Watch an amazing knife-powered rendition of Stayin’ Alive

22 May 2015

Neil Mendoza has created the greatest rendition of Stayin’ Alive around by using 16 knives, one cleaver and some amazingly intricate engineering.

All the knives were bought from the $0.99 store and – combined with six musical machines including a brilliant gadget that runs a visible current through two knives that both looks and sounds great – he’s modernised the Bee Gees’ most famous track.

There’s grinding knives, with a cleaver providing some form of percussion, knives banging against things, rubbing against things and somehow, amazingly, generating notes to match the Bee Gees classic.

Stayin’ Alive at its best:

Lets get all technical. According to Creative Applications, all of the instruments are controlled using “one Arduino, running firmware based on code available online here”.

“The music was arranged in Logic, output using a USB to MIDI cable and then read by the Arduino using the MIDI circuit.”

The Electric Knife Orchestra - Stayin' Alive

Mendoza uses two machines to generate sound. “The Jacob’s Ladder uses a relay to control a 12,000V neon sign transformer and the three other machines work using MOSFETs connected to solenoids and car door lock actuators.”

The Electric Knife Orchestra - Stayin' Alive

All these images are via Creative Applications, where we first spotted this masterpiece.

Some of Mendoza’s other work is equally impressive, with a laser orchestra only a click away.

Personally, I’m hoping Electric Knife Orchestra takes off, and covers some Electric Light Orchestra classics like Don’t Bring Me Down and Mr Blue Sky.

Gordon Hunt was a journalist with Silicon Republic

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