The Keynote Auto-Rhythm Mark XX carries the MR101 name on its own front panel. Its compact, wood-framed face belongs to a technical family also sold as the Jax 230 Auto Rhythm and Selmer MR-101 Auto Rhyth—a small but unusually well-documented trail of badges across early electronic rhythm.
A nameplate worth reading
The retained Dystopia photograph leaves very little room for guesswork about this particular object: Keynote, Auto-Rhythm, Mark XX and MR101 are all printed across its brushed-metal face. The cabinet is handsome but practical—a row of dance-pattern buttons under three rows of variation controls, then sustain, tempo and power. It is the kind of domestic rhythm box that asks to live beside an organ, guitar amp or tape machine, not inside a rack.
Source (1)
One circuit, three badges
Tubbutec’s technical documentation groups the Keynote AutoRhythm with the Jax 230 Auto Rhythm and Selmer MR-101 Auto Rhyth. It maps ten trigger outputs for the shared design and notes that most respond to velocity. That makes the brand changes part of the story rather than a reason to blur them: the Museum keeps this page with the Keynote name actually visible on the machine.
Source (1)
A Selmer in Cabaret Voltaire’s early noise
Martin Mallinder recalled that the rolling tom figure in Cabaret Voltaire’s 1979 “Nag Nag Nag” came from a Selmer drum machine. David Buckley’s history of the group identifies that Selmer as an MR-101 Auto Rhythm. The route from this little home-accompaniment machine to Cabaret Voltaire’s abrasive early vocabulary is exactly the sort of sideways history the boxes keep offering.
Sources (2)
The machine still has a voice
Reverb later made a Keynote MR-101 sample pack and demonstration available. It is a modern preservation project rather than an original factory recording, but it keeps the instrument’s sounds in circulation and gives the visitor a direct listening route while the Museum seeks a properly documented in-house study.
Source (1)
Sources
The visual archive
Further visual evidence.
These displayed records are labelled by their documented role, date and source; source-only records are listed separately below.