LIFE is wonderful
In April 1998 FM came across Longstone at London's Highbury Garage. The two Mikes were on stage surrounded by tables full of machines and small pods on the end of sticks: LIFE synthesizers (Little Infinite Frequency Expanders). "They look like half coconuts don't they?" exclaims Mike C.
"We bought them because we were looking to do some live stuff, and needed portable gear that fitted in with our sound. They look bizarre. You can sync them so that the pulsewidth can be controlled by gates and CVs, so you can wibble away and some parameters will be in time. They emit a constant tone which you fiddle about with; you've got filters, cutoff, resonance and stuff. The controls aren't marked though. The idea is that you just fiddle. If you can get a note out of them then you're doing pretty well.

"It's a bit Kraftwerkish, you know, like standing at the front with a pocket calculator."
Toys 'r' us
Longstone have other peculiar devices in their musical armoury like Speak 'N' Spell machines! And it's all the fault of Mike Ward. "I've got loads of old electronic toys," he enthuses. "I've also got old Copicats, tape recorders and anything electronic that you can make a noise with. Old microphones, talking robots, Speak 'N' Spells, absolutely anything."

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