In preparation for the new products coming out in early November, we’re having a sale on shirts and the last remaining Thingamagoops.

Only a few of each color combo are left.

Normally $130, the Thingamagoops are selling for $90 while stock lasts.

After posting the vintage footage of Kraftwerk performing Das Modell, Keep Werking’s John Shilcock sent me a link to this equally interesting historic performance in Russia of The Robots.

via rmfigue:

Originally Broadcasted by USSR TV at 1980

HITEC ROBONOVA-I robots dance to the sounds of Kraftwerk.

Unfortunately, they probably do this before they kill you and use your spinal fluids for lubricant.

via chaff79

Earlier in the day, we brought you the Jonzun Crew – what Daft Punk would have looked like in 1983.

Little did we know that Torley would dig up a proto-Daft Punk from 6 years earlier!

This is Space, performing Magic Fly in 1977. More Space madness below!

Click here to view the embedded video.

Space were fronted by French musician Didier Marouani, who penned Magic Fly back in 1977. It went on to reach the top spot of many European countries and found itself at No.2 in the UK top 40 in September of that year.

Get beyond the dated video and lack of mastering loudness, and this is Daft Punk 25 years before Daft Punk.

Makes me want to go crate-digging!

Let me know if you can beat Torley’s find with some even earlier electro funkster robots!

The Visually Enabled Musical Arm is a robotic arm that’s capable of playing tunes on the synthesizer by the image inputs it receives after processing a real time(LIVE) video. It uses the concepts of artificial intelligence, image processing and Micro – controller programming.

It’s not going to replace keyboard players anytime soon – unless you’re a one-note synth player – but it’s an interesting demo.

• NSFW: Controversial Avant Garde Electronic Music: Blow Job 4
  Posted on Friday, December 19th, 2008 in Music Videos – Comments: (10)

  Click here to view the embedded video.

  
  This is a new version of Wojciech Kosma’s Blow Job, which explores the audio feedback effects of fellatio on a microphone.
• The Top Electronic/Dance Albums Of 2008
  Posted on Monday, December 15th, 2008 in Music News – Comments: (5)
  Amazon has announced its picks for the Best Dance & DJ Albums of 2008.
• Amazing Robotic DJs Spin The Vinyl
  Posted on Wednesday, December 17th, 2008 in DJ – Comments: (4)
  

  Click here to view the embedded video.

  
  These guys aren’t laying down the turntable science yet, but the RobotLab Juke Bots are still pretty impressive.
• Shure Microphone Survives Insane, Sadistic Torture Tests
  Posted on Friday, December 19th, 2008 in Gear Reviews – Comments: (4)
  

  Click here to view the embedded video.

  
  Shure SM58 & SM57 mics have a reputation for being reliable to the point of being indestructible. Mats Stålbröst, editor of the Stockholm-based Studio, took that as a challenge…..
• Stevie Wonder On The Arp 2600, Talkbox
  Posted on Monday, December 15th, 2008 in Electronic Musicians – Comments: (3)
  

  Click here to view the embedded video.

  
  These videos are of poor quality – but the offer some interesting historical perspective from Stevie Wonder’s 70’s electronic peak.

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Three Pieces is a composition for plants, yangqin, bamboo robot and robotic chimes.

The electroacoustic music installation is designed as a collaboration between robots, traditional instruments, and living things, housed in Victorian Palm House of the Royal Botanic Garden in Edinburgh. A traditional Chinese dulcimer is played by a robot with many bamboo fingers while the surrounding foliage hides an ensemble of robotic chimes.

Despite being separate “individuals”, the robots communicate and perform together.

The robot performers are conducted by all the living things in the Palm House. The moisture content of the soil changes slowly as the plants absorb water, while on a much faster timescale, the temperature changes in the building as animals, including humans, move about. The installation detects this living presence in the Palm House and the music changes accordingly. The robots react to humans, but their mood alters with the plants.

Three Pieces balances exploring very experimental ideas with creating something with recognizable sensual musicality. 

Details at the Found Electronics site.

Robot Films‘ entry for the Moby “Ooh Yeah” video competion:

“Filmmakers are invited to submit their films for the track Ooh Yeah and the winner, chosen by moby, will win the $10,000 prize money and have their video used as the official music video for Ooh Yeah from Moby’s latest album, Last Night.”

Ooh Yeah! Babes saving humanity from evil robots are always good.

FYI – I’m going to be posting some of the better video entries for Moby’s competition.

Moby’s doing a cool experiment in user generated content. He’s giving people the stuff they need to make fan videos for his song and giving them a $10,000 incentive.

Even if you hate Moby, you should pay attention to this project, along with the things NIN’s Trent Reznor and Radiohead are doing. They’re all figuring out successful ways to work with their fans over the Internet.

Surachai’s video capturing the creating of a ThingamaKIT synth monster.

Roboclarinet is a robotic clarinet player, designed by a team from UNSW and NICTA, that has won first prize at an international orchestra competition.

The robot, which performed The Flight of the Bumblebee and Bolero in the final, beat a Dutch developed guitar-picking robot and a Finnish piano-playing machine.

Staged in Athens, the goal of the Artemis Music Orchestra competition is to raise awareness about the growing capacity and applications of embedded computer systems.

David Byrne is keeping busy.

While he just opened his audio installation Playing the Building, he’s working on a new project, involving animatronic robots.

Byrne explains:

About a year ago, I was approached by some Spanish curators to participate in a show scheduled to open at the Museo de Arte Reina Sofia in Madrid at the end of this month. I was told the show would be called “Machines and Souls: Digital Art,” so I suggested I work with David Hanson (of Hanson Robotics) to make a quasi-realistic singing robot. Animatronics date at least as far back as Disney’s Lincoln robot delivering part of the Gettysburg address, although Abraham’s delivery all but ignored any emotional fervor.

Having seen some of Hanson’s work at Wired Magazine’s Nextfest—and having heard about it for years before that—I thought it might be time to attempt a collaboration. I immediately thought the robot should perform an action with a weird emotional resonance, like singing. An impassioned speech, laughter, or tears, would have worked just as well, but I had an inkling I could write a short passionate song (in both English and Spanish) for Julio the robot to croon.

Byrne’s interested in exploring the strange effect of the almost-real robot.

“It’s still a work in progress—the movements will be more “natural,” as will his hair,” adds Byrne. “But this definitely demonstrates the creepiness factor at work!”

Recently, we mentioned that one of Honda’s Asimo robots was scheduled to “conduct” the Detroit Symphony Orchestra.

The appearance was intended to attention to the DSO’s youth music programs, and particularly DSO’s effort to encourage and support involvement of children in Detroit. And to let people see a cool robot in action.

It doesn’t look like human conductors have much to worry about, though.

This video, via BBTV, is really pretty strange.

At the 2008 Bent Festival for experimental electronic music, Xeni encountered Krach der Roboter (”Noise Robot”), who offers a message of peace, crackers, and chaotic tonal algorithms for all mankind.

“Why do humans love robots so much?” Xeni asks.

“Actually, people love animals, babies, and robots,” Krach replied. “But animals make turds and babies cry, while robots do none of those things.”

Set designer and robot artist Roland Olbeter has created a series of electro-pneumatic sound machines capable of performing entire string quartets.

The first commissioned composition for the robotic instruments was Elena Kats-Chernin’s Fast Blue Air, which takes advantage of the range of noises created by the pneumatics.

via WFMU

Honda hopes ASIMO’s appearance will draw attention to the DSO’s youth music programs, and particularly DSO’s effort to encourage and support involvement of children in Detroit.

Here’s a video of ASIMO in action:

In addition, ASIMO will demonstrate its unique capabilities for area school children on May 14, prior to a specially arranged master class at the DSO, where a select group of music students will receive personal music instruction from Yo-Yo Ma.

ASIMO, which stands for Advanced Step in Innovative Mobility, is intended to someday assist the elderly and disabled in their homes. But while Honda continues to develop and enhance ASIMO’s capabilities, the robot is being used today to encourage and inspire young students to consider studies in math and science. The addition of music education to ASIMO’s repertoire is an extension of these efforts.

If any readers are in Detroit and get to this, let me know what you think of the performance!

Just when they figured out that synths weren’t going to kill the demand for traditional musicians, now musicians have to worry about getting replaced by robots.

Toyota’s new personal robot is a 152-centimeters (5-foot) tall two-legged robot capable of playing violin. It makes use of its mechanical fingers to push the strings and plays the bow with its other arm.

It touts 17 movable joints that endow it with the capability to conduct domestic duties and assist in nursing. The violin-playing robot responds to voice commands and boasts of advanced face recognition.

Toyota hopes to see it and other Toyota Partner Robots on sale in the early 2010.

Personally, I prefer robotic musicians that rock:

This one has us scratching our heads, though. It’s a demo movie on the robotic evolution of music:

That’s all cool – but how long until their evolved enough to cover Ms New Booty?

If you’ve got any insight on what these robots are doing, let me know in the comments….

According to the Robotmakers, “”Building a Robot” is the result of a long evolutionary process that resulted in successive generations of forms, some of which we call music. Natural selection and repeated lethal mutations winnowed the results. We are left with the Robot Maker’s opus, which cannot be used as proof of intelligent design.”

We’re jealous – these robots have better synths than even Synthtopia’s secret synth-lab. Let us know what synths you can spot!

Check out their cover of Ms. New Booty:

Here’s a little background on what goes into these stupidtacular animatronic shows:

This was a demo of RoombaMidi2, a Mac OS X program to turn your Roomba into a MIDI instrument.

via Make