New Futurism: Inside 5 Mag Issue 215
Rick Wade, Tilman, James Chance, a Chicago House history primer and more inside issue 215 of 5 Mag, out now.
When musicians and artists talk among themselves, any discussion about the impact of AI becomes a discussion entirely about AI. That's what happened when we spoke to Rick Wade. It was a conversation initially about an album and then a mix. And then AI was mentioned and we talked about nothing else for the rest of that day.
Many in our community regard AI with a sense of unease, anger, sometimes revulsion. AI-generated text is eating the internet, making a mess of our submission processes and burning through our inboxes like hot garbage. AI-generated images are fooling grandma into believing Trump was waving a musket at Valley Forge. Every record label in existence seems to have lined up to sue every AI music generating app in existence.
For someone of his stature, Rick Wade is an unmatched enthusiast for the technology. It's not clear that there's anyone else with a back catalog like Rick's who will argue on the side of using generative AI as a tool to make music, embracing one possible future of music production that many loathe. You won't hear AI in any of his music now — not at least in any of the tracks on his album Deep Incantations. But the cover of the album was generated by Rick using AI trained on his own style of illustration. To make the point a little more directly: so was the cover of this issue of 5 Mag. When the generative AI apps progress to the point where he's satisfied with their output, he thinks he'll be using those too.
That argument — welcoming AI as a tool to amplify rather than a threat to be feared — is at the heart of this issue of 5 Mag. Rick argues from the perspective of 30 years of making music — from the purely analog set-up of the first Harmonie Park records to the sense he got of watching "voodoo and witchcraft" as Mike Huckaby showed how he made tracks on computers and software. Full contents are listed below; download this issue now.
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#CoverMix: Rick Wade — Santify Vol 10
#SYNC: Cajmere (2011)
Contents From Issue #215:
The Cover Mix: Rick Wade — Sanctify vol 10. This issue started with this mix. It was during our conversations around this mix that Rick Wade got on the subject of AI and the cover story for this issue was made. The mix was too good to hold and the story was too NOW to put on ice. So this time around, you get them both together.
5 Mag Book Club: A People's History of Chicago House. In the poetic and robust Chicago House Music: Culture and Community, Marguerite L. Harrold captures the history of house music with the eye of a scholar and the passion of a true believer.
RepeatAll: Tilman — The Spirit Continues. Album of the Month: Drop the needle on The Spirit Continues and Tilman will take you back in time.
Radio Dazed: American Broadcasters Will Never Pay Performers. Faced with another push from the US Congress to close a billion dollar loophole, the AM/FM industry is fighting hard to keep performance royalties from artists.
The RunOut: Game of Chance. The confrontational and sometimes brilliant musician James Chance passed away in June. Chance invented the future — and had a lot to do with making people dance again.
Future Shocked: Rick Wade on Art, AI & the Future of Making Music. The future is not AI but AI will be a part of it. When it arrives, Rick Wade plans to be here for it.
Heavy Machinery: The DJ That Makes Midi Controllers. Designed with the lover of analog machines in mind, Viper Synth's ROBOTRON transforms the cold, back-lit MIDI controller into a tactile piece of pseudo-vintage hardware.
AI Comes for Music Mastering. Ravenomics: Cheap AI mastering from distributors is pricing out a modest but important side hustle in the music industry.
SYNC: Cajmere. The first of 10 mixes Mr. Curtis A. Jones, aka Cajmere, aka Green Velvet, released in collaboration with 5 Mag starting in 2011. Once lost, now found.
Generating Dreamy Delta Waves with Skyridge. Screengrab: Ed Martinez generates gorgeous, sculptured atmospheres with vocal samples with ZAK Sound's latest plugin.
Music Reviews 215. Your home for longform reviews of new and reissued dance music tracks from Joseph Malik ft Digital Liquid (F*CLR), Wallace (On Loop), Dennis Quin (PIV), Session Victim (Delusions of Grandeur), Void Complet (Chobu), DimSum (My Cup of Tea), Manakinz (Model Citizens), Blaze with Seth Troxler and Franck Roger (Slip N Slide), Brisa with Jon Dixon and Byron The Aquarius (Cosmocities), Jordan Gardner and Martyn Bootyspoon (Outlier), System of Survival (Fventi), Suburban Knight (Detroit Techno), Lay-Far (In-Beat-Ween), Glo Phase, Jon Delerious (Nordic Trax), Crooked Man (Vicious Charm) and Tevo Howard.
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