- On his latest high-concept album, Lee Gamble wrangles an unruly choir of digital voices.
- The IBM 7094 became the first computer to sing when, in 1961, scientists programmed it to perform the sentimental love song "Daisy Bell." Later that decade, HAL 9000 sang the same tune in 2001: A Space Odyssey as astronaut Dave Bowman dismantled it, causing the machine to revert to its most basic operations as he regained control. Today, that scene seems increasingly prophetic as artists struggle to reclaim creative agency from a growing field of artificially intelligent interlocutors. Musicians like Grimes and Holly Herndon have embraced AI, making available digital models of their own voices for their audiences to manipulate. On Models, Lee Gamble approaches the problem from the opposite direction, creating a group of purely digital performers with no human input. As with his previous high-concept albums, though, Gamble is careful not to let the gimmick overwhelm the music.
Although every voice on Models is digital, not all are AI-generated. Gamble uses a variety of techniques to produce vocals that hum, quaver and soar, some singing wordlessly and some attempting to enunciate audio that he fed into a neural network. As the LP progresses, these robotic performers become more human and more affecting. A singer emerges from the digital ether on opener "Purple Orange," trying (and failing) to communicate through dense layers of Autotune. But by the third track, "Xlth c Spray," the vocals are all emotive sibilance drifting easily over a xylophone figure, tantalizingly close to intelligibility. A breakthrough occurs as "She's Not" features identifiable lyrics for the first time. A soulful voice intones "She's not… me" to an earworm melody, as if the singer is finally claiming her own distinct identity.
Of course, none of this would work without Gamble's consummate skill as a producer. These tracks are most compelling when his computerized performers are manipulated at the service of a bigger idea, as on "Phantom Limb," whose pizzicato strings and keening electronic blasts build a desolate atmosphere before the vocals even enter the frame. "Juice" is a propulsive synth-based affair that incorporates artificially slurred lyrics into its dreamy haze. Album standout "Blurring" similarly works as a moody trip-hop throwback in which the vocals complement, but never overwhelm, the loping bass and boom-bap beat. Conversely, songs that rely too heavily on Gamble's digital singers, like "Your Weight On My Arms," are more technically than musically engaging, impressive but not quite impassioned.
Models represents a big gambit. After a wave of audio deepfakes that mimicked real artists for streaming income, a project that touts its usage of AI will understandably be met with suspicion. With Models, Gamble is quick to distance himself from the lazy generative algorithms and creative shortcuts that others may indulge. It took him two years to build his system, and though a lesser artist might have gotten lost in its output, Gamble successfully deploys his robotic collaborators as tools in his sonic worldbuilding rather than as ends in themselves. At the beginning of a revolution in artificial intelligence that will see similar tools become ever more pervasive, Gamble provides a necessary corrective to the hype—a model for crafting human music amid the rising clamor of AI voices.
Tracklist01. Purple Orange
02. Juice
03. Xith c Spray
04. She's Not
05. Phantom Limb
06. Blurring
07. Your Weight On My Arms