Death Calls the Tune, a project by German designers lab binaer, looks like a regular turntable, until you turn the lights off. Instead of playing “California Dreamin’,” this record displays text messages in phosphorus.

Rather than producing sound, this hacked record player produces light. By covering the record platter with four bands of light-sensitive phosphorescent paint and replacing the turntable’s cartridge with a LED light, the player creates beautiful bands of green that quickly spring to life and then fade away

A microcontroller determines the pulse of the LED cartridge, allowing for the display of individual letters and, in turn, the fading 50-character messages seen in the video. It’s just too bad this psychedelic project’s messages are so hung up on death and destruction. [Hackaday via Make]