Clip of the Day: A New Way to Play (Music) with Your Food Willy Blackmore - TakePart
go to original February 24, 2013

j.viewz playing Teardrop with vegetables (ViewzOfficial)

You may recognize the harpsichord strain as the music that plays over the title credits to the TV show House. Or you may remember it as a dream collaboration between Massive Attack and the Cocteau Twins’ Elizabeth Fraser (that is, if Bristol was the musical capital of the world for you in the 1990s). But no matter your point of reference to the song “Teardrop,” you probably don’t recall it as being played on fruits and vegetables.

Enter the Brooklyn-based producer J.Viewz. In this clip, he utilizes music-tech tool MaKey MaKey, which makes it possible to turn any object into a synth controller, to construct a music studio out of a bag of groceries. Sliced eggplants operate as bass and kick drums; a carrot strapped to a turntable keeps the steady, spinning beat of the hi-hat. It’s a joy to watch him squeeze and prod the edibles to build the trip-hop classic—although we would love to know what prized vegetable variety had the pleasure of controlling Fraser’s haunting voice.

Willy Blackmore is the food editor at TakePart. He has also written about food, art, and agriculture for such publications as TastingTable, Los Angeles Magazine, The Awl, GOOD, LA Weekly, The New Inquiry, and BlackBook.

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