Fad GadGets

Rhodri Marsden on three of the latest must-have gizmos currently putting the prog in progress…

BLIPBLOX

Many of us will have nostalgic memories of the Fisher-Price Activity Centre: the lurid plastic, the whirring and honking, the inexplicable tortoise. The Blipblox is faintly reminiscent of that classic toy, while also introducing innocent children to the beard-stroking world of sound synthesis. Three-yearolds tend not to have much understanding of what a low frequency oscillator is (I’m not sure myself, to be honest) but the important thing is that you can turn the Blipblox’s knobs at random to create a wealth of unexpected, squelchy sound. Just like a real synthesiser player.

www.blipblox.com

DJENT2018

Here we have an 18-string guitar, partly made of stone, courtesy of Ormsby Guitars of Western Australia. As magnificent an instrument as it is unplayable, it was custom built for Jared Dines, a YouTuber who unwisely straddles the rather broad line between thrash metal and comedy. He recently showed off the instrument at the NAMM music show in California. “In two years,” he said, “when I can play this, you’ll see a video of it.” We wait with impatience.

www.ormsbyguitars.com

RITUAL

This, by contrast, offers a slightly more adult approach to sound generation, as you can tell straight away by the pentagram emblazoned on the top. The Ritual, a five-button, two-spring drone machine, is one of many one-off products made by Resonance Circuits; they build the instrument, put it on eBay, and eager fans bid up the price with gusto. (The Ritual sold for £510 a few weeks back.) Other unique instruments include Tantalus Machine, Optical Dreams and The Covenant, and you can’t get much more prog than that.

http://bit.ly/2Resonance_Circuits