JeanMichelJarre
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The artist making physics and a conspiracy theory into music
Peaches is her aunt. Jared Leto's a fan and so is Jean-Michel Jarre, who sent her to live with an indigenous tribe in the Amazon. She's modeled for high-end fashion events and composed for German theater. She's conducted magnetic resonance imaging studies on mutated HIV cells and had paintings featured in galleries in New York. She taught herself the piano at age 10. At 15, she successfully petitioned the Los Angeles courts to be home-schooled; one year later, she enrolled at the University of Maryland. Her upcoming album incorporates the synthesized sounds of actual stars, physics themes and pitch-shifting conspiracies linked to Bob Marley and Hitler. Her list of professional accomplishments puts other so-called pop culture multihyphenates to shame. She is Simonne Jones, and you will know her name.
Edward Snowden has too much free time, starts making music
When you almost-singlehandedly expose a vast, secretive spying network, you've every right to a little swagger. And Edward Snowden has frequently displayed that during his slow transition from whistleblower to privacy advocate. But there comes a time in every digital activist's life where they must choose a path: you either become a credible voice for good, or you become.. a voice. Presenting the new collaboration between electronic music legend Jean-Michel Jarre and Edward Snowden: "Exit."
Alesis Vortex brings back the Keytar, piano-neck tie, songs on MTV forthcoming
The guit-board is clearly the finest instrument to grace stadiums of decades past, but despite the innate bad-assery of the instrument, it faded into ironic-hipster use like the Eigenharp and Tenori-On. Fortunately, the geniuses at Alesis refused to let it pass into obscurity, releasing the Vortex in an attempt to propel the shoulder-slung keyboard into the stratosphere. Whilst plenty of body-mounted keyboards are available (Roland's AX-09 springs to mind) on the market, these guys went with 1985-grade body styling and a neck that you wish Steve Pocaro would rock out on (he never did, tragically). The MIDI/USB controller comes with 37 touch sensitive keys, velocity sensitive pads, octave and pitch wheels along that glorious neck. Hook it up to a Mac or PC and it'll draw power from the bus, connect it to any iOS device (USB adapter required) and you'll need to bring batteries. There's an MRSP of $400, but the company lists the expected "street price" at $250 -- if it's closer to the latter, we'll pick up a pair for the Engadget-street band's next world tour.
