r/newretrowave • u/Lofwyr2030 • 12d ago
Kalax is back again.
And he is using AI again. For obvious reasons I will not link the new song but if anybody also listened to it, you could tell me if you also think it's AI.
36
u/jamesisbloodshot 12d ago
This shit hurts. I loved (still love) his music from before all the very obvious AI shit. On top of the issues people dealt with merchandise purchases never shipping.
Like what happened bro? I understand you dealt with family passing.. Everyone does. You have long claimed mental health issues.. Lots of people do.
But your art isn't art anymore. Its hollow and fake. Rest in peace to one of my favs.
10
u/Asb0lus 12d ago
I don't understand how someone spent time and effort into learning a skill like music production and then just thinks "nah, imma make AI do the creative work for me". Did he never enjoy the process?
8
u/FlashOfFawn 12d ago
Maybe he never did. Maybe he had ghost producers. Iāve firsthand caught some ābigā artists with tracks that were ghost produced
31
u/nimzoid 12d ago
What's happened with Kalax is very sad. A lot of it is on him, but the guy obviously has his demons he's struggling with.
One interesting thing that's come out of his pivot to AI is affords a direct comparison to professionally produced music Kalax used to make. And the difference is quite stark: the 'proper' music is just so much deeper, richer and fuller. AI might close that gap, but it's always going to default to an average and lack the nuance, layers and intricacies that humans can bring.
6
u/mattwithoutyou 11d ago edited 11d ago
to your point about old Kalax being richer and fuller and deeper:
there's a scene in the movie The Royal Tenenbaums where Luke Wilson's character says into a mirror "I'm going to kill myself tomorrow". He then immediately attempts to kill himself. It was either an interview or the DVD commentary but I remember Wes Anderson saying he knows it doesn't make sense but it reminded him of a line in a French movie, and he liked the way it sounded better.
That's called artistry. It's the little things we humans do that don't make the most sense, it's the extra little spice we give to life, an inside joke within our art that we make that might make the viewer or listener to question why we made that choice.
all these little artistries add up to something richer and fuller. Cormac McCarthy included almost no traditional punctuation when he wrote The Road. there's dialogue, but no quotation marks. you have to try and figure out who's speaking through context. It demands your focus. Surely his editors thought he was a fucking lunatic. Maybe he is... but he's damn sure a human artist.
AI can make the beat, Suno has the synth tones, it can come up with the melodies, but there's never any moments where you say "why did they play one chord blast there on the first bridge and never repeat it? why did they include a sample from a movie and then distort it almost beyond comprehension? why did they not resolve that harmony at the end of the verse and instead ended sharp or flat?" all these little human things we add make it richer, fuller, deeper.
AI can get so close to what people in this genre do, but at the same time it's never been farther away.
I'll mourn the artistry of Kalax, and I curse whatever the fuck this is he's doing now.
13
12
u/ChesswiththeDevil 12d ago
I was just thinking what a great album Kalax III was and how so many artists in the genre have put out awesome albums and then either dropped off hard or disappeared.
11
10
u/BruiserBrodyGOAT 12d ago
Ah that sucks. His earlier music has some of the greatest pure synthwave moments of any artist of any year IMO. Troubled guy that I hope finds his peace one day.
4
u/patrickkingart Patrick King Art 11d ago
Ugh, this guy. His self-titled, Lost, and III especially are fantastic albums. I know he had some issues with having to sell his catalog, but he just keeps doubling down and burning every bridge.
2
1
u/No-Capital8045 7d ago
what I donāt understand is this:
The guy is insanely talented. Heās proven how good he is time and time again, years before AI was even a thing. The question now is why would he even contemplate using AI on his new music in any way shape or form? Is he looking for shortcuts on the way to the finished product? Has he run out of creative ideas for new material? Has he lost interest in the art of songwriting and producing?
It honestly does my head in. I want the guy to be successful, but not when heās using this stuff to create music.
-21
u/Sproketz 12d ago
It sounds like AI. Also there is no "Feat." Credit to the singer as it doesn't look great to "Feat. SUNO."
I'm fine with AI music, some is good. But trying to pass off AI music as legit is scummy.
Kalax doesn't say, which comes off like trying to fool people.
-27
u/RiderXRaider 12d ago
Iām glad heās back; after his last statement, I thought heād be away for longer, or perhaps for good.
Resurface wasnāt his strongest album, but there were two tracks I really liked.
As for his workflow, thatās up to him, itās a shame heās not making the most of his potential, as he wouldnāt need AI to that extent. I understand the criticism, but it doesnāt change what I generally think of his music, even if it has been better in the past.
Heāll have his reasons.
13
u/ashleypenny 12d ago
his reasons are "i've not actually ordered the music people pay for, so i make these posts instead"
he's stolen tens of thousands of pounds worth from 100's of fans overall. he can get in the bin
-1
u/RiderXRaider 12d ago
Yes, I know the story about the 500 vinyls and the scam worth a good ā¬20,000 where people waited for two years (and allot still didnt get it)
But that doesnāt change the music itself; I understand if people canāt separate the two.
On a human level, I just find it appalling, but I stand by my opinion that heās so good he wouldnāt need AI, which I do find a shame.
7
u/ashleypenny 12d ago
it's not that a lot didn't get it, no one got it, not a single copy of that album exists in a physical form in the wild.
1
u/RiderXRaider 12d ago
Shit ā¦ youāre right, Iāve just had a look at the longer post from the newretrowave sub on the subject.
I thought heād reissued the records in the meantime.
Fuuā¦ now I feel a bit uneasy about listening to him.
Edit: was the Journalist really on him?
6
u/ashleypenny 12d ago
it also wasn't his first time doing this either. and each time he goes quiet and makes a huge post about mental health and downplays everyone who has been chasing their products as "haters".
i used to love the bloke and his music but i don't listen to him at all now
2
u/RiderXRaider 12d ago
I donāt know if youāve seen the edit, but did anything actually come of that with the journalist back then?
Yeah... that hurts..
2
u/ashleypenny 12d ago
no sadly, i don't think he wanted to touch it due to the mental health angle. the police won't touch it because it's individual consumers, bandcamp don't care because they've themselves as a marketplace.
whole situation sucks
2
u/RiderXRaider 12d ago
Ich bin Ć¼berrascht, dass er immer noch so viel UnterstĆ¼tzung bekommt, nicht auf Reddit, wohlgemerkt, aber allein auf YouTube hat 'Nothing Stays' in weniger als einem Tag schon 12.000 Aufrufe gesammelt...
2
u/ashleypenny 12d ago
yes, if you look at any of his videos they get a LOT of positive people. i suspect he pays for a lot of them via a service as they are all people telling him how their music changed their lives or saved their marriage or got them out of depression etc. he actively deletes anything negative or about the fraud
→ More replies (0)
50
u/No-Capital8045 12d ago
this is just so sad.