Best of
the Twin Cities
Every few years, young electronic producers pick up old Casio keyboards and drum machines and discover the wheel all over again. But particularly in the Twin Cities, the trend has been to go back a step, to pre-’80s gear that looks like switchboards, the kind of synthesizers where you have to plug a cord into a socket to make a particular sound. “Modular synths, sometimes likened to the craft beers of electronic music, are bespoke, infinitely recombinant electronic devices whose mysterious workings and DIY ethos inspire near-obsessive devotion,” Pitchfork’s Philip Sherburne wrote recently, and between the dance and noise scenes, modular set-ups are thriving locally. There are regularly scheduled synth swap meets; last September Midwest Modular, a shop specializing in vintage and neo-vintage gear, opened near St. Anthony Main. As one local enthusiast noted, “I dream of wires.”
