A Soundtoy makes electronic music for people who can't be bothered to do it. Devised by graphic designer Paul Farrington, aka Tonne, the programme lets you generate appealingly blippy music on your Mac or PC by setting repetitive patterns of samples in motion.
Tonne's CD, on the French label Bip-Hop, contains all the software you need plus eight audio tracks that demonstrate how the pros do it guests Scanner, Hakan Lidbo, Si-Cut.dB, plus Tonne himself).
You can also try the programme on Farrington's website. The beauty of the system is that it explains itself visually. Twelve cursors glide back and forth, triggering sounds whenever they collide with the coloured counters you place on the adjustable grid - each sample has its own colour. You can change the speed, and each guest supplies a different set of samples.
Before you know it, there's a cybertronic jam session cookin' (or bangin') on your laptop. Some would hardly call it music, but it is unequivocally contemporary, as easy to operate as a pinball machine, or a Newton's cradle, and may well be the only bliphop album that you - and your neighbours - ever need.
