Chinese ambient band FM3 (American-born, expat musician Christiaan Virant, and Chinese keyboardist and computer musician Zhang Jian)’s recent release, according to this review:
is not a CD release, or even an LP release. It’s a small plastic box (that runs on two batteries) made in China that has not only an integrated speaker, but a volume control and an 1/8″ output jack. To control the box, you simply turn it on, and a single switch on the side of the box toggles between nine different loops that are stored within the onboard memory.
In a Rare Frequency interview, Virant explains:
the original box was used at Buddhist temples to chant, or play prayers and there are a number of different explanations of why they invented this box in China. Some people say it’s because modern people are too lazy to go to the temples to say the chants to the Buddha like they used to, so they invented this small machine to do it for them. Other people say it’s because there are fewer and fewer Buddhist monks out there. In the old days, the number of Buddhist monks was much higher, because that was considered a very high-class profession, and now more and more people are going into business or whatnot, so there are less monks to do the chanting for the Buddha, so they made a small box to do it in the place of a human. [...] it was about ten years ago that I first saw one of these chant boxes at a Buddhist temple [...] I thought, “Wow, what an amazing release that would be, if I could put my music into that box and then release it as a cd, or a cassette, or an album.” It took a few years to do it, but we eventually found a factory that agreed and that’s why we have the Buddha Machine.
The review concludes:
despite its slightly strange smell (kind of like the faint whiff of a firework), I think that FM3 is really onto something by releasing their music in this format. There’s a slight anti-iPod feel to the box, as if it’s an old AM transistor radio gone haywire (it certainly caused some second glances when I paired it with my iPod headphones). Because of that, retro, gadget, and ambient music freaks will want to get their hands on this pronto. Constructed by monks and with no menus to navigate, the little efforless box is truly a bit zen.
Naturally, I had to order something so outrageously Gibsonian. I’ll update this once it arrives.
6 Comments
Dude, I am having so much trouble not buying one. I may not make it through the day. Pray for me.
Pray for you? I included a link straight to the ordering page just to tempt you (and specifically you)!
Does it really have a little plastic buddha sitting in the middle of it?
I kind of doubt it, but I’ll let you know.
There’s a really indepth article on them over at Boomkat.com with a mix of the tracks which went into the Buddha Machines;
http://www.boomkat.com/article.cfm?id=3
James, thanks for the link. Great article. The whole Buddha Boxing thing sounds like it would make for an interesting show, too.
3 Trackbacks
[...] My Buddha Machine arrive Wednesday night and has been droning at me pretty much nonstop since. For the first day I used it, I was irritated that it apparently had been built without an off switch and that I had to unplug it when I didn’t want it on anymore. Then I remembered that back in the day, if you wanted to turn an audio device off, you thumbed the volume dial down a little past zero until you felt the click. It’s been that long. [...]
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[...] makers of the Buddha Machine, live in [...]