Drive away those Monday blues with Titonic Fisherman

Sometimes, all you need on that first day back at work is something to make you smile. I've yet to wipe the big daft grin off my face from playing around with Froach Club's Titonic Fisherman, a little browser-based software toy/music synthesizer with an adorably doodled aesthetic, and a very silly range of samples to annoy the neighbours with.

To play, just pop it open in your browser and mash the first two lines of letters on your keyboard to your heart's content. Z clears any recordings you've made, X switches between recording with a metronome and completely freeform play. Make some noise and come back when you're feeling sufficiently de-stressed.

It seems that any attempt to make real music using Titonic Fisherman is going to result in a steady decline into a cacophony of silly cartoon noises, honks, squeaks, grunts and snorts. And that's just fine, because I get the feeling that I'm not meant to be doing anything so boring or by-the-rules with this.

While the keyboard controls are a little clunky, it all makes sense when you see the custom arcade-style cabinet that it originally debuted in, rich with glowing buttons to press in no particular order. The only thing that could make it more of a toy is if there was a sticker of each character on each button, but even that would lose out on the fun of just discovering which button does what.

Titonic Fisherman is free to play in your browser, or a downloadable version to keep is pay-what-you-want.

Disclaimer: Titonic Fisherman was commissioned as part of the Now Play This collection, and was exhibited earlier this month. Alice informs me that Now Play This is organized and run by her friends and former flatmates, but I have no idea who they are, so that's okay.