades, diving deeper into the acidic territory presented on Dimension Intrusion and moving farther and farther from the dance music he was rooted in. Though his name isn’t as large outside of acid music circles, he remains among the most respected Acid House composers around, and is one of the few to make a more deliberate and provocative form of the genre, providing it with abstract ideas that would help boost it from club status to something that could be taken more seriously.
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One of the more “ahead of its time” albums in the series, Ginger was Speedy J’s predecessor to important IDM works like Public Energy No. 1 and A Shocking Hobby
Jochem Paap, a Dutch musician whose stage name is Speedy J, was the mind behind the fifth Artificial Intelligence release. By this point, the series was getting more and more experimental, evident from the harsher sounds on Dimension Intrusion. Speedy J’s debut album, probably more deserving of the “IDM” label than the Artificial Intelligence albums that had preceded it, were a fusion of disco, funk, techno, ambient, house, and acid. The album starts on a tense note, with the title track, which sounds like a subtle security alarm from some futuristic world. The first of the series’ albums to use vignettes (with the exception, perhaps, of the sudden sound-changes in Bytes), each of the “Fill”‘s had a seemingly random number, with “Fill 3” appearing on the original compilation. The album is perfect in its ability to position dance tracks beside “electronic listening” tracks, going from the active “R2D2” to the technical “Fill 14” and back to head-bobbing with “Basic Design”, as just one example. The album gives an overall sense of being more advanced than the previous albums, taking advantage of empty space, pauses, and abruptness in a way that was absent on albums like Bytes and Electro-Soma, where the musicians seemed insistent on filling every moment with gushing synths. One particular highlight is “Pepper”, with a consistent bassline and chopped up vocals amongst uneven choir-synth snippets, creating for an utterly moving experience. “Beam Me Up!” pays clear homage to electronic’s great ancestors of disco and funk, sampling directly from those genres and creating a deliciously bright medley of melodies. Speedy J would soon become a serious part of the development of IDM, releasing critically acclaimed albums like Public Energy No. 1 and A Shocking Hobby, which were extremely experimental and abstract. His signature brand of abstruse electronica was instantly recognizable. In the late 90’s and early 2000’s, he collaborated with another famous electronic musician, Mike Paradinas (aka μ-Ziq), in the project Slag Boom Van Loom. He now runs his own record label, Electric Deluxe, but has not released a proper album since 2002. His abilities both as a DJ and as an innovator are still admired by many musicians, and Public Energy No. 1 and A Shocking Hobby still sound far ahead of their time.
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A groundbreaking release, Incunabula was the first in a long line of pioneering works by Autechre. The cover, which might be interpreted as some digital cliffside, could be compared to the landscapes created by tracks like “Bike” or “Windwind”.
The last studio album of the series, Incunabula, was the debut of the legendary electronic duo, Autechre. Like Ginger, Incunabula represented a huge step forward. While many of the albums before it in the series had balanced between dance and listening, it was clear that Autechre had no interest in making dance music. It had been over a year since their contribution (“Crystel”) to the compilation that began the series, and Autechre hadn’t rested. This album showed a clear progression towards a more mature sound. Strikingly brilliant in every way, Incunabula is still held in high regards by critics and fans alike, regardless of Autechre’s admission in interviews that it sounds “cheesy” in hindsight. No other artist has matched the level of outside-the-box thinking present even in Autechre’s first album. It opens with the chilling “Kalpol Introl” and is followed by the shimmering echoes of synths carved out by “Bike”, which is probably the most dancefloor-friendly track on the album. “Autriche” features muffled voices behind a hollow, ambient chorus, while “Basscadet” frantically chants “I don’t have any idea what was goin’ on.” over noisy bells, drums, and synths. “Eggshell” expands on “The Egg” from the original compilation in a more ambient manner. “Windwind”, the highlight of the album, twists sounds in and out of each other in a pulchritudinous but urgent manner, setting up a textured soundscape. “Lowride” mocks low-riding cars with an electronic cowbell and a street-like sound, sampling from Miles Davis and creating a funky atmosphere, while “444” closes the album with several memorable synth tunes overlapping. Only one year later, Autechre would return with Amber, a gorgeous electronic album that ranks among the genres best. soon thereafter, Amber would be followed up by Tri-Repetae, a mechanical album that would guarentee them a place in the electronica hall of fame. Along with Aphex Twin, Autechre is one of the most well known electronic groups, as they were and are a pioneering force throughout music, and have a discography that spans many styles and continued to get more and more experimental as time went on. By 2001, they would release Confield, which baffled and inspired electronic musicians with the new ideas and peculiar arrangements. Autechre continues to release cutting-edge music to this day. Their most recent album, the beat-assaulting Exai, was released in 2013. Unparalleled in innovation and creativity, Autechre may not be for the lighthearted, but their avant-garde electronic music laid the groundwork for most electronic music in the 90’s and 2000’s, and pushes the envelope as we speak. Their influence has been far reaching.
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The final compilation in the series depicted flowers emitting sound waves, perhaps in an attempt to connect electronic music to the natural world. The album featured many of the same artists present throughout the series, all of whom had deepened their sound, as well as several new artists, who would also be influential after the conclusion of the series.
Finally, Warp released another compilation, on May 30, 1994 entitled simply Artificial Intelligence II, to close the series, making it officially 20 years old. The album revealed significant progress of many of the artists from the first, showing that Warp had figured out their goal and how to achieve it. Some of the artists from the first collaboration appear here, including Autechre, Speedy J, B12, and Balil (a Black Dog Productions alias), all of whom had tracks here that demonstrated more maturity and less dancefloor-oriented music than they had at the beginning of the series. “Symmetry” and “Chatter”, in particular, proved the steps made by these musicians, the former being an intense build-up of washed-over synths, the latter being an oddly-timed piece with little discernible melody. Several new artists appeared here, as well, some of whom would become very important in their own right, including Seefeel, who were a large part of the development of drone music, and Link, more commonly known as Global Communication, whose ambient techno album 76:14 (which had its own 20th anniversary on June 1!) received global praise (though I don’t discuss it in detail here, I recommend it). The tracks by both of those artists, “Spangle” and “Arcadian”, respectively, make up the other highlights of the compilation. Warp released a VHS tape, entitled (Motion) to accompany the series, and it can be seen here. The series represented the seeds that would be planted for many blooming electronic musicians, all of whom would become massively influential in the IDM scene as electronic music matured. But more than just the starting point for many of the electronic pioneers, Artificial Intelligence was a unique idea in and of itself. Warp Records sought to find the best electronic musicians in the business, and the series was among the first to market electronic music as more than a dancefloor utility, as more than a mindless genre. The series kickstarted a movement that would help to make electronic music a genre that could be taken seriously. Without such a movement, much of the rock, pop, electronic, and jazz music we hear today may not be possible. Unlike many historical points in music, Artificial Intelligence is a series that is not only interesting from a historical perspective, but is enjoyable as a work of art. Its forward-thinking, listening-oriented techno music holds a little something for everybody, electronic fan or not. Many of its albums could act as great entry points to electronic music, and particularly Bytes, Incunabula, and Surfing on Sine Waves are albums that display fully why Warp Records is one of the most enjoyable and most important record labels in modern electronic music.
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