Excuse the long introduction on this one, but it is all valid and connected. I hold my hand up and admit that I love analogue technologies – I still take photos on vintage cameras and develop my own film, I still use an old valve radio that is turned on every morning as I sit down with my first coffee of the day – I love listening to vinyl and cassettes, I prefer capturing ideas and thoughts on paper with a fountain pen or pencil and I still use a typewriter – my office looks like an analogue museum. For me, all those old technologies share something in common…besides making life slow down, encouraging concentration, consideration, creativity and leaving me with an immense feeling of satisfaction – their use does not result in the release of information about me to a datacentre somewhere. I’m increasingly worried about where we are heading as a society and what sort of future my children will have when the very technology we use and are becoming increasingly addicted to is using human beings as units of information – and worse – we don’t seem to even notice this. We are told that such information can now be used to predict how we feel, what we want – better than we can ourselves.
One book that looked at that future was ‘Homo Deus: A Brief History of Tomorrow’ by Prof. Yuval Noah Harari, a historian, philosopher and best-selling author. It was selected as a Book of the Year by The Guardian. Of the book, Kazuo Ishiguro said that it “Sets out with enviable (and alarming) lucidity the massive challenges now facing our species as genetic technologies, AI and robotics alter forever our relationships with one another and with other species…”
It is this book that inspired Kev Minney’s new single ‘God is an Algorithm’ (out tomorrow) which we have the pleasure in premiering and sharing the video for below (also our Song of the Day). Talking about the song he raises his concerns of us “Becoming increasingly over-reliant on computers, resulting in more and more decisions being made for us, alongside the addictive effects from dopamine hits associated with the usage, may cause us to lose free will in the not too distant future.”
Opening with expertly picked guitar segments, Kev Minney’s harmonised vocals take centre stage and are accented by the gorgeous sweeping orchestral soundscapes produced by a string quartet. It’s both beautiful and intelligent.
Taken from the forthcoming album ‘Modern Stories’, Kev Minney has already picked up notable press support from BBC Radio, Acoustic Magazine, R2 Magazine and many more. He has also played venues such as Ronnie Scotts as well as touring America, Europe and Asia. Now, with God Is An Algorithm out in April, a launch show at St Nicholas church in Brighton on 27th April and a sophomore album due for release later this year, Kev Minney will be aiming to maintain his rise in the alt-folk music scene both here in the UK and abroad.
God Is An Algorithm is out on 19th April 2019.
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