Brian Eno loves the FM3 Buddha Machine

It's not a digital audio player (at least not in the traditional sense), it's barely even much of a device at all. The FM3 Buddha Machine is just an audio out jack, an on off switch, and an integrated speaker (and apparently a Buddha figurine in there, too) — turn it on, and it repetitively plays back one of nine loops. Seriously, that's it, straight up. But somehow the Buddha Machine has captured the imaginations of many with its utterly deceptive ambient simplicity, including Brian Eno, one of the Brians behind Roxy Music, ambient composer, and Bowie's long time partner in crime (apparently he bought eight of 'em). Dude, why didn't you just get one more so you can play all nine ambient loops at the same time? Alan Bishop bought 24 Buddha Machines — now that's what we're talking about.

[Via BoingBoing]

[StaticBeats @ Dec 19th 2005 12:55AM]

I have one of these and it's pretty nifty albeit cheaply constructed. My friend here laughed however and said it's some 25cent piece of junk that they have all over Taiwan. It's a buddhist thing apparently. Anyhow, the novelty wears off pretty quickly - like OK, now that you've spent 3 minutes playing with this what do you do with it? And why does every press release and article insist on mentioning Alan Bishop and Brian Eno? I'm shocked this has been making the rounds for so long. Can you imagine BoingBoing doing some big Pez announcement and then having it end up on Engadget like the next big thing?