Major Organ and the Adding Machine - 2001

Something recent-ish (but still a decade old)! This is one of my favorite albums of all time and here are some reasons why:

1. It features nearly every member of the Elephant 6 Collective (who gave us bands like Neutral Milk Hotel, Olivia Tremor Control, Of Montreal, The Music Tapes, etc.)...so if you like any of those bands there is something for you to like here.

2. That said, no one in any of these bands is willing to divulge their involvement...the official explanation is that these are the recordings found by a mythical bandleader named Major Organ (although you can clearly hear Jeff Mangum and Kevin Barnes on various tracks).

3. Pitchfork gave it a 4.5/10 and the review has inexplicably vanished from their website

4. Thematically it covers everything from a sad woman named Madame Truffle baking pastries in the shape of Kris Kristofferson, to an avenger named Francisco saving a band of children to a French counting song to eyeballs looking like Moonpies.

5. Musically it sounds somewhere between "Revolution #9" Beatles/Pierre Henry musique concrete and every psychedelic pop album from the 60s.

Admittedly it has "difficult" moments so if its not your cuppa tea at least give "His Misters Pet Whistles","Madame Truffle", and "Life Form" a listen, but I recommend listening to it as a whole multiple times either loud or through headphones. Does anyone remember the candy Brach's Rocks? They were gross.

http://www.mediafire.com/?wxdauzkr5mhr45u

Sparks - Kimono my House - 1974

Sparks, is a duo consisting of brothers Ron and Russell Mael, who used their appearance (one wears a suit and a pencil 'stache, the other looks like an uglier and glammier Roger Daltry) and their strange piano driven songs to scoot right into England's glam scene in the 70s. Musically think Bowie and Eno, with a tiny little hint of prog (but not the masturbatory variety), and an American guy singing like a British guy with a falsetto. This album, its title being a play on Rosemary Clooney's song "Come-on-a my house," is considered to be their best and I happen to agree. WILL YOU?

http://www.mediafire.com/?favmrtjvk6mg1sh

Raymond Scott - Reckless Nights and Turkish Twilights

What to say about the great Raymond Scott? While his name doesn't immediately ring bells in the average listener's head, his compositions likely will, as they have been heard in countless cartoons: Looney Tunes, The Simpsons, Ren and Stimpy and so on. While the music wasn't made for cartoons (but for the casual 1930s radio listener), just listening to the manic energy of the compositions (performed by what had to be an exhausted ensemble of musicians) can lead one to understand why early Warner Bros. cartoon composer Carl Stalling saw them fitting to sample. Aside from his work here, Scott was an early pioneer of electronic music, putting out several (admittedly difficult) records of electronic music for babies, and inventing several early forms of synthesizers, including The Claviox, the Electronium, an "instantaneous self composing machine" (pictured at the top (sub parenthesis: and is owned by Devo leader Mark Mothersbaugh)), and the totally awesome Videola, a sort of ultra primitive version of the video mixer on Virtual DJ. I hope that you love this as much as I love this.

http://www.mediafire.com/?540u2n84b1zak8o

Portsmouth Sinfonia - Plays the Popular Classics -1974

And so, inspired by the consistently rad musical uploads over at over at thttp://www.cosmonautfarm.blogspot.com/ (or hell, forget "inspired by", I pretty much

a good idea) I've decided to share with the internets some of my favorite records...some are classics, some are forgotten classics, some were never popular at all, and for some there are reasons they were never all that popular. My first choice, "Portsmouth Sinfonia Plays the Popular Classics" falls under that last category, and, despite having some of Britain's foremost avant garde musicians under their umbrella (Brian Eno, Gavin Bryars, among others) AND, a top 40 hit in the UK, their records never really stood the test of time (not even enough to make it to a legitimate cd repressing). The concept was pretty simple: get a bunch of musicians (and non-musicians) together, put them with an instrument they have no real idea how to play, and start a self dubbed "world's worst orchestra". Some pieces (this album is all classical piece reworkings) are hilariously bad, but at the same time it's kind of amazing that they are able to get as close as they are to sounding like the original, given their circumstances. There is another album by them, "20 Classic Rock Classics", in which they play the Rolling Stones etc., but that one comes off a bit too "novelty" for me...I know, I know, you are saying, "but you are putting up a gimmick album", to which I direct you to that old saying of "Beauty is in the ear of the beho..." no, you're right, this is a gimmicky album, but one charming enough, I think, to be worth a listen.

Portsmouth Sinfonia - Plays the Popular Classics:

http://www.mediafire.com/?whzj2f55i4hkeu3