It's not news to anyone that Japan comes out with a vast variety of weirdness and whimsy--it seems to be one of their national cultural specialties. But we'd like to direct your attention to a very specific brand of wacky--what one team of musician-artist-engineers calls "nonsense instruments." It takes a certain kind of lunatic lyrical inspiration to spend your life making carefully engineered objects purely for the sake of mind-breaking entertainment. For this achievement, we award Maywa Denki the coveted Demented Genius Award. Congratulations!
Read more on Maywa Denki on Make's blog: "Made in Japan Vol. 3." Scroll down and watch the BBC video for maximum enjoyment.
Discuss: Maywa Denki: Japanese robot music