Major Organ And The Adding Machine

Nursery rhyme sci-fi/prog/pop, self-consciously odd but very musical anyway. Think Daevid Allen and Chicks On Speed had a communal litter who grew up to make this CD in middle school. (Uh… don't actually think that.)

Collaboration of Elephant 6 Recording Company artists (Olivia Tremor Control, Neutral Milk Hotel, Elf Power, Of Montreal, more) did this project 1997—2001. This version has 7 additional tracks compared to the original, starred in the track descriptions.

Tracks blend together (save two long pauses, marked). Too bad DMCA disallows playing it through. Somehow reminds me of British story prog from days of yore (Hatfield and the North, Gong, Camel, Pretty Things, early Genesis) by decidedly nursery-rhyme influenced. This is heavier on the machinery, lighter on the musicianship than those bands, but still entertaining and good music.

Suggestion: the "interregnum" tracks, as I've marked them, serve as great intros to the tracks that follow them.

Play with Scott Marshall, Daevid Allen's various projects, Olekranon, Bevin Blectum, Ikue Mori, Fiery Furnaces, Prefuse 73, FFA Coffi Pawb, Zolar X.

FCC clean. Start with 14, (18+)19, (22+)23, 25.

1. Cold start, hyperprocessed vocals, swaying, a bit Flaming Lippy. Ends with a foghorn.
2. Cold, noisy start morphs to sweet, perky melody with childlike vocals.
3. Interregnum - wild, spliced, and light.
4. Wacky pop with demented jazz arrangement. Lyrics are badly pronounced French.
5.* Instrumental waltz featuring discordance and off-kilter percussion,
6.* Short instrumental except for "Francisco" said a few times.
7. Busy, mostly instrumental featuring jaw harp.
8. Psychedelic retro-prog/jazz weirdness that tells a nonsense story.
9.* Minimalist electro-oddness. Rather Chicks on Speed.
10. Interregnum with heavy guitar, vocal samples, and random synth sounds.
11. Droney with clarinet and demented chorus.
12. Interregnum with repetitive vocal figures. Some Broadcast-like synth sounds.
13. Instrumental. Starts with piano and guitar, then accordion joins in. Very slow fade… several seconds of silence at end.

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+ 14. All over the map. Starts with voice saying "It's hot in here." Then repeated:"Congratulations." "Thank you!"
15. Instrumental. Evokes Rolling Stones' Their Satanic Majesty's Request.
16.* Instrumental except for mellotron-like vocal sounds.
17. Very spacey. "Receiving serial number transmission from the old folks' home." Lots of spliced vocal fragments.
18. Interregnum Circus dementus.
+ 19.* Ostinato Casio polka… a bit Broadcast like, strangely enough.
20. Instrumental. Robots riffing on toy instruments.
21. A cappella using slightly spooky harmony. Surreal lyrics and vocals.
22. Interregnum with goat sounds.
+ 23.* Instrumental: lovely ping-pong synths and flyweight electro percussion.
24. Short instrumental + martian vocalizations
+ 25. WTF… this is songlike. Cacophonous yet nearly folk-rocky. NOTE: this goes to silence with 56 seconds left in the track.

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26.* Truly the oddest version ever of this song. Starts with space sounds and a baby laughing mechanically. Then gets all indie rock on your ass… and then back to insidious insanity….

* Starred tracks are ones that weren't on the original (2001) release