Photo: Chad Johnson If you want a look at the future of music, DeVotchKa might be a glimpse. On first hearing, you say, “hmmm, they sound sort of Eastern European … punk.” And then you realize they’re singing in Spanish. In fact, this band, which got an extra injection of popularity from the movie Little […]

A beautiful art installation; pray they’re not programmed to play Stairway to Heaven. Saadane Afif’s Power Chords, view of the installation at the Lyon Biennial 2005. Image by Galerie Michel Rein. Maybe it’s something about music making in the digital age, the alienation of music technology. Or maybe there’s just something fun about mechanical objects […]

It’s the music of the spheres. Or at least, the music of the various, floating geometric shapes, bouncing around a virtual galaxy with gravity simulation. Kepler’s Orrery is a (newly) open-sourced generative music maker, based on a gravity simulation algorithm. As bodies collide, they make sound; it’s a bit like what would happen if you […]

It’s easier being green than you thought. Dig the fantastic green sharp and flat keys on this Casio EP-30, a kid-friendly variant on the legendary (okay, maybe just infamous) Casio SK-1 sampling keyboard. Our friend Bohus Blahut covered this on Retro Thing, but I missed it during various travels. It’s worth repeating here for one […]

This is likely to interest a very tiny subset of readers here, but since we’re talking Wii, worth bringing up: the free WiiRemoteJ Java library is now ready for prime-time. It allows you to access Wii remotes directly, via Bluetooth, in your Java app. If I can find a use for it, I will also […]

Nintendo keeps cooking up innovative new control schemes for its Nintendo Wii console. And if the Wii controller was any indication, you can expect musicians, DJs, and artists will be taking up this latest controller shortly after it’s available. The Wii Fit controller is a force-sensing panel the player stands on; it’s used to measure […]

Photo: Josh Jancourtz Everyone is looking for the Zoom H2, a nifty portable flash recorder with a merciful street of around US$200 and a built-in mic. We know because you’ve all started hitting our ancient page on the H2. It in fact isn’t shipping yet; Sweetwater has an explanation on their site: The Zoom H2 […]

Speaking of free footage … Bart, from the terrific indie Windows VJ software Resolume, has posted bunches of new, free footage to their site: Resolume Footage Archive Lots of good stuff, from abstract to found. Of course, all of this raises some questions: will you be spotted using recognizable footage? (I’ve certainly been at parties […]

Even as some visualists try to distance themselves from DJs (ahem), the notion of a “DVJ” — taking steps toward integrating VJing more closely with DJing — is gaining traction. It seems to be far, far bigger in Europe than here in the US (surprise). Pioneer, for one, is actively pushing VJing in Europe, even […]

It’s appeared elsewhere, but if you haven’t looked closely at the Guitar Hero-playing robot (“Guitar Heronoid”) created by Rafael Mizrahi and Tal Chalozin of GarageGeeks, you might have missed just how obsessive this project is: It has working, robotic hands. The actions are fairly simple: strum and hit buttons. Of course, that’s just the mechanical […]