The Optigan, for those of you unversed in hip retro-futuristic instruments, was a fairly obscure product manufactured by Mattel for a brief time in the 1970s. A sort of evolutionary blind alley between the organ and the sampler, the Optigan allowed users to "play" a range of pre-recorded sounds stored on interchangeable optical discs (hence Optigan = OPTIcal orGAN). Sadly, it manufacturers never quite managed to get the Optigan to sound very good, and it rapidly vanished from stores and our collective consciousness.

While several bands make occasional use of the optigan, Optiganally Yours was the first to place one front and center. Their first album, Spotlight On, was a critical success and had solid pop songs at its heart, but never quite escaped the novelty album tag.

Which brings us to Exclusively Talentmaker. Unwilling to be pigeonholed as novelty artists, the Optiganally Yours guys (Pea Hix and ex-Heavy Vegetable/current Thingy Rob Crow) have recorded their sophomore album without using any optigans...choosing instead to utilize the Chilton Talentmaker, a poor optigan cousin so obscure that until recently the duo was unaware that any had actually been manufactured.

Though ostensibly superior in sound quality to the original optigan, the Chilton Talentmaker sounds like a low-batteried Casiotone wrapped in a damp wool blanket. Luckily, Optiganally Yours have taken this sound and run with it, applying Beach Boys-style vocal harmonies to create blunt pop classics like the Chills-esque "Waves" and using the Talentmaker's dated sound library to craft low-rent exotica like "Donut". The trippy drone of "Ether" and low-rent Beatles-take "Figaro" utilize the Talentmaker best, allowing it to unleash its muted melodies like a buried orchestra.

Exclusively Talentmaker's finest moment could -- unfortunately -- solidify its role as a novelty album. "Poodleman" pairs inscrutable Brechtian swagger with operatic oom-pahs, telling a hairdressing horror-story in which a dementedly demonic cosmetologist gives the singer a mullet. It's hysterical right now, given indie rock's current mock-fascination with the short on top/long in the back hairstyle, but will it play well in two years? Time will tell.

Exclusively Talentmaker proves that Rob Crow and Pea Hix can team credible pop instincts with obscure instrumentation. I'm hoping that, if a third album comes along, they take the "Here are some good pop songs that happen to include an Optigan" route rather than the "Hey, check out these goofy instruments" path. There could really be some substance behind the Optigan gimmick, if they're willing to work at it.