Major Organ & The Adding Machine

Major Organ & the Adding Machine | Format: Audio CD

Product Details

• Audio CD (June 19, 2001)
• Number of Discs: 1
• Label: Orange Twin
• ASIN: B00005LE05
• In-Print Editions: Audio CD  |  Vinyl  |  MP3 Download
• Average Customer Review: 4.0 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (10 customer reviews)
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #119,348 in Music (See Top 100 in Music)

Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

6 of 6 people found the following review helpful:

3.0 out of 5 stars Sound Collages, August 16, 2001

By 

B. Cawley "Decapito" (LA, CA) - See all my reviews
(REAL NAME)   

This review is from: Major Organ & The Adding Machine (Audio CD)

What you must understand about this CD is that it wasn't made for you. The people who worked on this CD made a cd of found sound and tape loops and distortion and spoken word and they did it all for themselves.

Fortunately, we can actually enjoy some of this stuff. If you've never really heard sound collages before, this is as good a place to start as any. Sounds drift in and out and voices are heard and dissapear and the music creates environments that are sometimes fascinating to listen to.

Not all of the cd is this way, however. There are a fair number of songs, which for the most part are great. They recall the Beatles and the Beachboys with trims of distortion and psychedelic imagery, baroque piano, and rattley drums. It's an enjoyable CD, but more so if you've ever had experience with the Elephant 6 label.

4 of 4 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars Absolutely frightening..., October 19, 2001

By 

Mr. Hi-Fi Banjo Strings (A cloud) - See all my reviews

This review is from: Major Organ & The Adding Machine (Audio CD)

First thing's first, if you are a diehard Elephant 6 fan or really dig the hyper-experimental Beatles deluges, snag this faster than you can say, "I'm sorry". If the two aformentioned oddities mean nothing to you, then by all means forego. The record, if listened to at surface level, is one of the most frightening things ever put to tape. Nothing connects, the artwork is incendiary in its nostalgic nuances, and the sound is freakishly akin to an alien digestion of earthly music and subsequent faulty regurgitation. Fans will notice voices of Robert Schneider (?), Kevin Barnes, and even Jeff Mangum. And if "Life Form" doesn't make you weep, you are not carbon-based. When probed, it sounds like they're having fun. And to do just that and still scare the bejeezus out of listeners is a novel and successful thing to do. This is perhaps the most Elephant 6 record. Word.

3 of 3 people found the following review helpful:

4.0 out of 5 stars aural palate cleanser, December 17, 2005

By 

Daniel Jircitano "www.knerd.com/~sashwap" (pa) - See all my reviews
(REAL NAME)   

This review is from: Major Organ & The Adding Machine (Audio CD)

listen: if you're remotely interested in this album (i.e. you LOVE other elephant 6 related releases from neutral milk hotel, olivia tremor control, etc.) then just buy it right now without listening to the sound samples. sound samples can be evil.

this is an album made for fun by a group of recording enthusiasts (the elephant 6 orchestra) by passing a tape around amongst themselves. half the time the people involved had lost track of the tape and had no idea who had it. who knows how long it gestated, but the end result shows what must have been hours and hours over overdubbing and noise-making layered on top of what were once stunningly good pop tunes. this album is an ode to the joys of recording (it's also a quasi-concept album with a nearly indecipherable pseudo-story.) obviously it would have been more fun if WE were in on the making of it, but we should be thankful we get to hear it.

this is an album you'll listen to once, only to put away for a while in disgust. then later, you'll dig it out (out of sort of morbid curiosity) and find it a lot better than you remember. the cycle will repeat for a few years, each time some of the layers stripping away and melodies coming to the front.

it's an aural palate cleanser, the album that you've always wanted to listen to on those days when you just stare at your cd rack and aren't in the mood for ANYTHING you own.

think of it as two albums that play simultaneously, and one of them is awesome (the other is a sound effects album of objects falling and shattering). it's unlike anything else you own (including the music tapes, an elephant 6 band that major organ is often compared to, inaccurately). have fun digging!