The history of Drum Machines is a story of piracy, of clones, and of the simulation of simulations. // Music boxes were very popular in the Chinese Emperor’s court over the 17th and 18th centuries. They became a very important element of missionary politics and Western diplomacy. // Swiss Jesuits created the first “fake” music boxes. // The preset switchboard of the music box named Maestro Rhythm King, which has buttons such as "Latin,” "American,” and "Traditional", is a display of the Black Atlantic – a post-colonial atlas // "Latin Rhythms" are also an invention of Japanese electronic engineers in the 60s. The rhythm machine is a tradition-engraving machine // “Drum Machines have no soul!" – reads a sticker created by John Wood in California. It was his attempt to counteract his fear of the “Dehumanization of American Music.” // The ambiguity created by a music-making machine can surely unsettle people interested in strict realities and fixed identities such as that of "American Music.”  // The history of technical automata is a history of fear and of fascination. Of a fascination with the Other. Of a fear of humans being replaced by machines. Of a fear of deceit.