Spanish Flea:Optiganally Yours

Artist: Optiganally Yours

Album: Unreleased

Appears On (Mixes): Dub Club: Creepy Crawly Creepy Crawly Creepy Creepy Crawly Crawly Creepy Creepy Crawly Crawly - Matt

Song Notes: Optiganally Yours are a group that did two records -- the first was created only with Optigans, one of the earliest sampling keyboards -- though it was released as a toy! It's sort of like a mellotron, but instead of using a series of interchangable tape loops, the optigan used a clear slab of vinyl that looked like a record, and a series of needles that would play the various locked grooves to generate the tones. There'd also be backing tracks that would play as well. The second album was created with no Optigans, but just instruments from about the same time period. This track, however's only available on their website, and WAS done on an optigan. They've also got a version of "Powerhouse" up there, too, which is pretty rad, as I dig both optigans and Raymond Scott. In fact, Mark Mothersbaugh digs both of those, too -- he's on the Raymond Scott society board, AND he used the optigan to make the E-Z Listening version of "Beautiful World". - Rev. Syung Myung Me