Image: courtesy of Ray
You know the Roland TR-909 drum machine even if you don't know the name. It's sorta the foundational instrument of techno music. House pioneer Frankie Knuckles used one, and so did/do Aphex Twin, Jeff Mills, Moby, the RZA, and, though it didn't get an album title nod like its TR-808 predecessor, Kanye West. Pressing a mere four buttons on a 909 will deliver the most-crucial beat/sound of modern music, the four-on-the-floor of a synthesized kick drum.Indeed, it's worthy of a giant version of itself if any instrument is, particularly given that, otherwise, it's shrunk to nothing size-wise. Earlier this year, the Bedroom Producers Blog released a set of 909 samples boasting maybe the most "real" software-ready version yet, thanks to an extra recording step using a cassette tape intermediary. You could measure the "size" of that version in nanometers, if it could be said to have a size at all.This year marks the 30th anniversary of the 909, and the giant version is part of the celebration. It comes courtesy of the Scottish arts collective Ray. Birthday or no, the "interactive sculpture" is not, however, made of cake and its guts are quite real; the thing makes beats, though some of the low-end kind of gets lost in the video (via FACT).
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