Zoundz

The other day we decided to get Salvador Dali, Barbarella and Mr Spock to create an interactive digital audio sculpture. Sadly, for one reason or another, all three celebs were unavailable. But this turned out to be a blessing in disguise because Zoundz beats anything they could come up with hands down.

This totally bizarre music-making gizmo is set to become one of the most engrossing desktop playthings in history, as it's unlike anything you've ever seen or heard.

In fact, trying to describe Zoundz is a bit like trying to describe sausage meat through the medium of dance, but we'll give it a go. Basically Zoundz involves moving various pawn-like pieces around a base to create weird and wonderful music and generate mesmerising light shows.

Six distinctive pieces play different outlandish riffs and beats, depending on the sound-and-light 'hot spots' you place them on. A seventh piece records and plays your compositions which you can then add to the mix - which will loop constantly until you re-arrange the pieces again. It will even record your voice. Surreal? Zoundz makes playing a lump of cheddar with a marshmallow mallet look completely normal.

You can even bend and blend sounds and adjust volume, tempo, echo and reverb via touch-sensitive buttons on the amorphous base unit. It's a mind-blowing multi-sensory symphonic experience that you control. No musical training required!

As if creating your own other-worldly music wasn't enough, you can even use Zoundz as a light-emitting speaker for your MP3 player or as a speaking clock that can chime on the hour or tell the time at a touch of a button. It also functions as an alarm clock that wakes you up with your own crazy compositions.

We really can't stress just how addictive fiddling with this bonkers bit of kit is. The possibilities are endless and the sounds Zoundz emits are out of this world. Pass the purple cone; we're off to compose the next number one.