Whoever said synths were cold and alien? Some Frank Turneresque bellend no doubt, bashing away on his sodding acoustic guitar. The brilliant Dirty Electronics Mute Synth puts the human in synth technology as you have to use your actual flesh and blood fingers to link circuits and make the thing cheep, whirr and squawk. As Dirty Electronics put it, "The instrument combines sound synthesis with a sequencer/pulser, and is controlled by the conductivity of the human body which completes the instrument’s circuit when the copper etching is touched. Designed to be played with thumbs and fingers, there are touch points on both sides of the circuit board and two tilt switches on different planes allow for gestural control of the sequencer."

Here, John Richards of Dirty Electronics shows Mute founder Daniel Miller how to operate the device. The Normal reform! Etc. For more synth excellence, please visit the Dirty Electronics website and you can buy the Mute synth here.