Major Organ and The Adding Machine

The Elephant 6 collective is made up of very strange people, who range from psychedelic pop to bizarre folk-rock to... well, try to think up a description for Neutral Milk Hotel. But every now and then, they create something that is so strange that drugs are probably required to fully get into it."Major Organ and the Adding Machine" is one of those. It's essentially a psychedelic jam band, full of weird effects, odd clattering noises and quasi-melodies. Every now and then a bizarre pop song emerges from the chaos, but most of the time it's just acid jams.It opens with the strange "When Father Was Away On Business," a collection of odd noises and stuttering vocals. Things improve a little in "His Mister's Pet Whistles," which has a charming Of Montreal-like melody buried under all the noise and mayhem.That about sets the tone for the entire album -- half of it is instrumental madness, half is promising pop. It starts off on a relatively normal note, about halfway through it gets crazier and crazier, pushing out the "normal" (nothing about Elephant 6 is normal) pop to the sidelines. It ends on a relatively ordinary note, with the stately keyboard of "Life Form (Transmission Received)," but by that time your brain is probably fried.The more normal bits of pop, unsurprisingly, resemble the various Elephant 6 bands at different times -- actually, many of them resemble a lo-fi French twin of Olivia Tremor Control or Of Montreal. Their melodies are loaded with weird sound effects, but they tend to be catchy, a little funky, and entertainingly bizarre.The madness part includes xylophone pop, interludes of electronic swipping and sound samples, the wound of wind blowing, an otherworldly bass solo, slightly mad dancepop, random piano, and mournful a capella. It climaxes with the minute-and-a-half "Waking In The Sun," which is a completely schizophrenic collection of mouth noises, explosive percussion, electronic screeches, and much more.Obviously with a jam band, you can expect some randomness. With Major Organ and the Adding Machine, there are some good jams and good pop, but many of the songs evoke the question: Why? Why bother with a seemingly random collection of blips and intermittent instrumentals, which runs for only thirty seconds?As a result, the jams never are really good -- at best they are entertainingly weird. However, they have the out-there quality of Elephant 6 psychedelica, with none of the fun melodies or amazing instrumentation. The pop numbers fare better, such as the explosively good "Water Dripping On Bread Makes Bread Taste Not So Tasty," which is both insane and dancey."Major Organ and the Adding Machine" has the quality of a mad musician's experiment, but that also means that some of the songs are virtually inaccessible. Stick to the pop numbers, which are masterful lo-fi psychedelica.

as time passes, i find myself less interested in "normal" music. i am a fan of a lot of the elephant 6 bands, and major organ is definitely one of my favorites, along side neutral milk hotel and the music tapes, and the others are all good, but those three are really it for me. this record weaves noise with lo-fi pop, psych, whatever else and even an operatic tune "madame truffle" (this is the one song it is very clear that jeff mangum sings lead on...if that is what you're looking for, and if you are looking for another NMH record, this is NOT it...maybe in theory (as in group of friends getting together and giving their all to make it happen) if not in sound...but that's a whole other argument).my favorite thing about major organ is the blend between noise, pop songs, and song fragments spread throughout....and it's all great. if you've ever felt the joy of creating noisey/improv/way off the beaten path sounds out of your indescibable love of and passion for music and making music with your friends...you really should check this out.it is also another elephant 6 record that you can hear new things on with each listen. and music was and is meant to be LISTENED TO, not just playing in the background. so if you like to listen deep into music and are into noisey music that can lack stucture at times and focus more on a feel or feeling than a melody, with some truly great yet anything but normal songs, i can't recommend this enough...along with the music tapes CD...they are both criminally overlooked.i wish there were more bands like this.

don't buy this album! it is a tumorous growth on your appreciation of music! if you do get this on a whim, as i did, you'll listen to it, say something along the lines of "what happened here?" and shelf it. then one day without thinking about it you'll happen to look at it sitting there (digitally or physically) and decide (without really thinking about what you heard last time) to put it on, because you aren't in the mood for all the other stuff you listen to. then this record will click. you won't even get it this second time around, but it sure sounds better than it did before. slowly but surely the frequency at which you listen to this record will increase; you will want to hear more of the goodness you heard before. so be careful about you major organ fixes... there isn't much else to go around... but then again on the other hand if you are an avid e6er this is no brainer... get it.

This album is a Happy Meal in outer space. It's awemazinggggg, with 5 g's, just like I typed it there. Listen to it while tripping.

One of the best psychedelic albums I have heard in a while. The Elephant 6 collective have truly done something amazing with this album.