Latest
News and Random Tidbits
[if you have any random tidbits about the optigan to report,
01.27.01
The
Outer Space flash movie
01.01.01
Optigan.com
is one of Yahoo's Picks of the Year for 2000
01.01.01
Optigan
in CMJ
12.30.00
Spotlight
On Optiganally Yours on Clear Vinyl
12.02.00
Optigan
on national TV?
11.21.00
Kahimi
Karie SPIN! Remix CD released
11.14.00
Optigan:
a Sound Investment???
10.31.00
Human
League tribute album featuring OY is released
10.05.00
OY
Remix EP to be released on VroomSound
10.01.00
OY
Remixes Kahimi Karie
09.30.00
"Beebo"
on The Powerpuff Girls
09.30.00
OY
to appear on Shaggs tribute
09.27.00
Marilyn
Manson at the Optigan
07.15.00
Pulse
Magazine article
06.21.00
The
Mark Vail affair
04.15.00
OY
new album released
02.24.00
OY
to appear on Powerpuff Girls compilation CD
02.24.00
OY
cover The Human League
02.24.00
OY
on an East Timor Benefit Album
02.15.00
Keyboard
Magazine article
08.15.99
Sound
On Sound Magazine article
05.15.99
The
Kraftwerk Connection
05.15.99
Steve
Hackett & the Optigan
05.15.99
Optigan
invades Holland
05.15.99
Optigan
at the Drive In movies?!?
05.15.99
The
Strange Kiss Connection
10.15.97
Wired Magazine article
The Outer Space flash movie Check
out this cool flash movie Jonathan Rosenbaum did using the Optiganally
Yours song The Outer Space!
[back
to top]
Optigan.com
is selected by Yahoo
as
one of its Picks of the
Year for 2000. Optigan.com was also featured by Yahoo on June
26, 2000.
[back
to top]
Optigan
in CMJ The
Jan. 2001 issue of CMJ has an article about strange/obsolete musical instruments
in it. Pea contributed some info about the Optigan and some other instruments
as well. [back
to top]
Spotlight
On Optiganally Yours on Clear Vinyl Cargo/Headhunter
has just done a new pressing of the vinyl edition of Spotlight On Optiganally
Yours. This time it's on clear vinyl. All you vinyl fetishists out there
can order a copy at www.cargomusic.com.
[back
to top]
Optigan
on national TV?
This
one is from fellow optigoner Tom Herbers... "The band Low,
from Duluth Minnesota has used Optigan on many of their recordings. The
GAP is now using one of their tracks in a new holiday TV ad! The song is
Little Drummer Boy and is from their Christmas CD EP and it features Optigan.
Watch for the ad, I know it's been showing on NBC and MTV and probably elsewhere.
I highly recommend the Low Christmas EP. The first track on the EP, Just
Like Christmas, is mostly Optigan and is a soon-to-be holdiay classic..."
[back
to top]
Kahimi
Karie SPIN! Remix CD released
Optiganally Yours remixed a song called "Pygmalism" by Japanese alt-pop
star Kahimi
Karie (the original song was written and produced by Momus). The track
is included on a CD called "SPIN!" that is part of a larger overall product
called "K.K. Limited Edition 2000," which is basically a KK tote bag filled
with 2 CDs, a live video, a t-shirt, pinback buttons and some photos. It's
a pretty impressive package! I'm not sure how many are being produced, but
I think it's safe to say that most KK or OY fans won't have a chance to
own one. If you want to hear the remix, it'll probably turn up on Napster
before too long!! Anyway, the CD also features remixes by DJ Spooky, Sean
O'Hagan, and others. The package is available on the Polydor K.K. label.
[back
to top]
Optigan:
a Sound Investment??? So
I was watching CNBC the other day, and a
commercial for Robertson Stevens Investment Bankers came on... It was, of
course, a typical mutual fund commercial, except for the fact that the background
music was entirely Optigan- the Guitar In 3/4 disc, to be exact! [back
to top]
Human
League tribute album featuring OY is released
"Reproductions:
Songs of the Human League", which is a Human League tribute album that
OY appear on, was released today. For more information, click here.
[back
to top]
OY
Remix EP to be released on VroomSound "Optiganally
Yours: De-Composed" is an EP of remixes of OY songs that will be released
soon on the Japan's VroomSound
label. The idea was to get remixes from both American and Japanese artists,
who were all at liberty to choose any song from the OY catalog to work with.
The lineup is as follows:
Lesser "Ether"
Brian
Kehew (of Moog Cookbook) "Oar"
Lisa Bielawa (of The Philip Glass Ensemble) "Figaro"
Plus-Tech
Squeeze Box "Mr. Wilson"
Fab Cushion "Held"
Vagabond Cinema Pops Arkestra "Remo"
PLUS if they
can get it done in time, the Dust Brothers have also agreed to contribute
a remix. If not, we'll probably see their remix on a later OY release. [back
to top]
OY Remixes Kahimi Karie OY
was recently asked to do a remix for Japanese alternative-pop star Kahimi
Karie. Since Rob was on tour in Europe with Pinback, Pea had to handle this
one all by himself... He chose the song "Pygmalism," which was written and
produced for Kahimi by Momus. The remix, which will be released in the near
future on the 3D Corp/Polydor label, doesn't stick too strictly to the "OY
Formula," but OY fans should dig it nonetheless... [back
to top]
"Beebo" on The Powerpuff Girls
Keep on the lookout for a Powerpuff Girls episode called "Pet Feud," which
features a character named "Beebo," after the Optiganally Yours song of
the same title! Click here to see some pictures
of Beebo! [back
to top]
OY to appear on Shaggs tribute OY has recorded
a version of The Shaggs' "You're Something Special To Me" to appear on an
upcoming Shaggs tribute CD on Animal World Recordings. [back
to top]
Marilyn Manson at the Optigan
Apparently Marilyn Manson is using an Optigan on his upcoming album. I'm
not sure if this is entirely correct, but from what I understand he's using
it in the context of some kind of musical numerology experiment (?!). At
any rate, I guess we won't really know what's going on until the album is
released. In the meantime, you can at least visit
his website and see a picture of him playing the Optigan, although it's
a bit hard to actually SEE the Optigan! [back
to top]
Pulse
Magazine article The
Optigan was recently featured in Tower's Pulse Magazine. We will post a
.pdf of the article here shortly. [back
to top]
The
Mark Vail Affair Anyone who has
read my original "Optigans Anonymous"
article may remember that one of the first people I tried to contact for
information about the Optigan was Mark Vail- the Vintage Synth columnist
for Keyboard Magazine. Mark had included a brief mention of the Optigan
in his book "Vintage
Synthesizers", but that reference was only in the context of a
paragraph about the Vako
Orchestron. Still, I figured he might have more info about the Optigan
than was included in his book, so I wrote to him. I never heard back. Fast
forward to the beginning of 2000, and I get an email from none other than
Mark Vail. He told me that he wanted to write a Vintage Synths column about
the Optigan, and that he had heard that I was the guy to talk to! So of
course the first thing I did was I "reminded" him (all in good fun) about
the letter that he never responded to, and he was VERY nice and apologetic
and embarrassed, etc! Obviously, I can understand the fact that he must
get a TON of mail, and can't possibly respond to or keep track of all of
it. Nevertheless, of course I was willing to help him out with the article.
We spoke on the phone for about an hour or so, and he again proved himself
to be a really cool guy. The article came out in the Feb. 2000 issue of
Keyboard Magazine, and I was very honored that he also included the article
in the brand new
updated edition of his "Vintage Synthesizers" book! Recently
he emailed me again to tell me that he found my original letter to him while
cleaning out his office... I figured he ought to send me a reply (better
late than never), since he now actually knows all the info I was asking
for!! [back
to top]
New
Album Released In April 2000!! Optiganally Yours presents: Exclusively Talentmaker!
Absolutely
Kosher Records (street date 04/25/00) Vroom Sound Records Japan (street
date 04/15/00) Well, it's been a long time coming, but the much-anticipated
sophomore effort from Optiganally Yours is finally being released! But there's
a little catch- there's NO Optigan on the new album!! Now that we've got
your attention, you can relax a little, because the concept for this album
was simply to use Optigan's cousins- The
Chilton Talentmaker and Vako
Orchestron- as the primary backbone of the arrangements. In fact, the
Talentmaker we used on this album is the same exact machine used on the
most recent Fiona Apple album, "When The Pawn..." This Talentmaker is now
owned by Jon Brion (Apple's producer) but at the time we recorded the Talentmaker
parts for the new album, we borrowed the machine from Brian Kehew, who was
the one who found it (in the back of an old record store in San Bernardino)
in the first place. In any event, "ExTalent" is being released on two different
labels simultaneously. Absolutely Kosher is an American label, and their
distribution will cover America and Europe. Vroom Sound (a division of Vivid
Sound) is a Japanese label, and their distribution will cover Asian territories.
Each version of the album contains one song unique to that version. The
AK version has "Song For America," and the VS version has "Song For Japan."
For more info on this album, go to the Optiganally
Yours page.
[back
to top]
Optiganally Yours to appear on Powerpuff Girls compilation CD
Fans of Cartoon Network's "Powerpuff Girls" take note: there's a new CD
of "songs inspired by the Powerpuff Girls" being released on Kid Rhino Records,
and Optiganally Yours was asked to contribute a song! Craig McCracken, the
show's creator, is a big Optiganally Yours fan, and when asked to submit
his "wish list" for the album, apparently OY was one of his top choices!
Other artists appearing on the album include Devo, David Byrne, Shonen Knife,
Olivia Tremor Control, etc. The album is being produced by Devo's Mark Mothersbaugh.
Each band was asked to write a song about a specific character from the
series. OY got picked to cover the Mayor of Townsville. We're pretty close
to finishing the track, called "Walk & Chew Gum." We'll have more info here
when we find out the final lineup and release date of the CD. [back
to top]
OY
cover The Human League OK, so even though Rob hates The Human
League, Pea roped OY into contributing a track to an upcoming HL tribute
album on March Records called "Reproductions." (Dedicated OY fans will note
that a few years ago we contributed a track to an OMD tribute album, even
though Rob hates that band too!) Pea's a big fan of EARLY Human League (aka
Human League Mach I), before those annoying girls joined the group, etc.
This early incarnation of the group featured Martyn Ware and Ian Craig Marsh,
who later split to form Heaven 17 (overall a much better band than Human
League!) We chose a song off their very first album called "Empire State
Human." It's a great example of early synthpop from around 1978 or so. In
order to achieve a Giorgio Moroder-ish sound, Pea used sampled loops from
the Optigan, Talentmaker and Orchestron to assemble the arrangement on his
computer. He also threw in sound spacey sound from an Atari 2600 for good
measure. As soon as we find out the release date for this album, we'll post
the info here. [back
to top]
OY
on an East Timor Benefit Album Recently we submitted our song
"midori2tree" to another compilation album (it first appeared on Vroom Sound's
"Pop In Clap" comp). This album is a benefit for East Timor. Here's the
info they sent us: Idols of the Marketplace has just released an East Timor
Benefit Album to benefit Community Aid Abroad. CAA is an Australian group
that's been providing food and medical attention for the East Timorese refugees--who
have been displaced by the country's independence movement. This movement
followed around 25 years of rule by neighboring Indonesia which claimed
250,000 lives (roughly one-third of the population). For more information
on the East Timorese conflict, please visit amnesty.org,
etan.org, or motherjones.com
The tracklist for the album includes:
Ramona and
Beezus--Anything, Anything
Optiganally
Yours--midori2tree
dead letter auction--housebroken (wells st.)
Smoking Popes--Do Something
Jailbait--I Want Your Sex
Hillbilly Hellcats--Hillbilly Love
Blue Moon Boys--Let Me In
Self--Glued to the Girl
Mudkids--High Noon
Idiot Flesh--Blue Head
Cataract Falls--Violation
Catharsis and the Humdrum--Hidden Track #9
Over the Rhine--Poughkeepsie
Uz jsme doma--Jassica (live)
The album is
available on CDbaby.com (the title is
"East Timor") or may be ordered for $10pp from: Idols of the Marketplace
P.O. Box 50138 Ft. Wayne, IN 47303 USA. [back
to top]
Keyboard
Magazine article The
Optigan was recently featured in Keyboard Magazine. We will have a .pdf
of the article posted here shortly. [back
to top]
Sound
On Sound Magazine article The
Optigan was recently featured in Sound on Sound Magazine. It was mentioned
in two articles, one about Blur and the other was a how to build a website
article (featuring the optigan.com website!). To read the article about
Blur, click here.
To read the article entitled "Creating A Website, Part 2", click
here.[back
to top]
The Kraftwerk Connection
A recent issue of Keyboard Magazine contained a letter to the editor which
pointed out that the haunting vocal choir sounds on the early Kraftwerk
albums Radioactivity and Trans-Europe Express did not emanate from a Mellotron
but from a Vako Orchestron.
I had never really thought about it much, but it instantly made sense to
me- those Kraftwerk choirs looped around much longer than the 8-second limit
on the Mellotron. So recently when I borrowed an Orchestron from Zac Rae,
I put the sounds to the test.
Sure enough, there's absolutely no doubt that Kraftwerk used an Orchestron.
This is pretty amazing considering that Radioactivity was released in 1975.
The Orchestron was barely on its feet in 1975! But Dave VanKoevering confirmed
to me that he personally sold an early Orchestron to Kraftwerk while they
were on tour in the USA that year. Coincidentally, just when I was finding
out about all this, Future Music Magazine published an article about Kraftwerk's
Wolfgang Flur. The article contained a rare photo of Kraftwerk playing live
during that period, and right there in their keyboard racks is an Orchestron
Model A!
Apart from the very obvious Vocal Choir disc, Kraftwerk seemed to have mostly
used the Violins disc. This can be heard most prominently as the lead line
on the song Trans-Europe Express. Elsewhere they used small amounts of the
French Horn and Flute discs, but they tend to be buried in the background.
Another related tidbit to add to the Kraftwerk connection is that if you
look on the inside sleeve of the Computer World album, Ralf Hutter can be
seen holding a little keyboard. They've painted it black to look all tech,
but in actuality this little keyboard is a Mattel Bee-Gees Rhythm Machine
from 1978!!! That's right!! Kraftwerk, Mattel, the Bee-Gees... there has
to be some kind of higher significance here...[back
to top]
for more on Kraftwerk, go to www.kraftwerk.com.
Steve Hackett &
the Optigan
Some of the earliest email I ever received regarding the Optigan concerned
the appearance of our little brown friend on the song Sentimental Institution
by ex-Genesis guitarist Steve Hackett. Recently I received email from Hackett's
management concerning the Optigan and was able to pose a few questions to
the man himself:
PH:
How and
when did you come into contact with the Optigan?
SH:
At 'Relight'
studios Hilversum in Holland 1977 whilst recording 'Wind & Wuthering'
album with Genesis - the studio is now defunct I believe.
PH:
What
kind of mods did you do on your Optigan to make it more roadworthy?
SH:
Only
flightcased it really. The jack socket was always pretty ropey and had to
be taped in place every night!
pH:
How did
you deal with the tuning issue, or did you simply use the Optigan by itself?
SH:
We always
used it solo - the star of the show!
PH:
Which
model # and serial # is your Optigan?
SH:
Serial
no 58273. The model? Don't know ...it's just The Optigan!
PH:
Any random
Optigan-related anecdotes you'd like to confess?
SH:
I wrote
a track with Pete Hicks [no relation!] called 'Sentimental Institution'
which appeared on my 1980 'Defector' album featuring the 'big band sound.'
We recorded the Optigan in the gents lavatory at Wessex Studios in North
London to get that authentic, dodgy, 1940's sound and recreate an era when
the music business was still in diapers. We used to play this live with
'40's lighting - ie uplit curtains (a la 'cinema of the period') plus art
deco table lamps and a mirrorball - thus the audience was catapulted back
in time to an era of crooners and bobbysoxers... It went down a storm every
night - people definitely appreciated the humour. I used the Optigan for
odd other numbers live but it came into its own as a deliberately non hi-fi
send up - a kind of flexible record player with options on whichever chord
you preferred - an arrangers dream! Totally convincing! [back
to top]
for
more on Steve Hackett visit www.stevehackett.com
Optigan Invades
Holland Gus
Wylde had mentioned to me that he had heard that the last 100 Mattel-produced
Optigans were shipped to Holland. But it wasn't until recently that I found
out more info about this mysterious shipment. Dutch Optigoner Frans van
der Bijl had written to me requesting info about the Optigan, and when I
told him about the "final 100," he became inspired to do his own
bit of detective work. Here's some email excerpts featuring his discoveries:
Sadly the person who imported them for Holland (Jan de Waal) is dead and
his company doesn't exist anymore. One store (Dirk Witte, Amsterdam) had
two (according to his son that was in 1968...) [note- this is clearly
inaccurate... it was probably more like late '72 or early '73] and they
didn't sell extra discs, they only had the startersets that came with the
machines. Another store (Goldsmeding, Amsterdam) sold a few. The store was
taken over by a pianoshop and all organstuff was sold as a whole. But I
know the name of a former employee, when I find him he can tell me some
more I hope.
An organshop-owner told me Optis were made in Holland. I of course doubted
that. But then he came up with a telephone number of a guy who had worked
at the factory. This man told the same: Optis were assembled in Holland.
Funny eh? He gave me the names of the head technician and the production
leader, and now I'm trying to get their phone numbers. Another organ shop
had sold optis in quite a large amount (several dozens) and even were on
TV with them.
The owner of Riha (organ factory in Harderwijk and/or Ermelo Holland till
1980) Mr. van der Walle saw the Opti at a convention in the States, thought
it was a hit and organized parts being shipped to Holland. They assembled
30 to 40 Optis here. But according to head-technician Bert Foppen it was
not a success and he wasn't really in a mood to talk a lot about it. Head
production was Mr. Konijnenberg (dutch for rabbit-mountain...). Maybe they
had some contact about technical stuff with the people of the factory here.
According to a former opti-seller another Dutch organ factory had something
to do with the production here (Eminent, the main competitor of Riha and
recently went broke), but this was denied by Foppen. [back
to top]
Optigan At The Drive-In!?!
A few
months ago I got this email:
********
I've had a lot of fun looking at your Optigan sites (killing two birds
with one email stone here), especially finding out I own albums on which
it was used. But, what led me to your pages? Well, it wasn't Devo or Mike
Penn... I remember the Optigan from the DRIVE-IN...
I grew up across the street from a drive-in, and every night between features
ran this cheeeese-ass music over the usual assortment of unappetizing food
and Americana clips. But, the REAL strange thing was the sort of HAL-like
electronic visuals that accompanied some of the music -- blinking red lights
over an oscilloscope-type line that looked like it was trying to keep in
synch with the music. I never could figure out why someone thought movie-goers
would actually want to watch at that blinking nonsense.
Anyways, if this has sparked any interest, I've temporarily posted about
a minute of the Optigan from its drive-in days at:
http://members.aol.com/shavendave/optigan.html
(875K Quicktime movie... Quicktime 3 plug-in required)
Good luck with your web page revisions.
-Shaven Dave
********
So I checked out the little quicktime movie and it was AMAZING! Unfortunately,
subsequent attempts to contact "Shaven Dave" met with no response...
and last time I checked his website is down now too. Luckily I downloaded
and saved his little movie. I asked for his permission to post it to the
website here, but again- I got no response. So I'm posting it anyway. Shaven
Dave, if you're out there, drop us a line!!
5/99-
Well we finally tracked down Shaven Dave, and he got us in touch with Tim
Reed, the genius behind the documentary "Revenge Of the Intermission
Clocks" which includes the Optigan Clock from which this original excerpt
came from (the actual clock is 8 minutes long and even more amazing!!!).
Tim gave us permission to post the excerpt we have here for your viewing
enjoyment. At long last we can finally give full credit to Dave (AKA Shaven)
Rouleau and Tim Reed. So here we go: Click here
to see an excerpt from the Opti Drive-in Movie.
Drive-in
Intermission Footage from Tim Reed (www.driveinworkshop.com),
courtesy of Dave Rouleau. [back
to top]
The
strange KISS connection.... Last
year I was contacted by a guy at A&M Studios in regards to a producer
who was looking for an Optigan. Apparently, Bruce Fairbairn (80's glam-metal
guru whose extensive credits include Aerosmith, Van Halen, The Scorpions,
Poison, Loverboy, etc. etc.) had recently encountered our little Temperite
friend during a session with The Wallflowers and, of course, he became so
enamored of it that he just had to have one of his own.
When I finally met up with him in LA, he was in the middle of a session
with the original KISS lineup, who were working on their reunion album at
the time. Bruce totally dug the Optigan and bought it on the spot. As I
was about to make him promise to get the thing on the KISS album, he beat
me to the punch and suggested it himself!!! But alas, even though the new
album was titled "Psycho Circus," I gave it a good listen at a
used CD store and could not find any trace of that Optigan anywhere!! I
guess I'll just keep my eyes open for future Fairbairn productions!! [back
to top]
for more on
KISS, go here.
Wired
Magazine article Wired
Magazine featured the original version of the Optigan website in their October
1997 issue. They got some of the details wrong, but we got a lot of hits
from it anyway! Click here
to view the article. [back
to top]