Yup, this is where This Second Sleep and brother project ether^ra got their start, and while this "electronic musical instrument" is mighty limited, it certainly served as an aural stimulus to our teenaged brains and bodies. Just imagine a device that made the chords on an electric guitar seem rather quaint by comparison, and heralded our advance into a netherworld, that of noise. Casio of Japan produced this odd little toy or novelty with a slogan that couldn't have been sillier: "You've Got a Whole Band in Your Hand", but somehow it took off, selling one million units between 1979 and 1984! Not bad for a cheesy sounding, lo-fi, monophonic synth/sequencer/calculator with a ridiculously small push-button, two octave "keyboard". Yet, it was pretty cool for $150. I have no memory of how we even acquired it, considering our level of derision for the commercial world (and lack of jobs) at that time in our lives. The corn really started to pile up when we saw the presets: piano, violin, flute, guitar, and most importantly, fantasy (but at least there was a modicum of sound modulation there when tweaked with an LFO or ADSR envelope). I really did like the ultra cheap drum sounds though. I bet Cabaret Voltaire did too.
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