Happy New Year

 

The Sci-Fi Gene's final theremin video of the year. Strange as it seems, the 100th anniversary of the creation of the theremin has been overshadowed a little by other events in 2020. Anyway. Wishing everyone a good 2021.

Wayne's World [Review: Hylics]

Hylics is a role-playing-game with a surreal plasticine vibe. You play the role of Wayne, a man with a plasticine croissant head as he explores his world, meets strange beings, beefs up his stats and prepares to take on an evil plasticine warlord.

At least, that's what I think is going on. The back story is a mystery - you can talk to the many inhabitants of this world with their uniquely shaped heads, but while a few will hint or trade, most will reply in a poetic gibberish.

The plasticine world is equally mysterious and this makes it a baffling pleasure to explore. It's a large, jumbled mess of islands, buildings and dungeons.

There are also villains and monsters to fight. Combat is turn-based and there are a range of weapons to buy, spells to learn and objects to use in battle.

You will die a lot - this is part of the game. Death takes you to a plasticine plateau where you can rest, add hit points and make sandcastles before heading back through the portal and rejoining the fray.

Although Hylics may look like a low-tech 1980s game it was actually written in 2015 by Mason Lindroth.

Wayne can recruit three band members on his travels - literally as it turns out. That's Dedusmuln on the theremin.

Hylics is available at a very cheap price on Steam and will give you several hours of satisfyingly different JRPG gameplay. Just don't expect anything to make sense.

Music for a contactless age [Theremin 100]

Les Berceaux (Gabriel Fauré) on Open Theremin. I did promise to inflict further theremin "performances" on you at the beginning of the year so fair warning was given. I believe, or delude myself, that I am making progress in learning this instrument, and in the absence of any formal examinations in the UK I'm sure I'm playing at at least grade 2 standard.

It's approximately 100 years since Leon Theremin first invented this musical instrument (the first one is thought to have been built in either 1919 or 1920). The theremin is one of the earliest electronic musical instruments, and along with the laser harp it's one of a very few instruments played without any physical contact - instead two antennae detect microvoltage changes caused by movement of conductors close to them, allowing the player or thereminist to control the pitch with one hand and the volume with the other. The original theremin was based on an analogue circuit. Today there are analogue theremins such as the Etherwave, but also digital theremins such as the Open Theremin or the Theremini.

(Theremin 100 banner designed by Paul Sizer)