SOME ARTIFICIAL INTELLIGENCE...

This post-Easter Monday Tuesday is feeling a bit like a Monday really, so to cheer my little self up, I digged out a couple of classics this morning so I could have some nice choons to play at work, starting with Plaid’s Not For Threes album of 1997, still my favourite album of theirs with Trainer (which, obviously, is NOT an album as such because it compiles all of their pre-Black Dog stuff, including the Mbuki Mvuki album). Not For Threes always sounded rather cool and very unique (and still does nearly ten years on), and features vocal contributions from Nicolette (they partly produced her magical Let No-one Live Rent Free In Your Head album) and Björk. Since, it’s really been downhill for Ed Handley and Andrew Turner really, but, after the recent unexpected Orb resurrection (how topical you’ll note), I am not giving up hope to see the Plaid boys kicking arses again.


PLAID: Not For Threes (Warp Records, 1997)

Another lovely classic to slide down me earwax is B12’s fantastic Electro-soma (Warp, 1993). The cover informs us: "This is number 4 in a series of Artificial Intelligence albums from Warp". Enough said really. It is actually scary to think that I bought every single album in the series (eight including two compilations) back then when they were released, between 1992 and 1994, and that they have shaped my musical tastes in such a way.


B12: Electro-Soma (Warp Records, 1993)

The Artificial Intelligence series:
1. V/A: Artificial Intelligence (06/07/1992)
The compilation that started it all.

2. POLYGON WINDOW: Surfing On Sine Waves(11/01/1993)
Richard ‘Aphex Twin’ James under one of his many guises. To this day, my favourite album of his.

3. BLACK DOG PRODUCTIONS: Bytes (08/03/1993)
The word ‘seminal’ was invented for this album.

4. B12: Electro-soma (29/03/1993)
Another all-time classic from the sorely missed duo, who have been resurrected recently and played quite a few live dates. No plans for a new album it seems…

5. F.U.S.E.: Dimension Intrusion (07/06/1993)
From the man also known as Plastikman, Richie Hawtin.

6. SPEEDY J: Ginger (21/06/1993)
A rather ambient release from the Dutchman and certainly a far cry from his Pullover EP released a bit earlier or the very techno sound of recent years.

7. AUTECHRE: Incunabula (29/11/1993)
I’d already spotted The Egg on AI, but this just stole my heart. Looking back, this album sounds almost 'conventional' compared to what they have brought out since.

8. V/A: Artificial Intelligence Vol. 2 (30/05/1994)
The concluding part, with contributions from Mark Franklin, The Higher Intelligence Agency, Link (Global Communication), Beaumont Hannant, Richard H. Kirk and Seefeel as well as Autechre, Balil (BDP), B12 and Speedy J.