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OPTIGANALLY YOURS, "EXCLUSIVELY TALENTMAKER"

For those not on thenostalgia bandwagon, the Optigan (along with the Talentmaker andOrchestron) was a child's toy, a sort of 70's pre-cursor to the sampler.
  Its sounds were derived from optical discs, onto which wererecorded actual sounds, musical or otherwise, which were then playedwith the simple depression of a key. Rob Crow (vocals) and Pea Hix(anything else), luminaries in the San Diego music scene, bring theirsecond Optiganally Yours album, and the first to be "100%Optigan-free", using in it's stead it's two toy peers. Utilisingprimarily said keyboards and vocal harmonies torn straight from theBrian Wilson handbook, OY create a sound that, while steeped heavily incamp, is catchy and enjoyable. "Oar" is a meloncholy tale of a ship'sdemise, with wonderful accompaniment by the Pacific Ocean on "oceanstylings." The machined samba of "Donut" is offset by it's spasticchorus and dissonant fuzz piano solo; "Figaro" sounds like a crate ofold jazz records fused together into a crackly slink, with a vocalcadence that sounds like it was lifted straight from a soft rock radiohit. With visions of Plone (that's sure to put Jon off!) and Tarwaterdancing in your head, the oddball "The Outer Space" spins in it'svocoder glory, with a stunted drum loop (it was rumored Ringo Starr cutsome source material for an Optigan disc) cycling below it. OY shouldbe commended for their devotion to nostalgia, experimentation, and purepop "stylings" - instead, buy the album, and I'm sure they'll be happyenough.

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