how random is random? nature is a random flow organized and intelligent. the music on this cd was inspired by the idea of chaos and randomness. the machines interacted with my compositions and with each other, showing creativity. I integrated random elements (lfo's) that were able to change my compositions while recording, giving the music a "flowing" touch. within this process the machines and their user have the same importance. the change of a sequence, the order of patterns, the moment when a certain effect was chosen, and many other parameters were changed and taken by machines. by this way, nature was integrated in the compositions. nature is within the machine as no artifact can deny the existance of randomness.
(from the liner notes)

The next release on the list is Interactive Music. For this album, Uwe programmed his machines to randomly select sequences, effects, and other aspects of the music, giving his music-making tools a substantial amount of control over what is heard. The result is a colorful, well-assembled full length with a bit of unpredictability mixed in. None of these tracks fit too comfortably into genre groups such as house, trance, chill-out, etc, but many of the songs do use subtle elements common in those groups.

Most of the songs are quite unique and contain more of a happy or neutral-mood vibe then anything explicitly "dark" (like Orange), so prepare to enjoy yourself when loading up the disc player. Overall, this album really stands out because of the fused combinations of bizarre sounds and the compositional concept of allowing the gear to make some of the decisions while the songs played out. The sounds themselves are rather impressive and a certain sense of randomness can definitely be heard in many of the songs. Sandwiched between Flowerhead and MU, how could you go wrong??

1. Perm: The opener is the techno equivalent of handcrank starting an engine from a late 19th century vehicle. A few digital sputters, drum belches, and suddenly everything springs to life. Interlocking hi-hats, synthwaves, and blankets of backing chords storm your auditory system and then THUMP... the bass drum ya know? I almost get the impression that things begin this way to warm up the processors. The track is almost housey, almost. A short, upbeat danceable tune which will Light Up your Life.

2. My Life As A Zip File: This track was featured on the first ri compilation. I must admit it makes a more favorable impression on me now then it did a couple years back when Real Intelligence was the only ri disc I owned. Somehow, it's much more appealing in the context of the full album. A drone-like background theme blends with drum sequences that pause and hiccup in odd places, and that superphazed handclap (made famous on BASS) makes a few appearances too. Chimes sing the main melody. About 75% of the way through, the track winds down with a minute or two left of Dots-like textures, hi-res style.

3. Dynamic Link: This is a downtempo track with a nice groovey bassline, a reverberant glowing synthwash, and a looped atonal texture put through cycles of brightening and dulling filters. The percussion sounds used seem to be this track's most salient feature. And later on, a quirky melody fades in: forwards, backwards, sideways....

4. Kinky Sky Candy Drops: Candy drops? Yes. Funk-a-tech tasty and bursting with flavor. But the intro and outro definitely leave more of a mentallic taste in the mouth. At this point, one has to stop and wonder how Atom Heart goes about pulling sounds like this off. The bass really sounds like it's coming through a wall, or from another car, or something...Sure as hell ain't my bass! Oh wait, everything is coming back now. Sugary sweet. Later on, deep gated voices add some volume (space, not sound), here comes that rubbery iron sequence again. Willy Wonka Funk.

5. Cyberjam: Rattum tat taddum tap tapapap clap. Truly, some of the machines are taking over now. They surprise us squishy humans with a jammin' flow, sterile yet sympathetic. 808 on cloud 9. This track also contains the aforementioned Handclap. One could also use this track as a futuristic adventure game expansion soundtrack. Tap-clik-tap.

6. I See No Evil: Another upbeat track. This one seems to demand that you turn your volume knobs clockwise, it's almost instinct. An ambiguous voice repeats the track title throughout without getting old, though he could be a little more polite and not spray bytes while he's talking. Many sounds pack a certain punch that may lead to foot-tapping...tap at will. Like a few others on this album, it also ends with a decompositional phaze in which many sounds fade out and those that are left prove to be interesting enough on their own. These aural orphans often find one more little dance to do before going on their merry way.

7. Assembler: For me, this song takes the spacecake. Multidimensional chorus winds, antique computerchip chirps, binary divas, it's packed with goodies. It's minimal while at the same time many sounds swirl around without setting anything out of balance. No assembly required, but you might want to play this while you debug and compile. It will certainly make it more fun!

8. Drift: I'll never tell....