Llyn Foulkes is an artist and music from Los Angeles who likes to do things a bit differently. His website says:

LLyn Foulkes has been called the Zelig of contemporary art. Over the past five decades he has been consistently inconsistent, confounding critics and galleries with dramatic changes of direction whenever it seemed he was about to be overtaken by popular acclaim

Llyn has created a musical instrument called “The Machine” that somehow combines a drum, bass, xylophone, cowbell and scavenged car and bike horns. When I first saw the picture, I was convinced that it was going to be some loud, irritating sideshow-esqe noise.

OK, not so much a synth, but let’s stretch the definition and call it an ‘alternative sound device’. So, cynically loading up the video, I was poised on the volume slider, ready to turn it down, but then heard this:

Wow. The guy pulls it off. I think his blurb says it best:

To play his original compositions, Foulkes squeezes the horns’ black rubber bulbs, triggers a drum with one foot, strums an electric bass with the other and picks up a pair of mallets to tap out a melody on a swirl of xylophone keys and cowbells. Sometimes he beats an empty plastic water jug. Oh, and he sings too. The results are both cacophonous and catchy, evoking the sideshow carny stylings of Tom Waits and the sound-effect-laden novelty songs of Foulkes’ first idol, the 1940s musical satirist Spike Jones.

Although I’m not a massive fan of the singing, it definitely is catchy and seems to work well in the context.

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• The Drumssette: drum machine made from an old 4-track
• Washing machine drum machine
• LEGO Mindstorms drum machine