Mellotronists

Sikhotatron? I think that's one of those volcanoes on the Kamchatka
Peninsula...instead of rumbling like the rest of them, this one can
hold a note while it blows off steam.

Penn is a genius. Luck would have it that not only does his band has a
fantastic keyboard player, but his wife Aimee Mann is in synch with
loads of Chamberlin, etc. on her CD's going back to the first Til
Tuesday release.

I picked up Penn's first album when he was a member of the band Doll
Congess (an EP 20+ years old). You wouldn't know it was Michael at all.

Penn's themes, especially on his Free For All album reflecting on
Coney Island, seem to dwell on early 20th Century technology--not as
up front as maybe Thomas Dolby with all those old vacuum tubes, but a
nod right down to the clever "intermission By Patrick (Warren)" in the
lyric booklet presented like an old silent movie programme.

(The photo of the sign zoomed in: "No Unnecessesary Noise" for example.)

The end of the song "Drained" really presents some great Chamberlin
winding down and the way it slightly drags in the final three seconds
before it just ends cold just seems so distinctly clever...why doesn't
Warren just cut loose with a solo album fer chrissakes....

And Sufjan's Come On Feel The Illinois...those gorgeous melodic
children's choir submissions...esp. towards the end. Almost
tearjerkingly beautiful tectured music. I bet it took forever for
Stevens to get this ambitious project to come together.

I'm still diggin' the new Minotaur Shock "Maritime" gem