With the myriad of local groups that call State College home, it's hard to imagine one that has a completely unique sound. One that's up to the challenge is the human beatbox group, Larynx.

"It's like a smorgasbord of sound," group member Brendan Irving (sophomore-advertising and theatre) said. "Everyone has his own unique styles and sound."

The group's co-founder, former Penn State student Dominic Bouma, said human beatboxing is "making music with your mouth," and is usually found as the human percussion component in a cappella groups. Bouma and 2001 Penn State graduate Jamie Howe decided to gather beatboxes and create a musical entourage out of them. Next came naming the new group, which was going to be Voicebox, until Bouma had a better idea.

"Larynx just sounded so much more intense," Bouma said.

Organized late last semester, Larynx is currently composed of eight members, six of whom are Penn Staters. The group has already performed at the HUB-Robeson Center, the Brewery, 233 E. Beaver Ave., Outlaws Theatre and the Interfraternity Council/Panhellenic Dance Marathon.

Each member specializes in his or her own unique sound, ranging from drumsets to horns to turntables to didjeridus. Utilizing their various talents, the group members harmonize at performances but also allow each individual to show off his or her abilities. Occasionally the group even covers other artists' material, such as "Killing Me Softly." Each vocalist takes on a different instrument or beat which comes together to create a purely vocal collage of sound and music.

"But we're not a typical a cappella group," Howe added.

Its styles of music vary as widely as each member's talents.

"Jazz, reggae, rap, spoken word, improv -- all through the musical filter of Larynx," Bouma said.

Larynx rehearsals are rather atypical of many musicians as well. Much of their time is spent laughing as one member begins a spur-of-the-moment vocal beat, then the others slowly join in with their own added, often impromptu, rhythms.

"A lot of what we do is often improv," Irving said.

The members have even created their own performance aliases. Bouma, for example, is known as Shodekeh.

"We just felt like beatbox was unappreciated," Bouma said. "People would say, 'Do that thing you do like that guy in Police Academy.' We just want people to know that beatbox is not inside an '80s time capsule," Bouma said.

"Not only are our sounds beautiful, but so are we," Irving joked.

"We want people to keep seeing us in the future because we know we're only going to grow. We're just going to get better."

Larynx can be seen in a free performance at 11:30 p.m. tomorrow in HUB Alumni Hall.