Over the past five years or so, heavy metal music has gone in a completely new direction. Not with the music mind you, but rather with band members who are neither male nor female but robots. Yes there are numerous robotic musicians breaking into the music biz with some playing more of a classical/pop-fusion style (California Institute of Arts’ MahaDeviBot, GlockenBot and BreakBot) as well as those playing covers of heavy metal classics like Germany’s Compressorhead. Following on the initial success of those robotic musicians comes yet another pneumatic band focusing more on synth-pop with a metal twist.
Known as Z-Machines, the three-piece band was created by some engineering students from Tokyo University and made their debut at Tokyo’s trendy Liquidroom club. The members include guitarist Mach, who’s outfitted with a total of 78 fingers and uses 12 picks to strum its instrument. On drums is the blue-metal clad Ashura, who uses 21 sticks with 6 arms to lay down the beat. Rounding out the trio is Cosmo, who plays the keyboard and flashes lasers from his head. The robots can play either by being programmed or independently controlled by humans using keyboards or other instruments connected to a MIDI device. An interesting facet of the band is it is able to interact with the audience based on their actions.
For example, if the audience raise their drinks in the air, the band plays louder and harder. How the band does this is currently unknown, however motion feedback sensors are certain to be involved. Z-Machines opened for this year’s Maker Faire Tokyo sponsored by Zima (that drink is still around?) with an interesting 10-minute set that captivated the audience. It’s certain that robot artists will continue to evolve into more elaborate performances in the near future and will most certainly perform alongside humans. Domo arigato Mr. Roboto.
C
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