Various Artists – Artificial Intelligence

By 1992, the British rave explosion had generated so much creative energy that seemingly overnight a whole world of new sounds had shot through the cosmos. Coupled with increasingly sophisticated programming software, higher chip capacity, and lots and lots of MDMA, one tribe in the UK gathered together on a compilation called Artificial Intelligence. Released by a fledgling Warp Records, the collection introduced the world to artists including Richard D. James, Autechre, and Alex Patterson. Harnessing the computer’s ability to create seamless polyrhythms, textures and arrangements that would have taken entire orchestras to replicate, the artists on Artificial Intelligence saw the future of computer music, and Warp’s new 30th anniversary reissue further reinforces its import – not to mention that every single track bangs.

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