Customer Reviews

Dusk at Cubist Castle

5 star:		(17)
4 star:		(10)
3 star:		(1)
2 star:		(1)
1 star:		(0)

 

 

Whatever is in the water that the Elephant Sixers have been drinking, spoon me out a dollop! Dusk at Cubist Castle is great on many levels. A song can remind you of an old sixties pop tune and Galaxie 500 in the same moment, then take you through a transistor radio into an alternate universe during the bridge. I had to let this record grow on me for months--you really do miss a lot on the first auditions. I agree that tracks 11-21 are overwrought "avant-garde" noise and that they could have cut some, but at the same time, the tracks are in keeping with the peak of a psychedelic experience, or the crisis points in any journey. So, structurally, the placement works. The noise really works perfectly for the beginning of the title track, for example. O.T.C. is very very good at crafting pop tunes that you feel you've heard before in a dream. Brilliant record.

This is the one.

The Olivia Tremor Control created the greatest psychedelic album I have heard in a long, long time. One of the best albums ever, period, in my opinion. I do not hesitate to give this 5 stars.

I hear a lot of "Beatles rip off" comments about these guys, but I don't really see it. Sure, some of the harmonies and sounds are reminiscent of the Beatles' more tripped-out moments. But OTC's influences and imagination run much, much deeper than that. The music runs from delirious pop to flat-out psych rock to trippy dream sequences and ambient noise excursions into the outer limits.

This is a HIGHLY creative album. It's also a very long album -- over 74 minutes. You get a whole lot for your cash.

The "Green Typewriters" section, which consists of tracks 12-21 on the disc, is far beyond anything the Beatles did. My only complaint is that track 19 goes on for about 9 minutes of ambient noise, and probably could have been cut a bit. But on the other hand, it only serves to make the entrance of track 20 even more startling. After being lulled into a hypnotic trance by the long, trippy ambient sequence, having a voice (recorded close up in the mix) suddenly sing, "How much longer can I wait?", is startling. It signals the beginning of the return from the heights of the amazing "green typewriters" trip, and the comedown. (The next track, number 21, says "When you're ready to come back down, I'll be waiting here...")

If you like amazing, trippy, harmony-drenched pop with strong melodies throughout, look no further. THIS IS THE ONE. A tremendous debut that took the band three years to record.

And -- if you happen to have two stereo systems to spare -- go pick up the "Explanations II" dream sequence album along with this. This album was meant to be played at the same time as you listen to Dusk At Cubist Castle. Start both CDs at the same time and, wow, what a trip.

And, oh yeah, check out Black Foliage too. It is just as infectious.

There's a lot to look forward to during this disk, though you may want to put it on while you clean up the house, because there's a lot of "space" as well, which is not exactly sit-around-and-devote-all-your-attention-to stuff. But these guys can work up a pretty good head of steam, which is more than I can say for the rest of their talented labelmates (with the exceptions of Neutral Milk Hotel and Elf Power). Some people may be turned off by their "everything AND the kitchen sink" approach, but I think it's pretty refreshing to hear this mix of experimentation and pop thrown together. The result is a haphazard salad that takes a while to digest, but when you're done, you know you got some good vitamins and roughage.

I bought OTC's Black Foliage a day before seeing their show in Houston. Needless to say (for OTC fans), after even a short listen, I was pretty floored. The Olivia Tremor Control's show at Rudyard's Pub far exceeded my expectations, and impulsively I bought Dusk at Cubist Castle. What an absolutely addictive record. I've been listening to it for six days straight, and its "delight factor" hasn't subsided. It's just so wonderful and joyful, it's sick. "Sick" is actually too harsh, but it's difficult to describe the amazing soundscapes on this record without ruining the experience. I'm not a critic, but Dusk at Cubist Castle is an important album, and in my opinion, the most brilliant recording I've heard in half a decade. Thank you very much.

Dusk at Cubist Castle is an albumn that anyone interested in psychedelic music should own, I cannot recomend it enough.

Like all great psychedelic albumns it is a concept peice, representing a trip as a whole albumn, not just a selection of tracks. With this in mind Dusk at Cubist Castle clearly embodies the old saying "the whole is more than the sum of the parts". The albumn starts with The Opera House which to me is like a rejection of pop culture values and then moves to fun songs like Jumping Fences and Define a Transparent Dream which are happy and daydream like, like fond childhood memories. Then one of my favourite tracks Holiday Surprise which seems to have a regretfull yet urging feel about the dreams we grow out of. A few more songs in and then come the Green Typewriters after which the albumn builds up steadily, like a psychedelic experience, to the peak song Dusk At Cubist Castle. Along the way we even have lyrics calming and assuring "when your ready to come back down/I'll be waiting here/all your friends will be around/I promise I'll wait forever" like a trusty friend with their hand on your shoulder calming you if you start to freak out. After the peak we settle into the joyous glowing sounds of Gravity Car, excitment and imagination, to finish the albumn and bring the trip to an end the song N.Y.C. -25 tells us "pleasant dreams but please don't sleep too long/everything you need is right here" and plays out with a slumber like sweet guitar, almost gently rocking the listener to sleep after a tiring journey.

Anyhow that is some of my interpretation of this amazing albumn, but I guess everyone who listens will get something different. Never before have I heard a more complete albumn and at about 1 1/4 hours of solid music, there are few if any albumns that are so long yet have no tracks that you would skip. Even the sound collage tracks have their place, even though they are not all that popular with some listeners, I like them. Many people compare Olivia Tremor Control with the Beatles, but I believe quite strongly that this albumn has far more to offer than anything the Beatles ever recorded.

Even after countless playings, for me Dusk At Cubist Castle has never lost any of it's enegmatic magic.

Geez. I was forty-four years old. For twenty years (and more) I had been trying to re-create the moment when I first listened to Talking Heads' "Speaking in Tongues." "Dusk at Cubist Castle" had arrived that day. The wife and kids gathered around the boom box in the kitchen. "Let's check this out."

What I heard I was not prepared to digest--psychedelic, ambient, dear prudence, noise, pet sounds, beatles, pop, . . . transparent dream. I didn't have a category for this . . . and I still don't. But that night "Dusk at Cubist Castle" convinced me that music wasn't dead (as I had come to almost believe).

In the wake of that night, the Olivia Tremor Contral has ruined most other music for me. And here is why.

1. "Dusk at Cubist Castle" took me to a place I had never been before. A unique and new listening experience: I haven't gotten much of that from other artists before or since.

2. There is an artistic vision in the work. Sure the vision isn't as consistent in "Dusk at Cubist Castle" as it is in "Black Foliage," but it is there. The vision of most artist doesn't extend much beyond trying to get me to open my wallet and buy their stuff.

3. The work is generous. On listen after listen, "Dusk at Cubist Castle" continues to speak to me. It is layered and complex and is therefore able to give something over time. This is one standard of good art: with each viewing or listen it speaks to you. Most art has said all it has to say in one glimpse, in one listen.

4. It offers a rich sonic experience. I am sick to death of guitars, bass, and drums. In some sense that combination is in danger of playing itself out (the exception may be Spoon). "Dusk at Cubit Castle" creates a complex and unexpected landscape of sound.

So now I spend my time trying to re-create the experience of listening to "Dusk at Cubist Castle" for the first time. Here is what I have found that is worth mentioning: Olivia Tremor Control's "Black Foliage" (a stronger work); Circulatory System's eponymous CD; the Go! Team's "Thunder, Lightning, Strike"; Elf Power's "A Dream in Sound"; Dungen's "Ta Det Lugnt"; Manitoba's "Up in Flames"; and the Microphones' "The Glow Part 2"; All Night Radio's "Spirit, Radio, Frequency"; and, of course, Neutral Milk Hotel's "In the Aeroplane Over the Sea."

Check out "Dusk at Cubist Castle" and invite me over for the first listen.

I bought the Circulatory System album about a year ago after reading a review on here. Long story short, the album blew my mind to bits. So I went on to search frantically like I was in the midst of a god damned gold rush, testing the abilities of every search engine on the net, trying to find anything about William C. Hart. So of course I eventually become educated about OTC and Hart's buddy, Mr. Doss, among others. I bought this album along with Black Foliage: Volume 1, and while I think Black Foliage is slightly better, this album, Dusk at Cubist Castle, is a masterpiece as well. At first, I was a bit put off by this album because it didn't seem as trippy as some of the other albums, but then I realized that this album is loaded with great songs. Eventually, the album gets more and more experimental and trippy, as the album gets further and further. I kind of think this album as a double edged sword. Half of it is straight up great pop songs and half is twisted, trippy, scary but good nightmare. Many of the songs are so good, you just sit there in amazement at the beautiful sounds that hit you from a million directions. Like anything else the Hart/Doss maching makes, you need to listen to this album as a whole, at least the first couple of times, before you make any judgement or decide which songs are the best. Hart and Doss have completely changed my perception of psych/pop/rock music; now I want every album to sound like Olivia Tremor Control, they are just that good. This album is a masterpiece: great vocals/harmonies, great lyrics, great instrumental placements, amazing overall song-crafting, experimental sounds fitting perfectly with the flow of the album, BEAUTIFULLY CONTROLLED CHAOS would describe it the best.

This album didn't appeal to me at first until I rediscovered it recently, I was immediately struck by it's brilliance, making me wonder what I missed the first time around. 'Dusk At Cubist Castle' by Olivia Tremor Control is one of these unrecognized gems, perhaps being the Can of the Elephant Six label, going unappreciated if somehow not unearthed and allowed to shine. This CD is pure neo-psychadelic pop genius, a combination of latter period Beatles, 'Pet Sounds' by The Beach Boys, and the improvisational spirit of Krautrock. Or if you want a more contemporary description, just think 'Navy Blues' by Sloan meeting the psychadelic noodlings of The Flaming Lips or Super Furry Animals. Thrown into the arrangements are these creative interludes, sporadic Zappa-like segues often giving the impression of a 'song within a song'. The entire recording is incredibly rich and well produced, melodic and harmonic, yet not straying too far from Elephant Six's raw retro-guitar sound. Nothing more can be said really, other than 'Dusk At Cubist Castle' seems like a musical speaking-in-tongues, drawing from classic innovators like Brian Wilson and Lennon/McCartney, and channeling it through Olivia Tremor Control.

Music in itself can not expand your mind. However, music can certainly prompt your psyche in the right direction. That's what I found with 'Dusk at Cubist Castle.' Before I listened to this CD, I didn't think anything recent could come close to Syd Barrett-era Pink Floyd. I now know I was wrong, hence, my expanded mind. Hold on, I just compared two artists. But, a major defining characteristic of art is it's inexplicable knack to be incomparable. Also, an expanded mind would never compare artists with artists. Has my mind deflated? What does this mean? I'd better listen to 'Dusk at Cubist Castle'...again. LOL

In the era of Mtv inspired pretty faced bands with no talent, it was truly a wonderful suprise to listen to this record. I have not been able to stop!!!! Without a doubt one of the finest recordings I have heard in years. THIS IS WHERE MUSIC SHOULD BE HEADING. People, turn off your tvs, stop listening to what Mtv says you should be listening to and buy this record. It will expand your mind. It is BRILLANT!