I’ve always hoped that one day I would be wandering dejectedly around some incredibly sad flea market and come upon a real retro find, but so far, no luck. Today, however, on my big excursion to the local primary school fete (hey, at least it got me away from the computer and out into the all-too-warm Brisbane sunshine), I spied a whole heap of toy keyboards baking on the tennis court with the rest of the trash and treasure. And among them was this little gem: A Casio PT-1. It measures only 35 cm in length and it has the four cheesiest, but fattest, synth sounds ever made. It has an output jack, an onboard step sequencer, and pitch bend, and it is my new favourite thing in the world (or at least the best 50 cents I’ve spent for a while).

Best of all, these Casio models have the cheesiest 80s drum patterns onboard, including the one that is the musical anchor of that great moment in Western music, “Da Da Da” by Trio. As my first experiment recording the sounds to hard disk, I made a loop of this drum pattern at 134 BPM. Download it, use it, and be responsible for more dangerously infectious synthpop than the world could possibly need. Or just listen and bask in the nostalgia.

If this inspires you, then have a listen to some Casiocore and some very special lofi electroclash made by Junk Magnet with this little beast and a set of Radioshack walkie-talkies — lame, but only in the best possible way 😉