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The Guardian - UK
The Guardian - UK
Entertainment
James Tapper

‘You can try weirder and weirder things’: once-mocked synthesisers enjoy new golden era

Robert Kieffer of Magnetic Freak at the Machina Bristronica, a synthesiser festival in Bristol.
Robert Kieffer of Magnetic Freak at the Machina Bristronica, a synthesiser festival in Bristol, on 12 October. Photograph: Sam Frost/The Observer

Queen refused to use them. The Musicians’ Union tried to ban them. Then computers overtook them. Synthesisers have been mocked, despised and discarded throughout their history, yet somehow they are entering a new golden era.

A new wave of synth makers has emerged, creating machines that are more ambitious and often quirkier than their bleep-making predecessors, feeding the appetites of an expanding pool of enthusiasts.

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