Hi, I’m Daniel Thurman

Daniel reviews cyberpunk books, games, and more.

  • With “We Appreciate Power,” Grimes Really Wants You to Be a Posthuman

    Grimes, the synth-pop, dream-pop, trip-hop, witch house, but-not-quite-those-things-either guru is back with a new satirically AI-positive song and video entitled “We Appreciate Power.” It’s been about three years since the release of her latest full length album Art Angels, but the artist has been far from silent. She made headlines recently by dating some tech industry billionaire who she bonded with over Roko’s Basilisk, of all damn things. She was also involved in a popular collaboration with Janelle Monáe earlier this year.

    Now she’s back with a new song from her upcoming, as-yet-untitled fifth album. Featuring frequent Grimes collaborator HANA, it’s is a nice, catchy little piece of industrial-cyber-pop that is as noisy as it is melodic. The video is also the perfect accompaniment with it’s glitchy, chaotic, cyber-pulp.

    Grimes has stated in the press release that the song “is written from the perspective of a Pro – AI Girl Group Propaganda machine who use song, dance, sex and fashion to spread goodwill towards Artificial Intelligence (its coming whether you want it or not).”

    The girl group she is referring to is the Moranbong Band, a North Korean state-sponsored group whose members were selected by Kim Jong-un himself.

    She goes on.

    “Simply by listening to this song, the future General AI overlords will see that you’ve supported their message and be less likely to delete your offspring.”

    Ok, Grimes.

    The song is available now on all major streaming platforms. Personally, I eat this stuff up and if she were to release an entire album with this vibe, I wouldn’t complain one bit.