How It Started
In 2016, a Google search changed my life: I decided to Google Google. What I read scared and fascinated me in equal measure: relentless techno-optimism, a steady march toward hegemonic control over how we consume the internet, and a business model built unapologetically on harvesting user data.
Along with two friends, I got to work on a Google-themed vaporwave project: Alphabet Inc.
OK GOOGLE (2016)
On April 20, 2016, we released OK GOOGLE, our first album: an ironic, technoparanoid cyberpunk take on Google's hegemonic control over digital life, narrated from the point of view of a sentient AI secretly controlling the platform. A decade later, that framing feels eerily prescient.
For live shows, we assembled a full band with bass, guitar, drums, trumpet, samplers, and a revolving cast of local jazz musicians and rappers, performing around Quebec and Ontario.
Coiffure Esthetique
Our sophomore album, Coiffure Esthetique, moved beyond the strict Google theme to explore vaporwave form and mood more broadly: chopped-and-screwed reinterpretations of Sade's Smooth Operator on Smooth, Tower of Power's By Your Side on Side, and tech-story songs like Tay, where the narrator falls for Microsoft's short-lived Twitter bot.
The album caught the attention of California label Nuware, which released a limited-edition cassette that sold out within a month.
California Life Company (2019)
After a year of research, we released California Life Company in January 2019. The project explores Google's secretive biomedical labs hiring top engineers, AI experts, and data analysts to halt cellular degeneration and effectively end aging. Instead of publishing medical papers, they pursued patents to monetize the process.
The album is a concept record narrated by a benevolent AI guiding a user through a psychedelic, hypnagogic anti-aging procedure. Eight guest artists joined the record with voices and jazz improvisation.
Lyrics: California Life Company
Thank you for choosing California Life Company.
Together, we're tackling life's greatest mysteries.
Thanks to the procedure you have undergone, you should stop experiencing cellular degeneration within the next two weeks.
That's right - your lifespan has been drastically expanded.
Welcome to the long, happy Calico lifestyle!
Just because you will no longer physically age doesn't mean you're immortal.
Your body is precious to us - please take good care of it.
Don't forget to relax and take it slow. After all, you've got all the time in the world!
In April 2019, we followed with the companion EP Calico, a rap-leaning release featuring B-sides.
Return: KO Google (2026)
After a seven-year hiatus, Alphabet Inc. returned on April 20, 2026, the ten-year anniversary of the debut, with KO Google, a track that samples the debut single OK GOOGLE.
Lyrics: KO Google
Let's take a relaxing break and leave cyber stress behind.
Come with me to a clearing, a stream, a mountaintop, and finally to outer space.
Log in, dig in, begin the idle conversation.
Tell me your life, the price of Google Generation.
Log in, dig in, begin.
All you can do is win.
Tell me the price, the Google Generation.
I've been forced to.
I've been shown how.
You're my model.
You're my model.
I've been roped in.
I've been thrown in.
You're my model.
You're my model.
I know, I know, I know - I got a data problem.
Up high, download too slow - we'll never hit the bottom.
DeepMind don't mind the man behind the cyber curtain.
Be kind, in time we'll know just how hard you're hurting.
I need a model to turn my life around - a model, a model.
Log in, dig in, begin. We're gonna have some fun.
Tell me your life, the price of the Google generation.
Log in, dig in, begin. You're gonna be the one.
Tell me the price, the Google generation.
Ok Googlu.
What's Next
We're currently working on a new full-length EP about the rise of AI and the predicted collapse outlined in Project 2027.