Customer Reviews

Black Foliage: Animation Music By The Olivia Tremor Control

5 star:		(31)
4 star:		(10)
3 star:		(5)
2 star:		(2)
1 star:		(2)

 

 

Pardon me for gushing, but I just think this album is the best thing I have bought in a long, long time.

First and foremost, this groups makes *albums*, not just a pile of songs slapped on a CD. No, Black Foliage has a definite concept to it, albeit a very obtuse, complex one. But that fact just makes it all the more intriguing.

The concept is explained in the liner notes. There are descriptions of techniques for each track. I found the descriptions alternately informative and a bit self-serving, especially on the overlong description of "The Bark and Below It." (Hey guys, you don't really have to explain every instrumental technique and tape loop. Just...let it happen. It was a long time before I knew exactly what that weird quavering sound in "Good Vibrations" was (a Theremin), but the mystery of it made it better. I sort of LIKED wondering how the heck they got that sound :)

Black Foliage has some of the most spine-tinglingly good '60s-influenced songs I have heard in a long time (aside from their previous album, Dusk at Cubist Castle), with strong melodies, layered harmonies and always offbeat arrangements and instrumentation. The variety of sounds on this album is astonishing. There are so many layers to each song that I find it endlessly fascinating, and I've listened to this album a lot.

Black Foliage immerses the listener in a surreal dream world, with ideas and images that move as fast and as abruptly as they do in dreams. The album has some main themes running through its entirety. The first is a series of "animations" of the Black Foliage song, in which the bass line from that song is twisted and mutated into some surprising variations. Then there are the Combinations, which are pieces taken from ALL of the various songs on the album, filtered through various dream descriptions that people sent in on cassette tapes, along with other sundry sounds.

The proper songs themselves emerge, like dreams taking focus, from a stew of these combinations and other aural experimentations. There is hardly ever a completely silent moment on the album. Some people think the combinations and such are just a lot of mindless noise to wander through to get to the "good stuff," but they are not listening hard enough. There is a LOT going on in these things. Besides, the combinations usually only last a few seconds anyway.

So, there are not 27 "songs" on this album. There are "only" about 15 or 16 (which is still a lot for a typical album). The entire album last for about 70 minutes. Some of the tracks, such as "The Sky Is A Harpsichord Canvas," amount to a few seconds of noises and sound experiments.

One caveat: With both of OTC's studio albums -- beware of track 19 :-) On "Dusk," it was about 10 minutes of dripping faucets, traffic sounds and droning machine sounds in the middle of the "Green Typewriters" suite. On "Foliage," it is "The Bark and Below It," an 11-minute experiment in found sounds and all kinds of other weirdness. To me, it interrupts and slows down the intensity and focus of the previous part of the album, which had GREAT songs interspersed with only momentary, interesting noise. But here we have to wade through 11 whole minutes of it. Taken for what it is, though, it is really quite interesting, especially in headphones. And it is definitely dreamlike in its scattered aural images.

In short: If you want to buy an album by guys that (a) uphold the high artistic and aesthetic values of their '60s predecessors like the Beatles, (b) love to experiment like crazy with sound, instead of just banging out a bland "hit", (c) take their time and create albums that are cohesive in concept rather than just a bunch of tracks on a CD, and (d) know what harmony is all about...then BUY THIS. You will definitely get your money's worth, with an endlessly interesting and rewarding album.

The Olivia Tremor Control are doomed to be forever misunderstood. Reviewers making some attempt to find an obvious influence grab onto the first reference they can think of--so now the band will forever be considered some cheap knock-off of The Beatles with just enough Syd Barrett thrown in to make it cryptically interesting and enough Brian Wilson to invite the casual listener to bemoan what they could have become if they had kept on the beaten path. They deserve much, much better.

Saying the OTC (the Olivias) strive to be The Beatles is something like claiming a politician is just trying to sound like Abe Lincoln. You learn from the best and incorporate the less obvious lessons into your own concepts. ("Less obvious" means that the Olivias' melodies sound like they COULD be Beatles songs, but damned if you can figure out which one. They haven't stolen from the master songwriters, they have discovered their secrets.) But more importantly, anybody who tells you the Olivias are nothing more than a Beatles knockoff is just grasping at straws. The Beatles at their most inventive would never have dared to ward off the less serious music listeners by inserting an eleven-minute track of ambient noises ("The Bark And Below It"). But were they just trying to weird us out, or perhaps describe their trips to an indifferent audience? To believe that is to miss the point completely.

Black Foliage should be experienced with a pair of headphones, eyes shut and mind open. Most importantly, don't skip the "animation" tracks, the sequences of floating sound, sometimes only a few seconds long and sometimes over a minute. The incredible beauty of this album is that it almost seems that the band members are caught in the middle of a symphonic cacophony and construct their songs by grabbing at whatever interesting sounds float their way. Uncovering the gorgeous songs becomes all the more interesting when they simply appear to rise from the primordial ooze that has seeped its way into the album.

But that's not to say that you can't listen to it repeatedly; on the contrary, the album becomes more symphonic and epic when you stop worrying about the strange concept and allow yourself to become absorbed in the world the Olivias have created. It is then that you can lose your breath upon hearing the surprising, final strains of "Hilltop Procession" floating away after grinding to a halt and resolving itself. You won't find anything on this album as catchy as "Getting Better" or as flat-out trippy as a Floyd song like "Astronomy Domine" (although, after repeated listens, you may find yourself unable to shake such moments as Jeff Mangum's chorus in "I Have Been Floated"). What you will find defies verbal interpretation and challenges you to look at music as something more than a chorus you can hum along to. The Olivia Tremor Control haven't stolen anything; instead, they have acknowledged their influences and kindly parted ways with them as they have embarked on a project more transcending.

This album surpasses the excellent "Dusk at Cubist Castle" because it radiates a full-fledged psychedelic confidence hinted at on their poppier previous album. No, the kitchen sink approach and disjointed soundscapes do not take away from this album, they are beautifully done. In fact this record represents a sort of culmination of the Elephant 6 collective; the 60s-esque songcraft, adventurous orchestration, the joyful abandon of performance, and the ingenuousness (and ingeniousness) of it all are on ample display here. The songs proper are fewer and farther between (it seems) but when they come they won't leave you. "Grass Canons," "I Have Been Floated," "A Sleepy Company," are alone worth it. Plus, OTC has such a grip on 60s psychedelic songcraft that you won't mind if this beat is stolen from "I'm Only Sleeping" or that guitar riff is straight off of "Revolver." You'll see them as the homages they are; or better yet, continuations and expansions upon--rather than copies of--a certain strain of music that still sounds cool today. They capture with childlike wonder that strange nostalgia those of us who weren't born yet feel for the psychedelic period. In a sense, they do "psychedelic" better than anyone; only the XTC offshoot Dukes of Stratosphear comes close in terms of thoughtfulness of songcraft. But despite these comments this is not a "period" piece (though they are obviously recording with old 4 track and 8 track technology!) There's a reason they're making music like this: because our times call for it. A really great experience.

It provokes a strong reaction in everyone who hears it. Either very positive, or very negative. People who are used to typical goal-oriented music will completely fail to understand it. In their pathetic attempt to understand, they will feebly attempt to relate it to something else they've heard. Playing this in the gameroom at my college, people do one of two things: ask me to turn it off, or ask me for the name of that band and write it down. Music that sucks is music that provokes no reaction at all. If you live a pablum life then this album is not for you.

As with Will Cullen Hart's latest album, Circulatory System, I really don't know where to begin when talking about this album. Luckily for me, this is probably easier to describe than the sound on the newer album. Okay, imagine a sound that two parts sweet Beatlesque pop and one part sound effect and noise collage. Hmm, that's probably not clear enough.. But, okay, imagine psychedelic lyrics with a bent towards nature a la Phil Elvrum of the The Microphones. But with Paul McCartney's music.. and tons of sounds and hidden messages buried underneath the music. Aw, fugg it. Let's just get into it!

The misleading intro features a strange sickly sounding synthed cello sound. Then a plunky, quirky song called "A Peculiar Name Called Train Director" starts. We've got our drums, rhythm guitar, bass, and a couple of bouncy sound effects randomly inserted? Not only that but within the first minute of the song you get some keyboard work, feedback, distorted vocals, a glockenspiel and maybe and accordion. Black Foliage is like the most overproduced Beatles album you can imagine. EVERYTHING is packed in here, all while staying more or less in the structure of a really confectionary pop song. But that's not speaking for the lyrics. In typical Hart fashion, the lyrics are almost too abstract to make any real sense from. I think I can safely say that a lot of it deals with perceptions of reality. I'll just leave it at that. Circulatory System's lyrics are actually a lot more focussed than they are here. That doesn't necessarily make them better. The songs here are much catchier and sing-songy. If you can get past the constantly shifting instruments and sound collage interludes, which are what I think make the album anyway, you can find some amazing pop gems in here if the weirder stuff isn't your thing.

From beginning to end, this thing is expertly produced. I can only imagine the type of mixing that had to go into this, but in the end everything seems to come out perfectly. The collages and random sound effects make it easier for a song to just suddenly give way to a what sounds like a oil drum being beaten with chime accompaniment. Will Hart said that he wanted the album to be a study of how pop music is created by allowing all of its parts to basically fly around and fall wherever they want. "You think the chorus is coming? Here's a ball of crickets!" he said once about the album in an interview. I don't think the album actually does a good job of showing where music comes from (look at the Microphones' The Glow part 2 again for a good listen in pop songs slowly coming into creation) but what Black Foliage does do is disect pop music and reassemble it with new and different parts. The subtitle Animation Music is a good one since it sounds like an re-animated Frankenalbum sometimes.

This is the kind of album that someone like me waits for just so I can pounce on it and get totally lost inside it. At once wildy experimental and easy on the ears, Black Foliage is of a rare breed.

No one experimented with found-sounds better than the Olivia Tremor Control, and Hart and Doss and co. turn "Black Foliage" into a 75-minute rollercoaster of droning ambience, clunking instrumentation, and top-shelf melody and harmony. If one were to simply cull the great pop songs from "Black Foliage" ("California Demise 3," "I Have Been Floated," "Hideaway"), you would have a pop album better than almost anything released during the 90s--yet when these gems are sandwiched between spacey interludes, far out experiments, they become something even more special, like shimmering golden threats within a beautiful tapestry. The OTC wrote better melodies, took more risks, and made better albums than almost anyone since. Forget Wilco's "Yankee Hotel Foxtrot" or Radiohead's "Kid A"--this album beats both of those subsequent two on their own terms, blending stellar songwriting with abstract ambition, yet never devolving into cliches or boring exercises. Buy.

Hardly anybody does psychedelic space-rock the way the Olivia Tremor Control do -- and their second album "Black Foliage: Animation Music" is no exception. It sounds like the soundtrack to an acid party on Mars, with their elaborate tapestry of electronica, tape tinkering, and jazzy psychedelic pop. It's one of those rare albums that cannot be compared to anything else, only to itself.

It opens with.... well, "Opener," a wavery 25-second intro that slips into the sputtering Beatles-esque "A Peculiar Noise Called "Train Director" and the sweeping sweet grandeur of "Hideaway." Other songs strike different notes: "A Sleepy Company" sounds like a brass band getting drunk, while "I Have Been Floated" is a solemn little pop song with ghostly sound effects. "Another Set Of Bees In The Museum" is a fun little song that is blurred over by fuzz.

But the Olivia Tremor Control doesn't stick strictly to their own brand of psychedelic pop. They also dabble in experimental songs, such as brief interludes all called "Combinations," which appear to be tapes being messed around with -- the results are odd computerized vocals and random blips. "Black Foliage Animation 1" is a solid little tune that descends into bubbling, computerized chaos, and then gives up to the chaos completely. And the climax is "The Bark and Below It," an eleven-and-a-half-minute epic that starts on a soft little melody that is swamped by sonic thunder, only to reemerge among clangs, bells, electronic burps, a slurred keyboard melody, a xylophone, and what sounds like a heartbeat.

Listening to all of "Black Foliage: Animation Music" is a bit like a pleasant hallucination, especially if you listen to several of their odder songs in a row. But the best way to listen to it is straight through, without skipping any songs -- each one is a part of one huge sonic tapestry. The songs can be heard individally, but they lose some of their impact if heard alone.

The music is a bit of a dreamy head trip. Frontman William Cullen Hart takes charge of vocals, guitar and electronic twiddles. And he does quite well at all of them -- the guitar work he and his bandmates do is hugely entertaining and catchy. So are the brooding drums, theramin, and hints of bass, clarinet, melodica and violin. It's hard to pick out each instrument -- they blend together into a thick smokescreen of sound.

Hart's vocals are almost Beatlesesque -- he sounds a lot like Paul McCartney in some songs. And he's backed up by Neutral Milk Hotel's Jeff Mangum and Julian Koster, as well as the Apples in Stereo's Robert Schneider, who add an extra dimension to Hart's singing. And the lyrics are hard to make out, but they have the psychedelic whimsy that characterized the first album: "We took a sideways glance and fell into the bottom of the season/we saw horizons and different paths away from here."

The Olivia Tremor Control were still going strong on their second album "Black Foliage: Animation Music." Denser and darker than "Dusk at Cubist Castle," this is an enchantingly otherworldly listen.

Have you ever taken your copy of Zappa's Lumpy Gravy and (your particular quasi-legal version) of Wilson's Smile albums and tossed them into a blender? I would imagine that, if you had (and possibly garnished the mix with a Beatles track or two), you might have eventually poured Black Foliage into your cup.

There are plenty of moments of brilliance (both of the songwriting and production varieties) in this album, but to bother with them without regard for the piece as a whole is almost disrespectful -- make no mistake, this was a piece meant by this founding E6 member as a piece as a whole.

My paragraphs above beg you to see this as superfluous, but I find "I have been floated," and Jeff Mangum's brilliant, tortured vocal, almost transcendent (as well as Andrew Rieger, Kevin Barnes and whoever else I think I hear putting a vocal down on this standout track). (...)

The Olivia Tremor Control are among the most outrageous psychedelic acts to come along in a long while, mainly because they take the sound-effects possibilities of the genre to its wildest extremes. Every track on "Black Foliage" is layered with dozens upon dozens of sounds; the tracks alternate between catchy psych-pop with lush harmonies and cartoonish noise experiments that, while at times taxing, are never uninteresting. It's as if they decided to take the Beatles' "Tomorrow Never Knows" and multiply it a hundred fold so that entire new vistas of sound are created. The dense layering of effects can get extremely intense--listening through headphones is guaranteed to melt every brain cell you possess--with the stereo effects panning reminiscent of Syd Barrett's heyday with Pink Floyd. While it's true that the genres of Beatlesque psych-pop and Frank Zappa-ish avant-classical noise experimentation aren't "new", the very essence of those genres is to sound as free and idiosyncratic as possible. With their army of instruments and tape machines, the group sound like they are having a whale of a time, and that's the feeling that comes across most strongly on "Black Foliage". There are traces of self-indulgence and the album could use an editor, but an album like this almost asks the listener to participate by programming the tracks which work best. Highly recommended to psych fans; prog-rockers might like it too, even though the "songs" largely stick to a pop format. The highlights include "Train Director", "Hideway" and "Grass Canons". Very artsy and ambitious but--despite some claims--not overly pretentious.

When i had first experienced this record i was struck a bit confused---certain compositions collapse unexpectedly and compositions appeared to be cluttered and flooded with dozens of tracks. As i entered the realm of black foliage more frequently i began to notice its wonderful harmony, its structure---the beautiful ripened red glowing apples dangling off of its branches the whisper of wind and babbling brook, the warm and familiar sun on the horizon. This wonderful piece of music is layered with enchanting sounds and stunning melodies with a sixtiesesque tinge. Throughout the piece the otc connect (what i would call) the conventional compositions with image and scene inducing soundscapes. Black foliage is a rare and wonderous journey, exploring and connecting many decades of music and experimentation.