Sudan Archives, shiv, Raphael Saadiq, Greentea Peng, Joy Crookes, B-AHWE, SHURA, Joesef & friends bring you music that's different, with soul. SOUNDS LIKE Artificial intelligence will have to wait for a while.

On the way to work the other day I was reading the usual music industry clips. On this particular day, I skimmed over pieces about how artificial intelligence (AI) ‘tools’ can help artists make music. One idea that was mentioned (I think purported to be a good idea), was how AI could be used to implant tracks from one genre to another. But does that sound like a good idea? Why would we want to hear that? My fear is, AI isn’t about creating artist tools at all, but a euphemism for creating music on the cheap (mostly, music to fall asleep to). So, I guess I don’t fully understand it. I didn’t understand 3D television either, and nobody watches that. Maybe I’m right, maybe I’m wrong. In the same set of clips was some commentary too from the boss of a US radio empire, who said that ‘music is somewhat of a commodity’.

By the time I arrived at work I was not in a happy frame of mind. Would you be? As ever, my go-to cure for dispelling all this nonsense was music, actual real music. Well, not just music really, actually. Specifically, the brand of mashed-up, innovative, genre-bending music that we collect together on Dark & Stormy Soul. And yes, I would have probably sandblasted the depression away with a lovely rum & ginger beer (+lime slice), but it being before 9 a.m. one just cannot face imbibing the acidity of lime juice. I made do with a strong, long black instead.

Perhaps no other artist quite embodies the spirit of Dark & Stormy than the R&B savant Brittney Parks, who makes music under the mysterious moniker of Sudan Archives. It was none other than The New York Times that described her very recent album Athena as the “soundtrack of the making of a goddess.” It is too. Highly recommended. Ohio-born, Los Angeles-based but otherworldly and distinctly African all at the same time, her exotic blend courses through the music – with violin at its beating heart. As with another D&S favourite Kelsey Lu, this trend of strings drifting back across the neo-soul genre is something to savour. One might wonder how or why ‘AI’ would fit into the work of Sudan Archives (or Kelsey Lu for that matter). She is already, musically speaking, a perfectly meshed cyborg. Just one with soul.

We were saving this D&S edition (vol. 5!) until January 2020, but when enough songs of this quality surface, then they deserve to be heard. Kicking off with Sudan’s epic string-drenched Down On Me, we segue into shiv’s Here. The Zimbabwean/Irish ex DJ is someone to watch – so good we’ve featured both of her recent singles on this edition. By the time the drum & bass of Raphael Saadiq’s This World Is Drunk pumps along, we hope you feel a little tipsy yourself – on the music if nothing else. The thing is, with this particular playlist series, the songs do more than get under your skin, they really enter the bloodstream. The beats, grooves, sonic touches and the lyrical sentiment (warning: broken relationships, broken hearts, broken people and appropriate swearwords do feature, often) kind of imbibe one with a sense of…darkness. But it’s a very human kind of darkness.

The gist of where we are going here is, that the sounds on D&S are chosen to move the human heart. Music made by Artificial Intelligence cannot move any human heart. It doesn’t fire up the human soul. Any more than it can mix a decent rum cocktail. So, Dark & Stormy fans and discerning listeners, while we listen up, and drink up, maybe AI music will just have to wait around for a while. And that would certainly cheer me up.

Listening notes: If sober, play in order. Otherwise, stir & sip. Shuffle don’t skip. Suggestion Spotify listeners: go to Settings, Playback - set crossfade to 10s. Other streaming services please install this feature!