HollAnd Albums (4)
'The Paris Hilton Mujahideen'
Release Date 11/14/2006
Tracks 12
Label Teenbeat
See Album Tracklist and Review
What The Critics Say
Short and sweet -- 14 songs in 25 minutes -- hollAnd's Your Orgasm can serve as a more than fine primer for homegrown indie pop, bedroom style, in the late '90s. Drum machines ticking along, warm keyboard fuzz, guitar, and real percussion here and there, guest vocals from friend/label boss Jenny Toomey -- Trevor Kampmann uses them all to winsomely entertaining effect. Some songs are mere instrumental fragments, unsurprisingly, but they add to the glazed and summery feeling of the end results nicely. Though the album title might suggest nothing but squelchy sex songs (and there's more than a few lyrics about such a subject), Your Orgasm tends toward the gently emotional, even with songs possessing loaded titles like "Face Against Your Thigh" and "Amateurs and Teens." Kampmann's singing slots easily into the Magnetic Fields/Orange Cake Mix less-is-more approach, sweetly drifting amid the beats and melodies and suiting. To his credit, especially given the short length of Your Orgasm, Kampmann demonstrates some smart creative variety throughout, as with the slightly more conventional but still fine guitar-led "The Phone," which becomes a little psych-nugget almost in spite of itself (admittedly, the flute or recorder doesn't hurt). Check out the wonderful "Three Women," a slow, moody number full of implicit drama thanks to the surging keyboard and guitar combination, even as Kampmann's singing remains hushed. "Tylenol" also slots into that category, bass tones and a bit of drumming and keyboards providing the minimal bed for Kampmann's delivery. ~ Ned Raggett, All Music Guide
What The Critics Say
Take the mid-fi drone of Stereolab's Peng! (with all of its buzzing analog synths), add a solid basis of Magnetic Fields-style pop songs and chord progressions, throw in the signature production sound of His Name Is Alive's Warren Defever, and you have something very much like Sea Saw's Magnetophone. Even when the album's songwriting isn't at its best, there's something in this recombination of spacy tones that turns out excitingly familiar without sounding at all derivative. This makes Magnetophone a largely unbrilliant but thoroughly appealing release, particularly for fans of Stephin Merritt, or anyone who's ever loved the sound of an overdriven analog organ. ~ Nitsuh Abebe, All Music Guide
