Grant JonesThe furore around artificial intelligence (AI) infecting music has largely played out on big streaming platforms such as Spotify. Little has been written about how AI has now infiltrated independent platforms like Bandcamp, but let’s shine our banker’s lamp in the eyes of NueroModern. Supposedly hailing from Eastern Europe, in the country of Georgia, this outfit bills itself as a “generative music label built for listeners who want new worlds to live in. We use AI to spin real audience data into fresh artists, songs, and visuals – then we release, promote, and iterate at scale. Expect narrative albums, bold concepts, and a steady flow of discoveries.” It sounds like AI was used to write this pap, but when you’ve read hundreds of promotional material hyping up rappers, it’s often hard to tell.
To their credit, they aren’t hiding from the fact that this is fake music. The lack of subtlety makes it pretty obvious that it is artificially generated: the artwork has that hollow, lifeless style that is becoming synonymous with AI-generated art.
The biggest problem with this wave of AI-generated content, is that word ‘scale’. If this was a one-off, it would likely be a curio that wouldn’t be an issue. It’s the fact that NueroModern have dropped HUNDREDS of AI albums from HUNDREDS of AI “artists”, and it’s diluting Bandcamp’s Hip-Hop section with horrible, knock-off products. It’s like when the Wii got bombarded with shovelware. Crappy, quick-turnaround releases designed as a cash-grab. That’s the only reason to release this stuff in such high volumes – to make money. This is why any use of generative AI continues to feel mucky. Profiting off of human content and human art. Hell, I’m sure this very website has been scraped many times. “we use AI to spin real audience data” – what data exactly? How is it used? Spin isn’t even used in the right context. Have people agreed to this? There are many questions raised about the ethics of it all, and that’s before you get to the environmental impact of AI, the lack of transparency on data sources, and how all these AI companies have yet to work out how to make sustainable profits from it all.
My own negative attitude towards AI stems originally from using tools like ChatGPT and Co-Pilot, and finding it’s regularly incorrect. It can’t be trusted, let alone relied upon. They hallucinate more than Fat Joe telling stories on a podcast. So I came into this review feeling sandwiched between a tech industry heavy-handedly forcing AI into every new product as a selling point, and everyday new reports highlighting why AI is bad. Not just taking jobs or making perfectly good products worse, but killing livelihoods and even people. It’s quietly destroying everything it touches, and it seems Hip-Hop music is up next. But what of the actual record called “Orbit Together” by Saxtronomy? The singer/rapper here is called Lyra, although it sounds like two different people when she’s switching between roles. There’s an unknown male emcee too, who sounds clearer and more human, but similarly makes little sense. Lyra’s singing has this weird effect on it that means it’s often difficult to work out what she’s actually saying, so we’ll focus on the rap elements.
The bio on Lyra is written with your typical AI phrasing, but also seems to be poorly translated. “Orbit Together” isn’t just an album; it’s an invitation to a night class held right here, under our observatory’s dome, says the blurb, sounding like it was written on the back of a napkin by an inebriated Carlsberg marketing exec. Given the name of “Saxtronomy” is a combination of saxophone and astronomy, every song tries to follow a theme of stargazing between saxophone solos. And musically, it’s passable enough when it comes to the beats. To the untrained ear, in a world where music is often relegated to the background of a coffee shop, or to music that you study to (meaning your attention isn’t just partially elsewhere, but completely), I can see some brain-dead people putting this on a playlist. If you’re hoping for dope beats, and actual bars? You’ll have to wait a bit longer, until this AI technology improves. What unravels the whole operation is the lyrical dreck we’re served up:
Passing Scopes
“Morning benches trade names inside cases
Engravings ring: Tulip, Wheelhouse, porch places
Ushers stack thermos lids by azimuth wheel
Helmet-tenor ribs a grin through cases
Rent still climbs; cocoa steam fogs cracked glasses
Ultimatum soft: no dim; our benches peel
Passing Scopes, pass names, pass care in cups
Dim the grid, raise people; new routines build
Passing Scopes, porch meetups, kids and pups
We never drift; we orbit—trust rebuilt (hold)
Your keychain arcs, lands soft on the cases
We swap numbers on engraved scope cases
Rhodes pours oatmeal chords; patience gets real
Blue lantern crew logs check-ins by cases
Aunt Rosa writes Tuesday soup—Wheelhouse bases
If posts stay harsh, our benches turn to heels
Passing Scopes, pass names, pass care in cups
Dim the grid, raise people; new routines build
Passing Scopes, porch meetups, kids and pups
We never drift; we orbit—trust rebuilt (hold)
mmm mmm mmm mmm, mmm mmm mmm mmm mmm mmm mmm mmm, mmm mmm mmm mmm (mmm)”
Initially, there is an element of poetry to the structure, but you quickly see duplicated phrases and nonsensical terms. Every song talks about wheelhouses, or cites “azimuth” (a mathematical term relating to angles). Nobody talks like this, let alone raps or sings. The lone sense of humanity in here is the random mentions of rent increasing. “Aunt Rosa writes Tuesday soup” is about as interesting as things get.
AI certainly has its uses, but creating music is a human endeavour. If you’re doing rap, we’re talking about rappers that actually rhyme – that’s the minimum requirement. If you’re not rhyming, make sense. If you’re not making sense, flow to the beat. None of this happens. As long as artificial intelligence remains artificial, no AI rapper is going to be much cop. The best rap is built on truths – this is literally faking the funk. Hip-hop is bore from human oppression and at its core, is about skill, technique and connection. It’s from the streets, not the laboratory. The very premise of mimicry and biting, which these LLMs essentially are, is a cardinal sin round these parts. Building a rap empire on biting? Come on, now. Where’s the painstaking care and craftsmanship that makes this art?
With “Orbit Together,” we aimed to craft a sound so welcoming that critics can laud its depth, recognizing the painstaking care in every 12-bit sample and every improvised sax line, while everyday listeners loop it for comfort and uplift.
Depth? Craft? Fuck off. This is shallow background bum gravy. Second-screen music at its best. If it were elevator music, I’d get out on the top floor, press for the ground floor, and quickly get out. Then jump down the shaft to a slow, painful death. That’s what this is – soul-crushing. An insult to every talented, hard-working artist. Fuck this AI slop, fuck any AI slop – fuck Caution! NeuroModern as a staff, criminal enterprise and as a motherfuckin’ crew. And if you wanna be down with AI music, then fuck you too.