Allmusic.com’s blog is doing vintage music-related ads. A true classic: this ad for Casio keyboards. Grab an MT-100 and some hair product, hit the NYC subway, crank your volume, and pick up trashy 80s women! The NYPD will nod in approval. Wow, now I know how to supplement my income.

Retro Ad of the Week

Thanks to Zach Steiner for this one!

Just don’t circuit bend that MT-100 — then you might run afoul of the policeman.

Circuit Bent Casio SK 1 from Gijs on Vimeo.

Note: we are temporarily having problems with Vimeo’s embedded video. (So is MAKE, evidently, so it’s not our fault!) Click through to see the video, or enjoy the lovely garbled characters if they’re there.

Regular followers of the music tech blogs know the wild and wonderful work of bender/inventor Gijs Gieskes (here or all over here), in which Casio keyboards get massive mechanical add-ons and Sega games become fuzzy, distorted video art. Phillip Torrone writes us to let us know MAKE has taken a closer look at the artist:

In the illustrious world of case-mods and console hacking, artists and makers are re-inventing the design and function of these ubiquitous consumer electronics devices by creating hybrid systems and creative artifacts that challenge the corporate status quo. Taking this credo to an extreme with his inventive hardware projects is Dutch artist and maker, Gijs Gieskes. From casting a Nintendo Gameboy in concrete in order to build a garden path with “GameBoy Bricks” to creating an analog version of the hated spinning cursor in the Mac OSX operating system with “Spinning Beach Ball of Death”, Gieskes’ work and live performances are an inventive look at how closely entrenched we’ve become in the world of glitchy hardware and scrambled noise producing machines. MAKE recently caught up with Gieskes to discuss his practice, philosophy, and exactly how important the current crop of hackable consumer electronics might be to future generations.

Modding consumer electronics devices into DJ tools with Gijs Gieskes

The author of the interview, Jonah Brucker-Cohen, is an artist himself, so for a little meta-interviewing, check out Regine interviewing Jonah for we make money not art.

Of course, if you’d like to challenge the likes of Gijs and think your bending kung fu is better, get applying to this year’s Bent Festival.

And if you’re in London, MAKE also points to what looks like a really cool toy bending workshop there. Let us know if any of you go!

It’s easier being green than you thought. Dig the fantastic green sharp and flat keys on this Casio EP-30, a kid-friendly variant on the legendary (okay, maybe just infamous) Casio SK-1 sampling keyboard. Our friend Bohus Blahut covered this on Retro Thing, but I missed it during various travels. It’s worth repeating here for one reason and one reason alone: it should inspire you to paint the keys on your MIDI keyboard. (Speaking of which, anyone got some good tips for that? Sounds like a tutorial wants to happen there. Nothing worse than peeling painted keys.)

As a keyboard, otherwise, this is nothing special: basic sampling, which is fun, and the awe-inspiringly blippy power of the SK-1, but minus the fills. Check the full write-up on Retro Thing:

Kermit The Frog - SK-1 Sampling Keyboard

Now, back to painting your keyboards. I suggest purple keys, and a giant, manga-style illustration of Gonzo. Plus, of course, a big, fuzzy Camilla as a hood ornament.

Get back or the chicken gets it!

How attitudes change. Once viewed as cheap and cheezy, portable, battery-powered Casio keyboards suddenly seem kinda cool in retrospect. The Casio VL-1, perhaps the most infamous of the Casiotone line, featured mechanical beats, paper-thin sounds, and buttons that barely qualified as a keyboard, and doubled as a calculator.

Now, not only do those very points make it sound like more fun, but the whole design starts to look more inspired than gimmicky. Battery power? A simple interface? An ultra-portable design that fits in a case? Why aren’t more synth designers thinking this way? What’s stopping Roland, for example, from giving us a retro-themed, impulse-buy toy for $99?

Join the members of the Create Digital Noise forums in awe:

Signs this keyboard is cool: via its own Wikipedia entry, the only two pieces of evidence you’d need. One: it it the only musical instrument ever to have stood in for Strong Bad’s head. Two: it gets associated with the quote “turn that bloody blimey space invader off,” a phrase we really need on the upcoming CDM t-shirts.

Of course, a sentient VL-1 may have written that Wikipedia as a vanity entry. We’ll let the keyboard enjoy itself anyway.

VL-1 on Wikipedia
Maximum Cheesecore: The Ultimate Casio VL-1 Super Site
Synthmuseum: Casio VL-Tone

Okay, safety first. Casio says:

Due to a manufacturing defect, certain CTK-710 keyboards may present a smoke and/or fire hazard, which could result in serious injury or property damage. No reports of injuries have been received by Casio to date. Casio is aware of five incidents of overheating, including two incidents that resulted in a fire. There have been two reports of property damage.

See Casio recall.

Now, since I know there’s a fairly strong pyromaniac streak among CDM readers, let’s enjoy this for a moment: Flaming. Casio. Keyboards. Note: this is not an endorsement of such reckless behavior. Burning Casio keyboards are probably more toxic than doing yoga exercises on top of your local incinerator plant, and fire has a dangerous tendency to … burn things. But a little tip: if you have one of these that is overheating, and don’t feel like shipping it back to Casio, try eBay. Why? Musicians love fire:

Flame-shooting Toaster Guitar Amps
Richard Devine Beats a Flaming Keyboard with a Bat
Pyrophone: Flaming Sound Organ Powered by Propane and Max/MSP

The keyboard has MIDI, so you can hook it up to your flammable Dell or Apple PowerBook 5300 laptop.

We love you, old Casio (and Yamaha, and other) keyboards, hard-edged lo-fi synth patches, and strangely alluring stiff automatic drum parts. We love you in original form, circuit-bent mods, and free VST plug-ins. And, via Jaymis, we love people who build “very low-energy musical whimsy” performances on their keyboard, like David O’Doherty:

Anyone have a better performance video of David? (More soon if we can find them.)

Boy, I wish I kept my own first Casio.

Ed.: My first synth was a Casio, but astute reader Grondo notes this keyboard is a Yamaha Portasound — equally full of vintage goodness. (So much for my ears.) I think David may also hack the Casios, but it seems we got our celebrity endorsements wrong in this case. Not that you can really see in this video, of course — hope to share a higher-res video soon. One where you can not only tell a Yamaha from a Casio, but you can smell the circuitry, baby! -PK