Jul 18 - For the Record - Episode 9

I've mentioned this web series before. It's produced by the Cosmic Shambles Network, and presented by Charlotte Ritchie. 

It promises to tell the history of music. Early reviews have been very positive. 

I'll post links to the episodes here to increase exposure.

This is the final episode.

Part Nine: Tomorrow 

In a world of streaming and AI, what does the future hold for music? We look at some of the more recent phenomena in the world of music including raves, electronic music, the Broadway musical, crowd funding and musical therapy. 

We speak to astronauts and space legends about why music is so important we sent it into outer space and how the power of live music can never be understated.

Part nine includes exclusive interviews, rare archive and performances from Ann Druyan, Chris Hadfield, Kelley Jakle, Charlotte Church, Robert Smith, Kate Nash, Dean Burnett, Martin James, Suzi Gage and many more!

This series is an entirely independent production made possible by fan support on Patreon and Substack. 

Episode 9 is here:

I will post a review of the series when I've had the chance to watch and also add links to the episodes. 

Jun 25: Keep Looping

Sugar have released their third new single after the two they released ahead of their recent UK concerts.

It's a characteristic, guitar-driven short punky blast of less than three minutes...

There’s a thief at the door. 

Always looking for more. 

Once you get in the feed.

Bob says of the song:

“Living in San Francisco, I have a love/hate relationship with AI. It’s bringing my city back to life, but at what cost to society and the environment? And do we trust the current regime to do the right thing with this new tech? The new song has more snarl, and the lyrics say it all: A touch of dopamine. The steady beat of the drum. Get used to the constant hum of the Lie.”

Warning: one rude word.... which you've doubtless heard before...

Mar 22: UCL and Trance

An interesting post on the UCL blog about the work of Professor Andrew Hudson Smith of CASA.

He has recently co-authored a book called Cities in the Metaverse, which tracks how digital technology is transforming the way we think about cities. 

The album, Place and Space, is an accompanying piece which functions as a fun way into the timely subject matter. Heavy on synthesisers, arpeggiators and four-to-the-floor kick drum, it’s the sort of euphoric trance many would sooner associate with a festival than a lecture theatre.

It was made using the tool SUNO, which has appeared elsewhere on the blog.

The lyrics are all his own...

One of the other co-authors of the book that inspired the album is Duncan Wilson, also of UCL. I worked with Duncan and other organisations on a project called DISTANCE some years ago. I was working with Helen Leigh and other colleagues at Explorer HQ on a project exploring the Internet of Things and how it could be taught in schools. This was back in 2013.

Feb 25: Silent album

A silent album was released this week in 2025.

It was 'released' by over 1000 artists.

Here's Sir Paul McCartney explaining why he is against AI being used in this way. Of course, he used AI himself - or did he? Read this.

In 2023, Sir Paul and Beatles drummer Sir Ringo Starr used AI to extract the vocals from an unfinished demo left by John Lennon to produce a new song, Now and Then. The song, billed as the Beatles' final release, drew widespread praise and was nominated for two Grammys and a Brit award.

"I think AI is great, and it can do lots of great things," Sir Paul said. "We took an old cassette of John's and cleaned his voice up so it sounded like it had just been recorded yesterday. So it has its uses. But it shouldn't rip creative people off. There's no sense in that."

The album project called 'Make it Fair' was a protest about the use of copyrighted music to train AI models, which could then produce music which copied their style. Music generates billions of pounds to the UK's economy, and is also part of the UK's 'soft power'.

This was the 'track listing' on the back of the album...

The message is clear to Goverment, who have done *checks notes - nothing about it.

Generative AI can produce 'music' but it's not really music. Nick Cave has spoken about this elsewhere.

Sting warned about them back in 2023.

The campaign website is here, where you can find out about the artists who contributed to the project.

And don't forget that John Cage got there first with the silent piece of music back in 1952.

And here's William Marx performing the piece:

Jan 17: AI bands in the charts

Towards the middle of 2025, some songs appeared near the top of the charts which it turns out were not created by humans. The Velvet Sundown were not a real band.

There had been 'virtual bands' before that of course, with the Gorillaz - music by Damon Albarn and others, and artwork by Jamie Hewlett - but humans created the music.

The band are very much against "AI slop".

In November, 2025, this BBC article asked an important question:

This BBC article explains how to spot the telltale signs of AI-produced music.

We will mention a few AI music tools through the course of the year as well, which I have used occasionally. Come along to Matt Podbury and I's GA Conference session to find out more too.

What other AI bands are there that you are aware of?

Should they be clearly labelled on streaming services such as Spotify?

Let me know what you think in the comments...

Jan 5: Matt Podbury's innovative 'Music and Place' unit

In November 2024, I was fortunate enough to attend Practical Pedagogies 3 in Cologne. Particularly as I'd already been to Iceland that half term which meant two trips away from family. It was another cracking event organised by Russel Tarr and hosted by a school just outside of the city, with provocations and entertainment by Hywel Roberts. The 2026 event is now open with a call for sessions.

"To be modern is to find ourselves in an environment that promises us adventure, power, joy, growth, transformation of ourselves and the world – and at the same time that threatens to destroy everything we have, everything we know, everything we are.”

Marshall Berman

One session I went to at Practical Pedagogies was by my friend Matt Podbury: who is also a colleague of the organiser Russel Tarr at the International School of Toulouse, where he teaches geography.

He had been trialling a new unit on music and its connections with our emotional landscape. This includes a look at favourite music, emotional music and lyrics, sense of place and also the connections with landscapes. It's a chance for younger students to be introduced to some of the classics as well.

For Matt that meant Pulp (with connections with Sheffield where he used to teach) and Queen.

The session was really nicely put together and presented. We will also come back to Sheffield again later in the blog as it has a great musical heritage.

The unit is available on the GeographyPods website.

Matt finished by showing a tool called SUNO, which is an AI tool that generates a musical track or song in just a few sentences, based on the prompts it is given.

One particularly nice aspect of the work was the creation of physical artefacts which were in the form of LPs. Matt had sourced blank white LP sleeves, and also some cheap €1 vinyl records. It also helps that he has a sizeable record collection dating back to the 1990s which he could use to model what we was hoping for. 

The unit also had an element of emotional geographies about it.

Give it a look... and a go...

I've created a great song with Suno... it will appear later in the blog.

And Matt will be reprising this workshop in a joint session with me at the GA Conference in April 2026.