As anyone who’s been to Chuck E Cheese’s knows, robotic bands have been under development for years. Patrick Flanagan’s cyborg percussion ensemble, Jazari seems to take things to a new level.
As Patrick describes it, Jazari “fuses African rhythms,
algorithmic composition, computer music, and electro-mechanics into
beat-driven steamfunk.” The controls are quite unique as well. Originally, the controller was simply a Wiimote. This was limited, since one needs three fingers to hold on to it, so a new “springbok” device was born allowing all five fingers to be used to play music. The vocal part of the music is created using an Android program called “voloco”.
The video after the break should explain everything a little better, and the music itself is pretty cool. Patrick will be doing more programming and hardware work over the summer rather than touring much, but “they” should give an awesome concert once all the bugs are worked out.
[youtube http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=f5DgC-SOXmU&w=470&h=349%5D
… And he does all that with just those controler things??? That’s insane!!!!!!!!!!
Pretty awesome till 3:24, then reminded me a little of circuit bending music, vocals were good to.
Imagine what this will sound like when this guy gets his hands on a Wii U controller instead of the regular Wii controller.
would have liked to see the controller more but seems like it’s just triggering midi or something
when im 50, I sure hope this is not where music went.
Why are the two mics in the middle of the room pointing at each other – one upright and one above it but upside down?
sadly, unimpressive
@Andrew
I think it’s this:
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Blumlein_Pair
@shave Oh? And what did _you_ make?
Like some sort of jazz dalek.
The electronic solo was amazing. So far that sort of high degree of freedom and control has been the sole domain of physical instruments – since you can tweak them in so many ways. I wonder how that controller lets him make those ridiculous sounds in the solo.