The Yellow Album: One Synth, 51 Songs

At last year's NAMM show, Korg told me it plans to take over the world with its KaossPads. These slick X-Y touchpads now control everything from effect processors to mixers.

I reviewed the current flagship, the KP3 KaossPad, for Electronic Musician last year and had a blast playing its synth sounds. So I was intrigued to read on Create Digital Music recently that composer Gary Kibler had released an entire album created with only Korg's latest KaossPad instrument, the Kaossilator.

Of course, there are zillions of single-instrument albums out there, but how many of them were made on a $199 palmtop tablet you play with one finger? To be honest, I found most of the album boring, but the concept of sitting down with one piece of gear, cranking out 51 songs, and sharing them with the world is inspiring. Indeed, the album proved so popular that Kibler's site was shut down, spawning a follow-up Create Digital Music article about online audio hosting.

What especially intrigued me were the insightful comments on the original article, where other listeners say they tried to like the music and failed, and Kibler cheerfully admits that the point was to do something creative. In that, he's succeeded admirably.

I'm off to NAMM again this week, and look forward to checking out the latest in instant-gratification music gear. We'll try to have a full report up next week.

Update, 2008-01-19:I got to play the Kaossilator here at the show the other day and loved it. It's a toy, to be sure, but dang fun to play with.