The Judge
RAVES!
Date: 15/12/25
A Song For Our Times
A few weeks back, the estimable DJ Todd played a track on Real Synthetic Audio which made me sit up and listen.
Sequence Vogue are described as a synthpop/futurepop outfit dividing their time between Brussels and Paris, blending dark beats with dissident lyrics. This is evidenced by the following track, Through Wind And Rain, which comes from a recently-released EP with the same title.
The 'dissident lyrics' include lines such as:
"The louder they force us to cheer
The more the lies are built on fear
To speak your mind is now a crime
Act upon it, you'll serve your time."
and:
"Go claim the thoughts they want to kill
And tame the storm, this is no drill
You still have some dreams to fulfill
Name what you see, and keep your will."
and the resounding chorus:
"Endure the hate, the wrath, the blame
Confront the crowd, resist the shame
Every snake will meet a grim end
Valor will rise, and never bend
Straighten your spine, square your shoulders
Words standing tall can break boulders
Bodies are strong, unbind the pain
Our minds will bloom through wind and rain."
At a tine when people in Greater England are being arrested under
so-called 'anti-terrorism' laws for holding a placard with four
standard English words on them, and others are being imprisoned
without trial for a year and more and are forced to put their lives on
the line via hunger strikes in support of their fundamental rights;
and at a time where German Staatspolizei are beating up peaceful demonstrators, this song carries a powerful message.
So listen below, si vous voulez, then come back here, because there's something else you should know about it:
Good, isn't it?
Except...
A fellow listener contacted Todd a couple of days after he played the track to tell him that Sequence Vogue has no corporeal existence. The band and its output is entirely a product of Artificial Intelligence.
And this raises another contemporary conundrum: does 'art' created by such technological means have any validity qua art? Does the method and the impulse behind it render the resulting output suspect or even a betrayal of the whole notion of creativity?
Such arguments will continue until the A.I. bubble bursts (sometime around next March, if the sages prophecy correctly). In the meantime, albeit with appropriate caveats, there are some things conjured up by these processes which may still be enjoyed and appreciated on their own terms, especially if they have resonances with what we can actually see, hear and deduce.
