Obsolete Technology Band


Radiohead held a contest for fans to remix the single Nude from their album In Rainbows. Frontman Thom Yorke mentioned on NPR that the contest was essentially a joke, since the Nude track is recorded at 6/8 timing and 63bpm, much slower than traditionally mixed music. The above video from [James Houston] is one of the most creative entries. Using old computer hardware he has recreated the track in a very unique way. He uses a Sinclair ZX Spectrum for the guitar track, a dot matrix printer for the drums, a scanner for bass, and a hard drive array for vocals.

Want to make your own band with obsolete technology? Click through for a few pointers to get you started.


Scanners used to be the hot peripherals of their day; now many are reduced to collecting dust. Revive these relics and put them to good use as instruments.

In the Radiohead video we saw an array of hard drives used as speakers. Afrotechmod created the video above featuring the Star Wars theme. He wired the audio input directly to the coils used to control head and platter motion. Since all hard drives are different it may take a little poking around to get the desired effect.


Dot matrix printers are well known for their iconic sounds. In the above video, [Sue Harding] tells us about her experiences with them and how she plays around with color and character density to create new sounds.

Lastly, we have the Sinclair ZX Spectrum. While it’s not entirely clear what program is being used, there are quite a few audio trackers available for the platform. The video above is a ZX Spectrum demo made by Digital Reality.

[via Waxy]

31 thoughts on “Obsolete Technology Band

  1. It brought a tear to my eye. The slow start with the program loading and the printer clunking away left me completely unprepared for how wondrous the scratchy hard drive recreation of Thom Yorke’s voice is, and that scanner is perfect for the song.

    I agree with jack. This piece belongs in a museum, where it can chime out the hour.

  2. I’ve been slowly working up to something like this myself. I have access to a metric buttload of old gear from my personal collction and the computer recycling center (Free Geek Vancouver) I volunteer at. I’ll be sure to let everyone know if I ever finish it.

  3. I’m not at all familiar with the sinclair as it’s a bit before my time but does has anyone ever seen anyone turn one into a circuit bending rig? I mean I know it’s a more of a computer than the typical toys and keyboards used for bending, but is it possible mess with the sound outputs on one of these cause that would be friggin’ sweet.

  4. Gotta give credit where it’s due: that was incredible. And I don’t even listen to Radiohead.

    Also, microphone placement has everything to do with using that scanner as a bass. We all know how noisy the steppers in those things are, but I had no clue that they resonated on the low end so much: maybe it’s the scanner enclosure itself that helps, kind of like a guitar?

  5. The hard drive speakers give a really spooky/ghostly eerie tone to the vocals. Very nicely done! and yes, this does belong in a museum. One question, why so many HD’s as speakers? Does each platter produce a different frequency of the sound or is it for amplitude?

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