SEIKO Frequency Wristwatch Drum Machine!

At some point in the early 1980s, watch manufacturers ran out of sensible new features to incorporate into watches. They'd already tried calculators, radios, cigarette lighters and even TV sets to get the attention of an increasingly jaded public. Rather than give up, Seiko chose to think outside the box. Way outside.

One can only imagine the sake-fueled club hopping that led to the development of the Seiko Frequency. This odd little device incorporated a speaker and six drum patterns, "created solely for watch by popular music producer Tetsuya Komuro," along with two metronome modes (one audible, one visual), an alarm function that played one of the six drum patterns or just beeped, and an EL backlight for checking the time while basking onstage in front of your adoring fans.

The Frequency wasn't marketed in North America or Europe, which is probably for the best. There are currently several on eBay, although they're anything but sensibly priced. [via Matrixsynth]

LINKS:
CLICK HERE FOR THE ORIGINAL POST WRITTEN BY JAMES GRAHAME AT THE WONDERFULL RETRO THING!

FUTURE...land!

As well as going completely (Lady) GaGa at the site of a vintage UniVox beat box DruMachineBoy goes off the scale seeing retro animation especially when its animation of vehicles (Highways!) of the future (especially in a Jetsons, Futurama'stylee!)....so yeh ok, we're a bit off topic...but hey bear with us, its worth it!, this is a totally awesome 1958 Disney animated film about highways of the future.....wowza!!

LINK:
CLICK HERE FOR THE FILM YOUTUBE PAGE!
CLICK HERE FOR RETROTHING THE PEOPLE WHO TURNED US ONTO THIS FILM!

THE Great Bleep Forward on t'BBC!

If you're the least bit interested in Electronic music, synths or DRum Machines.....which I'm sure you are or you wouldn't be reading this!!! we have just read about this ace new BBC Radio6 documentary! here's more info about it taken from one of our fave blogs RetroThing

BBC Radio 6 is rebroadcasting The Great Bleep Forward, a four part series from 2004 that looks at the birth of electronic music.

The Beeb blurb says, "The story of modern music is one of subversion and experimentation, of heroes and villains. But what if we've got it all wrong? What if the real subversives didn't wear leather and denim but smart suits and white lab coats? What if the true experimentation wasn't with LSD but with DX7's and S900s? What if the real heroes of music aren't John, and Paul, Mick and Keith, but Ralf, Florian, Robert and Wendy!

The Great Bleep Forward is a series four programmes, presented by Andrew Collins exploring the history of electronic music. Hear the first baby's cry of the moog synthesiser, embrace the difficult childhood of prog rock, grapple with the 'experimental' teenage years of the New Romantics and discover the middle aged maturity and nostalgia of the present day. You'll also get a sense of the sound of the future.


The series features interviews with many of the key players in the development of electronic music including Robert Moog, Kraftwerk's Ralph Hutter, Radiohead's Johnny Greenwood, Factory's Tony Wilson, Thomas Dolby, The Human League, Primal Scream, A Guy Called Gerald, Zoot Woman and Grandaddy."

The scope seems a bit broader than the recent BBC 4 Synth Britannia documentary, which focused on a handful of pivotal years in the early 1980s. [thanks, Stuart!]

Listen to The Great Bleep Forward online (until Oct 26, 2009)

THANKS TO RETROTHING FOR THIS INFO....CHECK EM OUT THEY ARE ACE!