If you’ve ever tried your hands at the drums, but given up, look away now.
That’s because you’ve been outdone by some mushrooms.
One Manchester band is showing the world that fungi, and some plants, can create music now too.
Bionic and the Wires, created by Jon Ross and Andy Kidd in 2023, are producing tunes in a way you have never seen before.
They plug mushrooms and plants into sensors, which then turn their tiny electrical signals into music notes.
These sensors are attached to bionic arms which then strike down on to instruments.
Ross explained: ‘We connect the plants through some equipment that measures the internal bioelectrical signals in the plant, and that’s converted into a music language which is called MIDI, and that is then translated into motor signals, which is how the robotic arms move.’
The band’s array of mushrooms and plants create different beats due to their different electrical activity, producing breathtaking music for audiences to behold.
Top 10 drummers of all time
Mushrooms might not be there quite yet, but one day their music could reach the heights of these iconic musicians, as ranked by Rolling Stone.
10. Stewart Copeland, drummer of the Police
9. Al Jackson Jr., founding member of Booker T. & the M.G.’s
8. Mitch Mitchell, drummer for The Jimi Hendrix Experience
7. Gene Krupa, jazz drummer
6. Clyde Stubblefield and John “Jabo” Starks, two funk and soul drummers who worked with James Brown
5. Hal Blaine, member of Wrecking Crew
4. Neil Peart, drummer and lyricist of Rush
3. Ginger Baker, co-founded Cream with Eric Clapton and Jack Bruce
2. Keith Moon, drummer for The Who
1. John Bonham, drummer for Led Zeppelin
The group rehearse in the Boiler House community workshop in Manchester’s Moss Side and source their mushrooms from the local greening iniative Sow the City.
They want their music to change how people see plants and fungi.
‘It’s a really good way to connect with them and a really sort of emotional experience,’ Ross said.
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