Bleep

Back in the early days of home computing, programming music on a PC was not the easy drag-and-drop experience it is now. The work of Doris Norton is a testimony to that. Take, for instance, her 1985 LP Artificial Intelligence. Using a PC and some Roland gear, Norton meticulously programmed the record’s instruments and textures from scratch. In doing so she created everything from percussive sounds to pipe organs to alien approximations of her own voice. The record she made with these tools is a collection of volatile electro that, despite its digital birth, is characterised by a very human sense of mischief. A fully-computerised version of Devo would provide a good touchstone for Norton’s work. Artificial Intelligence has now been reissued by Mannequin.