Mouse On Mars

★★★★ AAI THRILL JOCKEY. DL/LP

Electronic experimentalists promote an artificial intelligence-driven future.

That Mouse On Mars retain their relevance after 25 years is testimony to the Berlin duo’s singular boldness and creativity. Musically, AAI – or Anarchic Artificial Intelligence – is a magical, freewheeling trip through a forest of dense sub-bass, skittish rhythms and off-kilter melodies. But it aims higher than that. Jan St. Werner and Andi Toma worked with an AI tech collective and a pair of ex-Soundcloud programmers to create bespoke speech modelling software. Putting this into action with the help of writer and academic Louis Chude-Sokei, they created an artificial version of his voice used to sew a narrative throughout AAI. Their goal, they say, is to encourage us not to fear AI but embrace it as an antidote to moral and cultural stagnation. A lofty ambition, but one supported by a collection of tunes with groove at its synthetic heart.