Re-Make, Re-Model
Roxy Music’s debut arrived in 1972, and it didn’t sound like conventional rock music.
IS AI THE FUTURE of Music?
From Re-Make/Re-Model to Artificial Intelligence
What if the future of music isn’t actually as new as we think?
When I started putting together my latest Rola Colas song, I wanted to do something different.
I wanted to go back.
Back to the early 1970s.
Back to the strange sounds coming out of Roxy Music.
Back to Brian Eno.
I was a big Roxy Music fan — particularly those first two albums. I still have my original album today.
And listening back to those records, I started thinking about something:
Wasn’t Eno already asking some of the questions we’re asking about AI music today?
Not literally, of course. Artificial intelligence wasn’t producing songs in 1972.
But the idea of allowing technology, experimentation, electronic systems and unexpected sounds to become part of the creative process was already there.
Re-Make, Re-Model
Roxy Music’s debut arrived in 1972, and it didn’t sound like conventional rock music.
It was art rock, glam, electronics, saxophone, guitar, experimental textures and strange studio ideas all colliding together.
Brian Eno’s synthesiser treatments were a major part of that sound. Contemporary descriptions of the album emphasise how Eno used electronics as electronic sound rather than simply trying to imitate conventional instruments.
And look at those song titles:
Re-Make/Re-Model.
Even the title sounds like a statement about transformation.
Take something.
Change it.
Rework it.
Reimagine it.
Make something different.
That idea feels remarkably appropriate in the age of AI.
My Rola Colas Experiment
That’s what I’ve tried to do with this song.
I’ve taken the track names from the first two Roxy Music albums and turned them into a new lyrical idea.
Not a cover.
Not a remake of a Roxy Music recording.
Something new.
The chorus becomes a kind of musical roll call:
Re-Make, Re-Model, Ladytron on the run,
If There Is Something, then the future’s just begun.
Two H.B., Chance Meeting, Would You Believe?
Sea Breezes, Bitters End — give me something to believe!
Then it moves into the second album:
Do the Strand, Beauty Queen, Strictly Confidential,
Editions of You — the sound became essential.
In Every Dream Home a Heartache, The Bogus Man in view,
Grey Lagoons, For Your Pleasure —
A tribute, Eno, to you!
The song titles themselves become part of the composition.
Why Eno?
Because Eno represents something important in the history of recorded music.
He helped demonstrate that music didn’t always have to be about conventional musicians simply playing conventional instruments.
Roxy Music’s debut combined avant-garde ideas with accessible songs, while the band’s second album, For Your Pleasure, pushed further into experimental territory. AllMusic describes the second record as balancing experimental and accessible elements, with synthesised textures playing an important role.
That’s the bit that interests me.
The technology didn’t eliminate the music.
It expanded what could be done with it.
From Synthesiser to AI
Today we have another technological leap.
The synthesiser has been joined by computers, digital audio workstations, samplers, software instruments and now generative artificial intelligence.
The tools are different.
But the creative question remains:
What can I do with this new technology that I couldn’t easily do before?
That’s the question I’m asking with Rola Colas.
I write the songs.
I write the words.
I create the concepts.
I decide the sound.
I experiment with prompts.
I decide what stays and what gets thrown away.
And AI becomes another part of the production process.
Was Eno Already Looking Towards This?
I wouldn’t claim that Brian Eno was somehow predicting modern AI music.
That would be stretching the history.
But his approach to experimental music provides an interesting historical comparison.
The idea that a musician can establish conditions, systems, sounds and processes and then listen, select and shape the results is very different from simply sitting down with a guitar and playing a song from beginning to end.
And that makes Eno an interesting figure to think about when discussing AI.
The machine doesn’t necessarily replace the creative person.
It can become part of the creative environment.
The Future Has Always Sounded Strange
Every generation gets its new technology.
Tape recording.
Multitracking.
Synthesizers.
Drum machines.
Samplers.
Digital recording.
Computers.
Software.
Now AI.
And every time, somebody asks:
“Is this really music?”
Yet the technology becomes normal.
The sounds become familiar.
The musicians learn how to use it.
And eventually somebody comes along and does something nobody expected.
Perhaps that’s what is happening again.
So… Is AI the Future?
Maybe.
But perhaps a better question is:
What will humans do with it?
Because technology doesn’t write the story by itself.
Someone still has to have an idea.
Someone still has to make choices.
Someone still has to decide what sounds good.
Someone still has to reject the rubbish.
Someone still has to say:
“That’s the one.”
And that’s where my Rola Colas experiment begins.
I started with a memory of two Roxy Music albums sitting on my shelf.
I ended up with a song about Brian Eno, artificial intelligence and the strange relationship between humans and machines.
Funny how things turn out.
A Tribute to Eno
So this song is my little journey backwards.
From AI…
to synthesizers…
from computers…
to analogue tape…
from today’s technology…
back to 1972.
Back to Roxy Music.
Back to those strange sounds.
Back to the beginning of something.
And perhaps that’s the real connection.
Re-Make.
Re-Model.
Experiment.
Create.
The technology changes.
The question remains the same:
What can we make with it?
This one is for Eno.
A tribute to the sound.
A tribute to the experiment.
And a tribute to the future that was already beginning in 1972.
Synth Genius…