It takes just a few seconds for a Roli Block to transform from a monolithic black slab into a harmonious array of colourful lights that pulse and swirl just below the surface. Gently prod it, and the softest of synth sounds play. Stab at it, and the synth gets louder and harsher. Roll a finger from side to side, and the synth wavers with a healthy vibrato, or slide a finger up and down and the synth responds with a polyphonic cacophony of sound. Within minutes, there's a melody. Soon, there's a song.

As musical instruments go (or MIDI controllers to be totally precise) the Roli Block is unlike anything else—which is to be expected from the UK company behind the quirky Seaboard Grand and Seaboard Rise. Released to critical acclaim in 2015, the Seaboard is Roli's attempt to reinvent the keyboard. Instead of moving keys, weighted or otherwise, the surface of a Seaboard is a squidgy touch-sensitive silicone, with raised sections—dubbed "keywaves"— where the keys would normally be. Where a regular keyboard can only detect the velocity of note (how hard it is struck), the Seaboard, like a stringed instrument, allows for expressive finger-driven vibrato and bends.

Velocity, continuous pressure sensitivity, pitch bending and glide (X-axis movement), slide (Y-Axis movement), and release velocity are all recorded by the Seaboard's surface, and piped out through MPE MIDI (that's Multidimensional Polyphonic Expression Musical Instrument Digital Interface), an updated version of the MIDI standard implemented in the early '80s. MPE MIDI isn't as widespread as standard MIDI, which, thanks to widespread adoption, remains the industry standard interface. But it is supported by the likes of Apple, Moog Music, and Haken Audio, to name but a few. Roland Lamb, the founder of Roli, is even listed as as an author of the standard.

The Roli Block takes that same multitouch, MPE MIDI-powered technology and applies it to a much smaller, more affordable instrument. Where the full 49-key Seaboard Rise costs £1000 ($1200), the Roli Block will cost just £170 in the UK and $180 in the US when it launches on November 2. Ostensibly, the Roli Block is aimed at beginners, or those with an interest in music that lack any sort of formal training on a traditional instrument. And the Roli Block ably fills that role. But there's such depth to its capabilities that it would be no surprise to see Blocks in the hands of professional musicians, studio wizards, and live performers and DJs before long.

Modular music

Roli Blocks are part of what Roli is calling a "Modular Music Studio," and at the heart of it is the Lightpad Block. Constructed with a solid aluminium frame and finished with high-strength plastic, the small, square, rechargeable device (via USB Type-C) feels reassuringly robust. Since the Roli Block is a MIDI controller, it doesn't produce any sounds of its own, and so connects to either a Mac or PC via Bluetooth for use with a DAW (Digital Audio Workstation) like Logic Pro, or to an iOS device for use with Roli's bundled app called Noise. While the latter is effectively a collection of pre-made, albeit impressive sounds, there's still scope for creativity.

Underneath the silicone surface of the Lightpad Block is an array of LEDs, which shine though transparent silicone layers and sensor board layers that have been pierced with hundreds of tiny holes. By default, the Lightpad displays a 4x4 grid of alternating coloured blocks—much like a classic MPC drum machine or Ableton Live's Push controller—with each block triggering one of Noise's built-in loops. Press on a square and a drum loop starts playing. Press another and a melody line starts playing. Press two or more squares together and you have have a song. Anyone, regardless of musical ability, can play something that sounds good.

But even within this restricted framework, there's room for expression. Sweep a finger up on the drum loop square and the lights change colour to follow, transforming the loop from a straight 4/4 beat to a glitchy, staccato mess of snare drum hits worthy of any beard-heavy electro act. Hit the synth square harder and the lights pulse, creating a more aggressive-sounding loop, or slide from side-to-side to bring in pitch or other modulations. Hit record in Noise and every nuance of the performance is captured, in MIDI, ready for later tweaking. Yes, these are pre-made loops being triggered, but the added expression is more powerful than anything you'd see in a typical DJ set.

It's easy to imagine hooking a Lightpad up to a DAW and replacing those loops with homemade drum beats and carefully curated samples to create live remixes, similar to how DJs use Ableton Live, but with more scope for a nuanced performance.

With a few taps in Noise the Lightpad switches to a 5x5 grid, with each square triggering an individual drum hit or a specific note in a synth. Drum beats can be bashed out in much the same way as they would be on a dedicated drum machine, but with different effects and sounds being triggered depending on how deftly each square is hit. Record that performance in Noise, and switch to another track (there are four in total) to create a synth line, with all manner of weird pitch bends and squeals attached to the X- and Y-axis. Bass and pads can be added too, and sounds can be locked to a specific key and scale, which dims incorrect notes, turning the entire Lightpad into a surface without a single bum note.

As is de rigueur for contemporary devices, songs created in Noise can be uploaded to the cloud and shared. The trick is that it's not just audio that's shared, but the entire performance. Every hit, sweep, and slide is played back in its entirety via the lights on the surface of the Lightpad. Learning a song can be as simple as tracing a pattern. While my own attempt to create a simple four-track loop using the Lightpad was unique at best, it's easy to see the potential of Roli Blocks—it's an impressively intuitive instrument. In the hands of a Roli pro, much like the one I met in my demo, it becomes truly inspiring.

All I want for Christmas

At launch, up to two Lightpads can be linked (they simply snap together via magnets), creating either a larger playing surface, or a way to run something like a loop launcher and a drum pad simultaneously. Up to two Control Blocks (which cost £70/$80) can be added too, which introduce things like transport controls, record buttons, patch switching, and quantising, so there's less need to go back to the Noise app or a DAW. In future, more Blocks will connect together, allowing for the creation of huge control surfaces for live performance. And with a DAW, what's triggered on the X- and Y-axis can be totally customised and assigned to different effects.

The only real limitation to Roli Blocks right now is that there's no Android app—Android has famously had terrible support for low latency audio, although recent updates have gone some way towards rectifying the problem—and that support for MPE MIDI is in its infancy. Unlike regular MIDI, each note in MPE is transmitted along its own independent MIDI channel (up to 16 in the case of the Roli Blocks), and certain MIDI messages, most importantly pitch bend, can be applied to each channel individually instead of across all notes being played (think of a pitch bend wheel being used on a MIDI keyboard). Without MPE support in a DAW or hardware device, the Roli Blocks will work, but all of the nuance will be lost.

Garage Band and Logic Pro both support MPE MIDI, as do a handful of Moog synths and Roli's in-house synth Equator.

But that's only something a handful of Roli Blocks owners will have to worry about. Many electronic instruments aimed at beginners have been launched in the past, but few have had the depth to transcend novelty status. Roli has not only seemingly created an accessible, expressive instrument for beginners with the Roli Blocks, but a powerful tool for professional electronic musicians too. I can't wait to see what people do with it. And, if my better half is reading, I know what I want for Christmas this year.

Roli Blocks are available in the US and Europe exclusively from Apple stores at retail, and from Roli.com. The Lightpad Block costs £170/$180, while the Control Block costs £70/$80.

Now check out what deals can we expect for Black Friday 2016.