The sound emanated from a steamroller can hardly be called music, and while an effort has been made to transform a steamroller into a giant music box, we guess it’s safe to say that it still does not sound very appealing idea. If you’re wondering what we’re on about, we’re talking about an art project by Dave Cole who essentially transformed a steamroller found on construction sites, into a gigantic music box where the roller portion of the machine is spun and hits the different notes at different points in time.
The steamroller itself has been dismantled and had its innards removed, taking it down from its original 22,000lb weight to a fraction of that, but all the while keeping the look intact so that no one will mistake it for something else (like we could!). The front of the steamroller has also been removed and replaced with an acoustic cabinet made from cherry wood. We have to take our hats off to Dave Cole for even coming up with such an idea and taking a hulking machine and turning it into “art”, but at the same time we also think that it could sound a lot better. If you’ve got a minute to spare, check out the video above in which the steamroller-slash-music box hammers out The Star Spangled Banner as best as it can.
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