In 2001 Athens label Orange Twin Records issued a mysterious record called Major Organ and the Adding Machine. Featuring the songs of the “Major” as interpreted by the Elephant 6 Orchestra, the album featured 19 tracks that alternated between avant-garde sound collages and densely psychedelic pop. While the actual participants of the album have remained anonymous, the album was rumored to feature members of of Montreal, Neutral Milk Hotel, Elf Power, and The Olivia Tremor Control, as well as other members of the Elephant 6 collective. As these rumors go, the recordings were passed between musicians, and added to and remixed until the final result was a true collaborative effort. Since we can neither confirm nor deny anyone’s involvement, I will only attest that it certainly sounds like Neutral Milk Hotel’s Jeff Mangum singing on “Madam Truffle,” and if I were a betting man I’d claim that’s Kevin Barnes singing “Water Dripping on Bread Makes Bread Taste Not So Tasty.” But let’s just say that it all comes from the imagination of the prolific Major Organ and his Adding Machine.

Now we are about to be visited by the feature film adaptation of the Major Organ album. It’s a proudly low-budget, low-fi production, filmed in Athens with a cast including many Elephant 6 musicians, some of whom you might recognize behind fake mustaches and beards in the trailer now available at Orange Twin’s website. The trailer’s in Flash format, so you’ll have to download a Flash player to see it (but it’s worth it). It will soon be available on YouTube, undoubtedly. Some claim to recognize two Barneses and an Almstead. Here’s an MP3 from the album, now six years old.

Major Organ and the Adding Machine - Water Dripping on Bread Makes Bread Taste Not So Tasty.

I thought I’d start a new series looking at of Montreal’s past; first up is a pair of concert reviews from 1999 written by Mike Turner for his (late, lamented) zine Bee’s Knees. Bundled with this zine was the CD comp Happy Happy Birthday to Me Volume 1, which officially launched the HHBTM record label (for whose singles club OM will be releasing a track in a couple months).