They are called Z Machinese and they are about to take the Japanese music world by storm. This unique rock band is made up entirely of futuristic automatons able to play guitar, drums and keyboards better than any human.

Z Machines is the brainchild of Yoichiro Kawaguchi, an IT professor at the University of Tokyo, and mechanical designer Naofumi Yonetsuka, who wanted to liven up the music scene by creating something futuristic and exciting. So they created Ashura, a six-armed drummer who can actually play 22 drums simultaneously and sounds like four people playing the drums at the same time, Mach, a metal-and-wire guitarist who uses 78 fingers and 12 picks allowing him to challenge even the most gifted human guitar players, and Cosmo, who is literally wired into his keyboard and shoots lasers from his eyes. Z Mazhines certainly sounds like a very impressive band, but can they really play a gig? They answered that question on Monday, when they teamed up with Japanese human duo Amoyamo, for an electrifying performance at one of Tokyo’s most popular night clubs.

Photo: AP/Koji Sasahara

The creators of this robot trio enlisted the help of DJ Tasaka, a famous electronic musician from Japan, to create an original song for their big debut. At first, he decided to go for a traditional disco-electro track, but after seeing what they were capable of during rehearsals, he decided to make something truly tough for them to play. “But then they were able to play it,” the surprised DJ told Japanese press. Amoyamo were also surprised by how well the robots played their part, considering they had only rehearsed together once before the big show. But Professor Kawaguchi has even bigger plans for his robot band. He’s shooting for the stars, literally. The IT specialist hopes to one day take Z Machines to play in outer space, like on the Moon or on the North Pole of Mars.

Photo: Nippon News

Z Machines may be all the rage in Japan right now, but they are actually not the world’s first robot band. That title goes to Compressorhead, a group of true metal heads who like to rock out to tracks by legends like AC/DC or Motorhead.

Source: Digital Trends